BELATED REBUKE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1927, Page 11

BELATED REBUKE

A NATIONAL GUEST

MR. BRUCE'S IMPERIALISM

MIXED FEELINGS IN CANADA

(From Oui Own Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, lltli February. The sharp rebuke delivered by Mr. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, to Mr. S.- M. Bruce, Prime Minister* of Australia, for the speeches delivered by the latter gentleman during his tour of Canada, notably on the subject of what he considered the duty of the people ol the Dominion in the matter- of contributing to Empire defence, will, it is feared, set in the background" any.hope that might have been entertained that Canada, under the present circumstances, will do anything in that direction." The whole question has been thiown into the arena of party politics again, from which it was hoped it would have emerged.' . Further than that, it has become a Tacial issue, and that is worse. "Where portion of the people were bewildered before, the whole community is 'bewildered now. . Before the country is the assured prospect of an unseemly political wrangle, during the year,of Canada's jubilee as a confederation of British colonies. It would be better, 'just now; if by a tacit agreement the issue were dropped for a calendar 'year, and the countiy were left, as it deserves to be, to enjoy in complete harmony its celebration of sixty years, of remarkable development as a united community. Neither the Empire, the Dominion, nor any single province will lose for having postponed the unpleasantness of what is in store otherwise..

SOURCE OF THE REBUKE.

1 There are some features associated with the rebuking of Mr. Bruce that .are not at all pleasant. If Mr. .Bruce did wrong in speaking of naval defence in Canada without the authority of its Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie added another wrong by allowing the rebuke to be delivered by a subordinate, the Hon. Ernest Lapcinte. Those who respect Mr. Bruce and his .views—and .they number millions—feel that the traditional tenets of diplomacy have been outraged; that, if any rebuke were to be delivered, it should come from Mr. Mackenzie King, who was present at the Toronto banquet, and spoke before Mr. Lapointe, who left the rebuke to the end of his speech, and then did not mention 'Mt. Bruce by name, but referred to hi,m as a distinguished visitor.. . "' . . The well-wishers of Mr. Bruce feel ' also that ( he was rather shabbily treated by the Prime Minister of Canada and his first lieutenant, in that they waited threo weeks, until Mr. Bruce was being acclaimed by tens of thousands on the day of his' arrival in Australia, before they delivered their rebuke. Mr. Mackenzie King hold his peace all that time, and the public had become convinced that Mr. Bruce was speaking with the full authority of Canada's Prime Minister and Cabinet —that, to use the words applied to his tour by Canadian newspapers, ht was "flying a vkite" for Mr. Mackenzie King. Now they know that Mr. Bruce committed the unpardonable sin of dis- • cussing and commenting on Canada's domestic affairs \Vithout the authority of the Prime Minister of the country he was visiting. "AN UNPARDONABLE SIN." Mr. Bruce committed an unpardonable sin; of that the public haE no doubt. If ' they knew that he not only had not Mr. Mackenzie King's authority to say what he did, but. was also compromising that gentleman before the country, Mr.' Bruce would have had a very mixed reception, or at least would havp caused something like the outburst that has attended the rebuke passed on him. Tor, when Mr. Bruce was in the country, it was not a matter of party politics, but of a very distinguished ■ visitor, guest of the whole Dominion, to whom every possible courtesy was extended. The Dominion of Canada took charge of him on his arrival at New York,- and honoured him as its guest till he boarded his home-, bound ship at Victoria, on the Pacific littoral.. Now the county learns for the first time, and from the Prime Minister, that he was writhing at Ottawa under the last of political speeches made by the country's guest. Mr. Bruce will take a long time to live that (Sown. N

It is difficult to review these happenings when one believes that Mr. Bruce's theory of Empire defence is tight, an?l Mr, Mackenzie King's is, or was, wrong. Even the people of Quebec had 'come to believe that Mr. Mackenzie King had,. like General Hertzog/ been converted, aiid was falling into line with Australia and Now Zealand. One must accept tho Prime Minister's statement that ho had been compromised by Mr. Bruce, but, until we hear the Australian Prime Minister's reply, it is. almost impossible to conceive that he would have done this thing while accepting the hospitality of all shades of public opinion in a sister Domijiion.