GANADIAN POLITICAL TURMOIL

Auckland Star, Volume 198, Issue LVII, 21 August 1926, Page 15

GANADIAN POLITICAL TURMOIL

"WAR TO THE KNIFE." AN EMPIRE QUESTION. BITTER ELECTION CAMPAIGN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, July 20. With the authority of the British Crown, as represented by the GovernorGeneral, and Canada's political independence the centre of the controversy, the Dominion of Canada is starting out on ■what promises to be the bitterest election campaign in her history. Of the three issues before the people in the election, which will be held in mid-September, constitutional, tariff and custom department* scandals, the first, involving Canada's right to completely govern itself, is paramount. It is an issue which, if not properly settled, is fraught with danger, in the opinion of ex-Premier William Mackenzie King. Quiescent for nearly a quarter of a century, the sudden outbreak of a controversy over the right of the British Crown to interfere with Canadian Government has aroused the comment and obviously the alarm of the British Empire, a,nd cablegrams from South Africa and Australia in particular have been prominently displayed in the columns of the Canadian daily Press. The Liberal leaders and their Press in the Dominion have made much of this phase of the Canadian political situation, but the British press has referred to it only guardedly, and issued caution of an eminently wise character, counselling the Homeland to let Canadians settle the problem themselves. Briefly, when the recent Parliament assembled, 101 Liberals, with the help of 24 Progressives, essayed to govern against a -Conservative Opposition of 116. They had governed six months when the customs scandals over rum-running to the United States broke. Seeing a defeat inevitable, Premier Mackenzie King advised Governor-General Byng to dissolve Parliament. The GovernorGeneral refused. Mr. King resigned as Premier, and Hon. Arthur Meighen governed two days, with what the Liberal called "shadow government," and was upset on the question of the right of an unsworn Ministry to govern. Then Mr. Meighen appealed to the Governor-General, and obtaiifed the diesolution, which was refused Mr. King.

Power is Shifted.

The effect of the Governor-General's actions was to take from the Liberals and give to the Conservatives the election machinery for the coming political fight, and the Liberal party, which, felt itself aggrieved and affronted, threw down the gauntlet on the constitutional issue. Historically, the Liberals h»ve atood for Canadian political independence, while the Conservatives are for stronger and stronger Empire ties. Parliament was dissolved -without notice to members, who learned of the dissolution through page boya and messengers, and the liberals, as might be imagined, are intensely agitated, as with a Conservative victory in prospect, many of Mr. King's late supporters arc almost positive to be defeated at the polling in September. The Con§ervatiye Government of the Hon. Arthur Meighen have been sworn into office, and the Cabinet is constituted as follows: Prime (Minister and Secretary of External Affairs, Arthur Meighen; Secretary of State, Sir George Perley; Minister of Finance, R. B. Bennett, of Calgary; Justice, E. I*. Patenaude; National Defence, Hugh Guthrie; Customs, H. H. Stevens, of Vancouver; Agriculture, Hon. S. F. To'lmie; Railways, W. A. Black; Postmaster-General,' R. J. Manion; Trade and Commerce, J. D. Chaplin; Labour, George B. Jones; Public 'Works, E. B. Ryokman; Ministers without portfolio, Sir Henry Drayton, Donald Sutherland, H. D. Morand, and John A. Mac Donald. The new Cabinet is one of. the strongest assemblage of Ministers in the annala of Canada. Sir George Perley has held several important diplomatic posts, and Mr. R. B. .Bennett, one of the foremost lawyers of Canada, was during a previous Conservative Administration Minister of Justice, while Sir Henry Drayton was at one time Minister of Finance. Mr. Tolmie is a great authority on farming, having previously held the position of Minister of Agriculture under a Conservative Administration. Mr. Hugh Guthrie is a strong advocate of Canada doing her share in naval defence of the British Empire, a subject which ia bound to play an important position in the forthcom.ing campaign. It was Mr. Stevens who virtually overthrew the Mackenzie King Government, as it was at his instigation that the Customs scandals were exposed. Debauched Customs Service. Mr. Henry H. Stevens Is a forceful speaker, yet always careful of his facts, I and he it was who set the ball a-rolling in the campaign when he addressed the Conservative Businessmen's Club, of Toronto, with the declaration that Hon. Jacques Bureau had "debauched the Customs Department while Minister of Customs," and added an emphatic promise of war to the knife on the Canadian smuggler in his x capacity of Minister of Customs. Mr. Stevens made it clear that he proposed to wipe out the smuggling of liquor into the United States. He told his audience that Canada could not ignore the laws of business any more than it j could the moral code, and if the country i looked lightly on liquor smuggling, as he accused the Hon Jacques. Bureau of doing, ! then the country must expect that there i would be looseness in all lines of commercial life. It was looseness that had broken the morale of the Customs Department, he claimed. There would have to be no bogus clearance papers for shipment to the United States. "I have been asked what is the issue of this campaign," eaJi M,r. Stevens.' "It is not a constitutional issue—that I can say. Every move made by Mr. Meighen and his associates was in accord with precedent. We acted in all points on the advice of the law officers. " ; ''Where in'all the constitutional ais- | tory of the British Empire can Mr. Sing produce precedent* where a. Government three times, defeated on motions involving its honour and. integrity has been asked for dissolution?" ""' Dealing with "the Customs investigations, Mr. Stevens said it had ~been an important factor in bringing: about t£e dissolution of Parliament and the overthrow of the King Government. He paid a tribute to business men of Toronto, Montreal. Winnipeg, Hamilton, Van- ! couver, and other large centres for having, "in default of proper administration," organised themselves into a corporate bocfy and put up their own, money and conducted an investigation of the Customs Department, which had resulted in the appointment of the committee, { i ■

Gigantic Losae»

Alluding to the gigantic losses during what he described a* "the reign of corruption," Mr. Stevens said: It is impossible for mc, or anyone else, to say what the direct losses to the public treasury have been in regard to this matter, but I think a moderate estimate of those losses would be 30,000,000d0l annually."

"This thing should have been stopped, not only because of the losses to the public exchequer," said the Minister of Customs, "but because of the high loss to the business men of Canada, due to unfair competition. It was utterly unfair when business men, trying to carry on and 'observe the law, were outbid and outdone by others operating in open and flagrant violation of the laws. The lose to business men alone in Canada has been estimated at from 100 ; 000,000dol to 200,000,000d0l yearly. I think that is a conservative estimate, because in isolated cases there were losses shown of hundreds -of thousands and even millions of dollars. Mr. King himself admitted some time ago that the loss would be 100.000.000d01. For eighteen months or more Mr. King and his Ministry knew of these conditions and did practically nothing to remejiy them."

That stormy petrel of Canadian politics, Henry Bourassa, in his independent organ. "Le Devoir," says: "The action, or rather the series of actions, taken by his Excellency the GovernorGeneral, is of exceptional gravity. Whatever should be the immediate outcome, consequences and repercussions of an almost incalculable effect will result from it. The rights of the Premier, of the Cabinet, of Parliament, and of the people, the autonomy of Canada, tlie relations of Britain and the Dominions, everything is at stake. On the decision taken by the people a few weeks hence depends, perhaps, the ultimate destiny of the nation. In the province of Quebec, particularly, we have everything to gain by intelligent discussion, everything to lose by a mean and abusive straggle. No eminent man, no group of our people, is the cause or the object of this constitutional crisis. Let us grasp the opportunity to give our country and the Anglo-Saxon world the chance to cay that the French-Canadians could, and did, examine these political problems from a lofty viewpoint, and exercise with dignity their rights as Canadian citizens md British subjects." The "Conservative Canadian" and French dailies, almost without exception, strongly declare: "Byng was Tight."