CANADA IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1939, Page 9

CANADA IN WAR

NEUTRALITY OR NOT?

CRISIS APPROACHING

DEBATE PROMISED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

OTTAWA, March 29.

The question of Canada's status in the event of war is approaching the dimensions of a crisis in the House of Commons.

In an interview today, Dr. R. J. Manion, Leader of the Conservative Party (Opposition) stated that when Britain was at war there was no such thing as Canadian neutrality. He did not believe Canadian youth should be conscripted to fight outside Canada.

The Dominion could better play its part by full co-operation with Britain by means of volunteers, munitions, and food supplies. High British military authorities had told him, he added, that Britain would not expect Canada to send an expeditionary force.

Speaking in the House of Commons today the Prime Minister (Mr. Mackenzie King) acknowledging a petition by 21 French-Canadian societies opposing Canadian participation in any European war, announced that opportunity would be given shortly for a full-dress foreign policy debate.

In Quebec yesterday 500 students of Laval University invaded the Legislature shouting "No conscription," and demanded an immediate vote upon an Opposition member's motion that Quebec Province should urge the Dominion Government to pledge itself not to enter a European war. The police cleared the Chamber on the orders of the Premier (Mr. M. L. Duplessis).