Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1938. CANADA AS EMPIRE PARTNER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1938. CANADA AS EMPIRE PARTNER.

■ANOTHER indication of the rather aloof attitude that Canada adopts as a partner State in the Empire is given in a cablegram reporting the official reply made to a member of the Dominion Parliament who asserted that Canada was linked with the “British war machine. This drew a reply from the Defence Department that munitions were manufactured in Canada on a preparedness basis only, that there was no intenton .to establish permanent plants and that orders from the United Kingdom for machine-guns had been secured privately by private firms.

These assurances are typical of much that has gone before and has, amongst other things, given rise to a fairly general and widespread feeling in New Zealand and Australia that Canada is inclined to rely.much more for security upon her juxtaposition to the United States than upon her membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and is correspondingly less inclined to make common cause with the rest of the Empire in mealsures intended to safeguard peace, or even in resisting aggression elsewhere than on her own territory. Dispassionate observers in Canada appear to be of opinion that it would be impossible for any Canadian Government to lay down in advance a plainly defined policy regarding co-operation with the rest of the Empire in foreign policy and in war, should that occur, without precipitating a controversy which would split . the Dominion into bitterly opposed racial and other sections. At the same time, it would be going too fast and too far to assume that Canada must be regarded as having abandoned the Imperial partnership, or as being likely to do so. ■ In a recent survey of public opinion in Canada on questions of foreign policy and' defence, the Minister of National Defence, Mr Mackenzie, spoke of the existence of five different schools of thought. There were first (he said) the “diehard” , Imperialists, who regarded Canada as bound to accept any foreign policy of the British Government, and had as their slogan, “When Britain is at war, Canada is at war.” Secondly there were the isolationists, who held that Canada’s geographical position and economic interests required her to dissociate herself from troubles in other parts of the world, especially Britain’s European complications and her commitments in Africa. Thirdly there were the pro-League enthusiasts, who would have Canada back with all her resources a system of collective security, even to the extent of sanctions. Fourthly,. there _ were advocates of a policy by which Canada would join the Pan-American union as a league of nations for the Western Hemisphere.

The Minister described at greater length the views of a fifth group, which he claimed was the largest in the country—a group which did not believe in automatic commitments either for war or for neutrality. This group, he said, would join with Britain or with the League of Nations in a war for a principle or for the preservation of the liberty of the world if convinced that this liberty was seriously threatened. It refused, however, to imperil Canadian unity by conceding in advance either that, when Britain was at war Canada must automatically go to her support with all her resources, or that when the League ordered the application of sanctions Canada was bound to take action.

Mr Mackenzie more than hinted that the policy of the present Canadian Government is based upon an assumption that only the policy of this fifth group has any chance of commanding a majority in Canada. That opinion perhaps need not occasion undue disquiet in other Empire countries. It may not unreasonably be regarded, however, as emphasising sharply for Britain, which leads the Empire in foreign policy, the necessity of basing that policy on principles which may be expected in any vital emergency to command support in Canada ais well as in other parts of the Empire.