FOREIGN POLICY IN CANADA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 25 March 1926, Page 7

FOREIGN POLICY IN CANADA.

Discussion In Parliament. “ LIMITED LIABILITY ” URGED. By Cable —Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cabio Association OTTAWA, March 23. Canada’s external relations were discussed in tlie House of Commons, when Mr (Labour-Radical member for Winnipeg) moved that Canada should reiuse to accept any responsibility for. complications arising from tlie foreign policy of the United Kingdom. He added there was a tendency in Canada to be more British than tlie British. He then referred to a recent speech in Hamilton by Mr Meighen, when the Opposition Leader declared that in the event of another war, not only should Parliament be called, hut (lie decision of Parliament should be subject to a general election. “I am inclined to think,” said Mr Woodsworth, “that Mr Meighen went too far, but we are not doing so in settling’the principle by my resolution. Mr Meigheirs argument was equivalent to saying that if Canada had real autonomy, this Dominion would not have been in the war. Another member said that Toronto would not have sent 50,000 to France, and he might have added that 50,000 Canadians would not have been filling graves in France or Belgium.” Mr Woodsworth then quoted General Macßrien, /Chief of the. Canadian Staff, as saying that it was idle not to expect another war from the adjusting of European’frontiers. . Mr Woodsworth protested _ against tfiis propaganda, and against Earl Jellicoe’s proposal that Canada should contribute 30,000,000 dollars to the Imperial Navy. He saw a danger of Canada being dragged into war without saying whe.ther or not she wished to be in it. . , “We should say our part involves a limited liability, and without the decision of Parliament and the people of Canada we should not be hound by wliat is decided overseas. I am not anti-British, but I am anti-imperial. I support the ideals of the Great British Labour Party, which soon again will be the Government of that country. I am against, anybody’s Imperialism. American Imperialism is'more dangerous to Canada than tlie British tvpe.” • . _ T . Mr Kennedy (Conservative. W'nimpeg) replying, declared that Mr Woodsworth did not. represent the views of any appreciable number of Canadians. He'asked would any member add to his stature by saying that, in time of distress, he would refuse to holo his own mother. He charged Mr Wordsworth with trying to gain kudos from a group of agitators,. and with failing to rise when the National Anthem was sung. , . Mr Woodsworth - denied .‘ this, and amid a pandemonium, the Speaker directed that Mr Kennedy must accept Mr Woodsworth’s denial, but Mr Meighen hotly told the Speaker that rules could liot force a member to go contrary to his own eyesight.