The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1917. CANADIAN POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1917. CANADIAN POLITICS.

For the cause that lacks assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do.

It is a matter for profound regret th_t Sir Wilfrid Laurier declined to accept the invitation of Sir Bobert Borden to form a coalition Ministry for the purpose of introducing conscription. The formation of a coalition is obviously advisable under the conditions in Canada, where a considerable section of the

community is opposed to conscription, and part of this party is lukewarm about the -war. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, a man of unimpeachable loyalty, who has declared that Canada must do her duty in the war to the end, has considerable influence with the French-Canadians, who form the greater part of the anticonscription section. By joining the Cabinet ho would not have quietened Mr. Bourassa and his fellow extremists, who have actively interrered with recruiting, but he would have made the Government's task easier. Chi personal grounds it is regrettable that Sir Wilfrid [ has stood out. He will be seventy-six in November, and cannot look forward to much more political activity. By accepting Sir Robert Borden's invitation he would have closed his long public career by a patriotic act of statesmanship.

Sir Robert Borden is to introduce a Conscription Bill immediately. He will have, it is stated, the support of some of Sir Wilfrid X—.urior's supporters, but he could apparently paßs the bill without them. Sir Wilfrid Lauricr's attitude towards the measure is not made clear; we are only told that he has refused to join the coalition. The trouble, however, will not fee in Parliament, hut in the French Canadian districts. " There are those who demand conscription for Canada," said a writer in the "Round Table " last year, " but any attempt to apply compulsion in Quebec would only produce bitter domestic discord, and leave a legacy of division and dissension for the time of peace." These, however, are critical times, and it is essential even at the risk of producing this discord, that Canada should put her whole strength into the war. And in spite of Quebec, Sir Robert Borden may have a good deal less trouble in enforcing conscription than Lincoln had in the face of a substantial, unscrupulous and sometimes savage minority.