LOYALTY TO EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 204, 26 May 1936, Page 9

LOYALTY TO EMPIRE

Canada’s Relations With Great Britain SHORTAGE OF POPULATION Tlie absolute allegiance of Canada to the British Throne was emphasised by Dr. David Lang, of Canada, In an address yesterday at a luncheon of the New Zealand Club. Because Canadians lived alongside the United States of. America and there existed the most friendly relations between the peoples of the countries, it should not be imagined Canada had any thought of severing relations with Great Britain. “If any politician were to suggest such a thing he would be swamped at the next election,” said Dr. Lang.

One of Canada’s difficulties, Dr. Lang continued, was the smallness of the population. Canada had somewhere about 11,090,000 people, while there was room for hundreds of millions in the North-West territory. Immigration had been cut down. At one time migrants to Canada totalled 375,000 a year, but that number had now been reduced to 13,000. Two things were necessary to bring back prosperity to the West—capital and people. Many people thought the North-West region was uninhabitable, but actually some of the finest wheat in the world was grown there. A feature of Canadian life that impressed one was the fact that a verylarge number of Canadian people were interested in some sport or other. Ski-ing had become a very popular winter pastime. Canada was dependent to a large extent on world trade, and would not be very prosperous without it. Canada was working hard to develop its overseas trade. The entire nationalism that was rampant over the world a few years ago was common to North America also. Before he left Canada he had the pleasure of dining with the Prime Minister, Mr. McKenzie King, who had told him he was anxious to enter into agreement with Australia and New Zealand and that lie was ready to give preferential tariffs to those countries over and above that given to other countries outside the British Empire. The president of the club, Mr. A. Leigh Hunt, presided. At the conclusion of his address Dr. Lang was presented with a silver kiwi mounted on a slab of greenstone as a souvenir of bis New Zealand visit.