CANADA'S FUTURE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 784, 6 April 1910, Page 4

CANADA'S FUTURE.

"THE WRITING. ON THE WALL;"r

Mr: John H. Flockton, of Wellington, has. received an interesting letter from' Mr. Philip Crabtree, of ; Ontario, Canada. They went to school together in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, and during .thirty years each has written only .two. letters to the other. Mr. Flockton has :j'iist received a third (this time' not from Yorkshire, but from Stratford, Ontario, Canada), which was.prompted by Mr. Crabtree seeing in the "Dewsbury Reporter" an account of an in-' terview .between the Yorkshire delegates to tho Empire Chambers,of Commerce (ivheh'in Wellington) and Mr... Flockton. "I.see .by.the„saine paper,", writes Mr. Crabtree, "that you have Jos. Charlesworth and the Coltmans. Wo all went to the same school. ■ I have from time to time seen reports of your annual meeting of the Yorkshire Society and wished I could have been irith you. You will be surprised to know that I am here in Canada. 1 hare been hero four years, but am sick' of tho place, and'wish I was either back in old England or else in some warmer place. AVhile I am writing letter it is 11' degrees below zero outside, so you can form some idea what it is like.

"But the worst of this country is that you. are, never. sure of your work in .winter, for a good many of the .factories . close down or else lay • off a large number of their hands. This is the third winter Thave been laid off, and I don't care to here after next fall. I have seriously thought of coming out to New Zealand as I have read so much of your country. •

, "Do you know that the'cheesemakers and dairymen here'are a little uneasy about you New Zealanders securing the .English market?'. No doubt you will-see by the .papers that Canada is going, to have a navy, but.'the papers don't say much about the wishes of the people in the matter. Do you know that in this part of Ontario there are thousands of Germans, and they seem to have all the best farms, and some of them are -not slow to speak their minds against the Old Country and to express a desh-e for independence? To my mind there wilk be a struggle in this .country before many years are past, and I don't know who will win out.

"There are the French in Quebec, the Germans in Ontario, and the/Americans are rushing into the west, and between them all it will go hard with the British. I hope I am wrong, hut I have worked among tho French in Quebec, and have heard their murmurings; and don't think much of their loyalty. Read the speech of Laurier on the Navy, where he says:. 'I am a Canadian first,' and refuses to -.place the ships under the control of Britain without tho sanction of the Canadian Senate. I think you may see in this the writing on the wall. ..Well, this cannot bo said of Now Zealand and Australia, for with great loyalty they gavo to England their Dreadnoughts. I think this is because you have not got many foreigners in your country."