MONROE DOCTRINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 9

MONROE DOCTRINE

CANADA'S POSITION

PENS BUSILY SCRATCHING

NOTABLE SAYINGS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, November 4. Ever since President Roosevelt stated, while on a holiday in Quebec, that the Uuited States would defend | its "neighbourhood," a sharp discussion | has been going on in Canada, with a note of bitterness on the part of those who believe that Canada should increase her contribution to the cost of Empire defence to a figure more nearly approximating the ratio undertaken by other Dominions. Extra fuel was added to the controversy by the terse warning of Lord Elibank about Canada's vulnerability to attack. Curiously, although he was rebuked by the Minister of Defence, the latter has since announced a supplementary vote of 5,000,000 dollars for defence. Does the Monroe Doctrine apply to Canada? Would the United States go to war to protect Canada? Would she permit a foreign force to land in Canada? What stand would the United States take if Canada were involved, with Great Britain or the League of Nations, in war? How would Amprican protection affect Canada in the Empire? These and many more questions are being tossed to and fro by writers and politicians on either side of the border. The discussion has led to the coining of a new word, applied to those in Canada who believe that, due to the propinquity and policy of the United States,, the Dominion is safe from attack: "Americanadians." In view of the growing tension in Europe and Asia, President Roosevelt's exact words are important: "Of all the nations in the world today, we are in many ways most singularly blessed. Our closest neighbours are good neighbours. If there are remoter nations that wish us not good but ill, they know that we are strong; they know that we can and will defend ourselves, and defend our neighbourhood." In the same address, delivered in the ancient Citadel, in Quebec City, he gently chided a section of the Canadian Press that referred to the United, States as "a foreign country." BY-GONE DISPUTES. The Monroe Doctrine was invoked three times in regard to Canada. The first occasion was during the dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the territorial border in 1845, up to 'which year British North America included the State of Washington and portion of Oregon, to the mouth of the Columbia. A compromise settlement was reached in the following year, setting the boundary at the 49th Parallel. ■ The second invocation was at Confederation in 1867. The House of Representatives at Washington passed a resolution, deprecating "a confederation of States on this continent, extending from ocean to ocean . . . founded on monarchial principles." The Senate took no action, and the matter was dropped. The third occasion was in the dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the proposed Alaska-British Columbia border. The fervour of the cry, "Fifty-four-Forty, or Fight," that swept the United States, led to the perpetual incongruity of the Alaska Panhandle, which has been condemned by ( Canadians ever since' the border was fixed. DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE. The United States interceded three times in defence of the Monroe Doctrine. In 1863 a French army invaded Mexico and set up an Empire under Maximilian. As soon as the Civil War was over, the American Army was concer| rated on the Rio Grande, and France decided to recall her troops. In 1897 the United States backed Venezuela in her demand for arbitration of the British Guiana border. Lord Salisbury agreed to arbitrate. Germany bombarded Venezuela in 1902 to collect certain claims. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to send the American fleet to Venezuela unless the Kaiser agreed to arbitrate. The Kaiser acquiesced.^ Within a month of the outbreak of the Great War, the question of the invasion of Canada was discussed between the United States and Germany. Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, an unofficial representative of the German Government, made the amazing claim that Canada, by taking part in the war, violated the Monroe Doctrine. He made it clear that Germany believed that Canada was bound by it, "as a selfgoverning American Dominion!"