The Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1927. GETTING TO KNOW CANADA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18055, 15 January 1927, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1927. GETTING TO KNOW CANADA.

If Mr Bruce and Mr Coates have shown an inclination to lecture the Canadians a little more, say, than we should like Mr Mackenzie King to lecture New Zealanders, there is no evidence so far that it has been taken amiss, and it is, in itself, an indication Canadian goodwill is taken, as a matter of course, and need no the handled so delicately as it would be necessary to handle the Dutch population of South Africa, for instance, or the people of the Irish Free State. And yet Canada means very little to the average New Zealander, who knows little about it except in a geographical sense, and as for trade, thinks of it principally as the jumping off place for Ford cars, and the home of the sockeye salmon and the rubber tennis shoe. There is, indeed, much room for enlightenment on Canadian affairs in New Zealand. Mr Coates is right in saying that closer relations will be brought about not so much through legislation as through the action of industrialists anti merchants, but it is necessary also to study Canadian politics to get the Canadian viewpoint, and to appreciate whatever Mr Mackenzie King may have to say in reply to his critics. As a matter of fact, the Canadian Prime Minister has probably been very busy, since his return, straightening out domestic affairs. Canadian politics have been very interesting of late, and the present Cabinet was only sworn in at the end of September, following a very bitter election, which gave the Liberals a substantial victory. Curiously enough, the Conservatives in Canada, like their friends in New Zealand, have tried hard to make political capital out of their patriotism, and in the recent campaign Mr King was charged with “ leaning to the South.” He retaliated, to the great joy of his friends, by pointing out that flic Conservative leader had christened a son Theodore Roosevelt Meighen. The annexation bogey, which has recently been exposed by independent Knglish observers, was not really an important issue at the election. What counted for more was the constitutional issue raised by Mr King that the GovernorGeneral, Lord Byng, was wrong in refusing a dissolution after it had been requested by his Ministers. But what influenced the electors more than anything else was the Liberal record of achievement in the preceding four years, in which the unfavourable trade balance of £7,000,000 in 1921 had been converted into a favourable balance of £80,000,000, while manufactured exports exceeded imports by £3,000,000 for the first time in Canadian history. The Liberals attributed their gains to tax and tariff reductions and to the prosperity of the country under Liberalism. Actually, Mr King claimed that the election was fought on the constitutional issue, and would determine whether Canada would continue as a self-governing nation or be reduced to the level of a Crown Colony. But whatever the real issues at the election were—and they were admittedly obscure—it is certain that in Mr Mackenzie King Canada has a leader who has little to learn from Mr Bruce or Mr Coates, and that the heart of* the Dominion is right in regard to Empire obligations. On first blush, it might appear that the French Canadians, who hold to the Liberal Laurier tradition, would be a source of weakness, but the very reverse is the case. To-day’s cablegrams report that Mr Taschereau, Premier of Quebec, declares that “fidelity to British ties is necessary for our national survival.” Sir Percival Phillips, who toured Canada in October as special correspondent of the “Daily Mail,” put the matter as directly. Discussing the “ annexation bogey,” he wrote: “In the first place, there is the insurmountable barrier raised by French Canada. The quiet, solid people of the Province of Quebec, with their traditions extending back 300 years, know that only under British rule arc they able to preserve their language and religion as they have done.” Fidelity to British ties, although not subserviently, is the keynote to Canadian policy, and the cultivation of trade “ within the family,” by good fellowship and friendly intercourse, will do more to strengthen the British Commonwealth of Nations than any discussion—outside the Imperial Conference—of their respective obligations.