SCANDAL IN CANADA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 207, 26 April 1932, Page 6

SCANDAL IN CANADA

(Press. Assn.-

SENATORS1 CONDUCT INYESTIG AT1N G COMMITTEE STRONGLY CONDEMNS ACTIONS BEAUII ARN GIS I'OWEE SCHEME

— By Telegvaph — Copyrlgtu)

OTTAWA, Saturday. "Senators Wdlfred McDougald and Andrew Haydon performed actions which wero not lltting or consistent with their duties ancl standing as Senators of Canada. Senator JDonat Raymond accepted very large sums of money by way of campaign fund contributions from a company which was dependent vitally on Government franchises or concessions." These are outstanding conclusions contained in the majority report of the special Senate Gommittee on the Beauharnois power scheme tabled -n the Senate on Friday by the committe's chairman, Senator Cbarles Tanner. The Liberal members of the committee wili move an amendment indicating disagreement with certain of the findings in the major ty report. Disagreement of the Libaral members of the committee and th-jii declaration that th ; findings of the majority are largely based on suspicion and against the corroborateci evidence of the Senators named in the reference has bean recorded in the m:nutes of the committee. In respect to Senator Raymond the committee accepts his danial that he exercised any infiuence toward affeeting the •Government policy in regavd to Beauharnois, which had already been the subject of exhaust:ve investigation in the House of Commons, the committee inquirihg into it last session, bringing into prominence the three Senators named in the prese.it report. Subsequently the Senate appointed a committee to invest'gate the project insofar as the Commons report affeeted any members of the Senate. The Beauharnois scheme involves

the construction of a power and navigation canal bitweon Lakes St. Fra.icis and St. Louis on the St. Lawrence River. The eharter for the piwject was obtained from the Provin :t oi Quebec Government, hut its approval had to be secured from the Domin'on. Last July Canada was shoeked tc hear of a huge seandal over the Beauharnois power project, the organisers of which were alleged to havu bougut their way through official opposition three years ago, hoping to sweey aside the existing electric power interests in Montreal. The plan threatened a d version of the enti.-e flow of the St. Lawrence River. It was stated that two influentiul Senators, Wilfred Laurier McDouga'd and Andrew Haydon, had pushed the Bill through the House in return f >1 a promise from the Beauharnois Cox"poration to pay £200,000 for certain rights which the Senators had gained in the St. Lawrence Basin. The original project was to divert a perce.itage of the river's flow into a canal. but it was planned apparently to divert the whole river. The seher.v: was to have cost £15,000,000. The inqulry, wh'ch gav-. rise to th 1 startling revelations, was oceasion-M by a demand lor a committee of i ivestigaticn by the Progressive Fariy leader, Mr. Robert Gardiner. His r ■- quest was acceded to by Parliament, and the committee in 'ts report, i.>sued on July 28, 193!, severvly co idemned the actions of Senators McDougald and Haydon.