Canada Sends Its First Ambassador to America

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 82, 31 December 1926, Page 15

Canada Sends Its First Ambassador to America

™ iff R. VINCENT MASSEY is to be Canada’s first Ambassador at W /II Washington. He is under forty years of age, and is in London %/ I w ’ t ' l r ' Mackenzie King attending the Imperial Conference. y H On leaving England he goes to America to take up his post There has been some discussion as to whether this appointment is necessary, but Canada has no doubts about the matter. “Where two friendly nations neighbour each other for three thousand miles, and do business together with great freedom, both speaking the same

language, it is inevitable that their capitals should be clearing-houses for an immense mass of semi-diplomatic, semi-commercial ‘paper,’ ” says the “Montreal Star.” “Today all these transactions go through the British Embassy. This is certainly not fair to the Embassy. Washington is one of the most important foreign capitals in the world. The larger international /problems that arise between London and Washington—many of them of the friendliest nature relating to joint action elsewhere—are numerous and vital. If Franco-British problems require the whole time of an Embassy in Paris, British-American problems certainly require the whole time of an Embassy in Washington. “Yet at the /present time we load the whole of our many and often very local Canadian errands on the British Embassy. Even if we assume that the British Embassy is as well-equipped as a Canadian office would be to deal with them, it lacks the time. It has something else to do—very decidedly.

“There is no question of Canada having Embassies at other capitals. We have no relations with any other nation which would justify such an expenditure. It is a purely business proposition. We are not even remotely dreaming of slipping out of the Empire by a side-door. There is no political significance whatever attaching to the proposal. If there were it would never have secured the practically united support of the Canadian people. There would have been opposition in Parliament and outside of it. “Canada realises that, in her foreign policy, she is a part of the British Empire. But we do feel that we know the American better than the Britisher does. We have far more intimate relations with him. We visit him in larger numbers, and—especially since Volstead —he visits us much oftener. Then we live under very similar conditions. Our political methods are much alike. “We know better than any European how his mind works. We are a far better judge of when he is ‘bluffing’ and when he means business. So we very much prefer to do our business with him directly and independently. We are confident that we can get better terms.”

“Th new diplomatic arrangement will be welcomed in Washington for its practicality." declares the New York “World", and adds “Canada, with 4,000,000 square miles,- nearly 10,000,000 people and a rich commerce, is more important to us than any South American nation. She is growing rapidly, and will some day be one of the world’s great Powers. It is well that we should be able to deal more directly with so close a neighbour.”