Canada and the Empire.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18682, 4 May 1926, Page 8

Canada and the Empire.

There is probably not much real cause for alarm in the cable message in Saturday's newspapers concerning the i attitude which may be adopted by I Canada and some other Dominions at the next Imperial Conference. Everyone knows that Canadian "nationalism" is strong, arid that Canadians are not at all content with the present status of the Dominion, but it is asking more than any known facts will warrant to ask us to believe that the Conference will be disturbed by bombshells and melodrama. The anomalous "constitution" of the Empire is not just now troubling many minds in any of the Dominions, for the very good reason that the anomalies are not causing any practical inconveniences or hardships; and politicians who are unhappy because everything in the political machinery of the Empire is not neat and logical will not avail against the weight of a public opinion which likes best not what is neat and logical but what will work. Canada has some practical grievances against the existing conditions, such as her inability to alter her constitution, which is fixed by a British Act, and her liability to have her own enactments set aside by the Privy Council; but these are hardships which Britain would, by a stroke of the pen, remove for the asking. It is not upon such obviously trifling and removable fetters upon the Dominion's full freedom as a nation that the Canadian nationalist rests his case: his case rests on sentiment, as is made evident by an article contributed to the March " Kound Table " by a prominent leader of nationalist opinion in Canada. What Canada wants, he says, is " the " right to live her own life, dream her "own dreams, pursue her own ambi- " tions, establish her own standards, " cultivate her own loyalties, and ensure "the continuance for all time, of j " Canada as a distinct country with her "own culture and characteristics." He and his fellow nationalists "feel that " Canada has grown up and cannot "longer postpone donning the habili"ments of manhood without suffering "moral deterioration." Therefore they are asking that Canada should have "within the British Commonwealth " precisely the same powers and rights "as Great Britain," and "an equal "position with her as an international " Power." Not otherwise, they say, can the diverse races in the " huge 3prawl"ing" country feel that they are the citizens of a State with a national destiny. People outside Canada find great difficulty in making up their minds as to the reality, the strength, and the vitality of this queer " nation- " alist" spirit which is not content with the substance of independent nationhood but craves for a formal recognition of the substantial fact. For Canadians who can speak with some authority, differ amongst themselves. But it is one thing to admit that the nationalists are fairly numerous and very active, and another thing altogether to believe that the Canadian representatives at the Imperial Conference will unite with the representatives of South Africa and the Irish Free State to overturn the existing relations between the Dominions and the United Kingdom.