"IN CONFLICT"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 11

"IN CONFLICT"

A TREATY DISPUTE (From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, 18th April. A good deal of confusion, that has not yet been cleared up, surrounds the J conflict of opinion between the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Mackenzie King, and Lord Salisbury,' as to th,e attitude of the Dominions toward (the treaty with Egypt. Lord Salisbury corrected Mr. Mackenzie King's statement that Great. Britain had asked Canada and the other Dominions to "become a party " to the treaty. Lord Salisbury's reply to this statement was that Britain did not ask the Dominions to become party to the treaty, but merely to approve the principle involved. Mr. Mackenzie King had the last word in the controversy, reiterating his former statement and offering to prove it with documentary evidence, if the British Government would allow him to place the correspondence on the table of the House of Commons at Ottawa—a course the British Grovernmont would not tolerate. That is how- the matter stands. No one is sure who is right, although' a large body of public opinion sides with Lord Salisbury, especially in view of the extraordinary speech made by Mr. Mackenzie King on the subject. In it the Prime Minister claimed that Canada had averted ( a second European war in 1922, in connection with the Chanak incident. i"May I remind the House," he said, in this connection, "that Australia and New Zealand had each signified their intention of sending, forces to join, with the British forces in the event of war, and that Ca"uada stood out alone in seeking 'information, and asking that her Parliament, be advised before the people of this country be committed to participation in another war." Lausanne, said Mr. Mackenzie King, was' another such incident. His Govornment was asked to ratify the treaty., Had he taken the stand his political opponents took at tho time, the Govorntnont would have signed a treaty in tho negotiation of which Canada was not represented, and would now have been committed to the obligations growing out of the treaty. . It was for that reason. that he secured the passago of a resolution that, in futuro similar cases, tho Parliament of Canada should be consulted.