WAVE OF INDIGNATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 34, 10 February 1939, Page 8

WAVE OF INDIGNATION

CANADIAN DISPUTE STAND IN EMERGENCY Received Feb. 9,6.30 p.m. MONTREAL, Feb. 8. The French in Canada are seething with indignation over an address by the Mayor of Montreal (Mr. Houde), before the Y.M.C.A., declaring that French Canadians "by blood, if not by name, are Fascists and would side with Italy in the event ot an Anglo-Italian war.’ Mr. Houde alleged that French Canarians were traditions'ly finder dictators from Douis XIV and Caidinial Richelieu to Sir Wilfred Laurier (1841-1919). He argued that the Pope was Italian, and that Quebec was Catholic; hence they must aid Italy. There was an .immediate wave of protests.

M. Napoleon Courtmanche \ Mayor of Quebec City) quoted the pioneer Canadian statesman, Joseph Charles Tache: “The last gun fired in the defence of Canada for the Empire will be by a French Canadian.” M. Adrian Arcand (Leader of the National Socialists, the reputed Fascist Party) declared that Quebec would be solidly behind England if she were attacked by Italy. Monsignor Gauthier, representing the Archbishop of Montreal, termed the statement as “too funny for comment.” Mr. Thomas Vien, a member of the House of Co-ninons, stated; “French*

Canadians, as long as Canada remains: part of the Empire, will never side with an enemy of Britain." Joseph Charles Tache was one of j

the leaders of about 1860 writers living in the Province of Quebec, who combined to form an intellectual movement which led to an improvement in French Canadian literature.