MR BRUCE CRITICISED

Shannon News, 8 April 1927, Page 4

MR BRUCE CRITICISED

SPEECHES MADE IN CANADA. CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEFENCE. "I AM ONLY TELLING YOU." TORONTO, Feb. 19. A reprimand for Mr. Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia, from Mr. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, for the speeches made by the former while on Canadian soil, is an event unique in the inter-relations of British Dominons. When Mr. Bruce recently passed across Canada he found ths country spending Us money on railways and water-powers, while Australia was spending millions on battleships. He expressed amazement at Canada's neglect of defence. In every speech he spoke vigorously, and with some scorn, about the niggardly sums Canada was devoting to army and navy.' During Mr. Bruce's sojourn here no criticism was raised and a rumour found circulation that Mr. Bruce's speeches were being made with the approval of Mr. King—in other words, that Mr. King was getting Mr. Bruce to fly a kite for him, preparing the way fdf appropriations which might in some circumstanuces have proved unpopular. One .rumour went so fa;, as to say that Mr. King, at the Imperial Conference, had pledged Can-: ada to a substantial programme of contributions for defence purposes. If Mr. Bruce was rendering a sbr-. vice to Mr. King he is rewarded with a brick-bat instead of a bouquet. It was the Hon. Ernest Lapointe, Minister of Justice, who accompanied Mr. King to the Imperial Conference, who spoke out first at a banquet-to Mr. King, after Mr. Bruce was safely back; in Australia. Mr. Lapointe made the following comment: — "The question of defence in Canada will be decided on its merits, and what has been done at the Conference will not change anything on it. The question of defence is one for the Parlia- , ment of Canada alone to decide. 1 hope this remark will -not be considered ill-advised, but I say that distinguished visitors would be well advised to keep their own counsel on this ques- 1 tion and let Canada decide it herself." , : Mr. King himself paid his compliments to Mr. Bruce in the course of| an undergraduate debate the next evening at the University of Toronto, at which the Prime Minister participated. Referring to Mr. Bruce, said: —"I say, as Prime Minister of Canada, that he has made my task a much more difficult task than it otherwise would have been. I think the Canadian people will much more easily and effectively decide their own mat ters than will visitors from other countries." A"cablegram from Melbourne quotes Mr. Bruce as denying that he rather officiously told Canadians how to conduct their own country. "I merely pointed out," he said, "that the Dominions clain\ equality of status and nationhood which involve every one of them in obligation for natonal defence." Upon this the Toronto "Star" comments that Mr. Bruce is not the first man who has said : "I am hot interfering: ; I am only telling you." Rightly or wrongly, the Canadian public refuses to get excited about questions of defence, which apparently loom large in Australia and other parts of the Empire. The task at hand is to build up Canada into a strong and prosperous nation, and Canadians say they believe that in this way lies the greatest immediate contribution Canada can make to Imperial prestige.