CANADIAN POLITICS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1931, Page 7

CANADIAN POLITICS

MR BENNETT’S DIFFICULTIES. MURMUR INGS OF DISSATISFACTION. VANCOUVER, February 18. On the eve of the assembly of tho Parliament of Canada, the Prime Minister, Mr Bennett, cannot fail to hear the whisper clown the field of Federal politics that all is not well in the councils of the Conservative Party. For the change in its atmosphere, gradually working up since the Imperial Conference, lie is alone responsible. Miirmurings of discontent have not reached, and may not reach, the stage of providing a rift, hut they are there, nevertheless.

Mr Bennett shares his confidence with no one. Thre P hours before the new Governor General was appointed it is questionable if anyone in Canada, apart from himself, was aware of his identity. Nor was anyone aware, in the interim after Lord Willingdon’s resignation, who was in the Premier’s mind for the post. As a matter of fact, members of Mr Bennett’s Cabinet, together with their deputy Min. isters, and high officers of the Government initiated a sweepstake, in which were listed a number of candidates for Governor-General, At the eleventh hour, the favourite was Lord Cromer, whose wife is a daughter of a former Governor-General. Mr Bennett was not openly aware of th e existence of this gentle rap at his autocratic methods, but the subject formed material for interesting and diverting cables round tho British Empire. We should perhaps qualify the statement that none shares tho Premier’s confidence. A young Ottawa barrister, Mr VV. D. Hcrridge, quite unknown in politics, and a stranger to many of tho Conservative members, went with him to tli e Imperial Conference and to Washington. To what extent thi* 3 young man advised Mr Bennett, and to what extent Mr Bennett acted on his advice, no one is likely to know. Vet it, is a strange coincidence that the Dominion organiser of the party, General M’Rae, who sacrificed his seat to stay at Ottawa and run the machine during the election campaign, was, during these later days, sitting alone in his mansion at Vancouver, gazing across the Pacific and wondering whether the sacrifice was worth while. Meantime, Mr Herridge is first favourite for the post of Canadian Minister at Washington. i

There are those in the Conservative Party who do not agree with the way the Premier acted at the Imperial Conference. They considered lie adopted the policy of washing the Empire’s linen before the world, and brought inter-Empire relations out of the inquiring atmosphere of a conference into the arena of public controversy. Many of them are doubtful of the wisdom of such happenings or of their effect on the Imperial ideal.

The Prairie, which turned against MacKenzie King at the election, not at all satisfied with the means AllBennett has adopted to bring order out ot the wheat deadlock. The farmers cannot for the moment see that, neither leader could stem the down* ward tide of wheat prices; their immediate problem is the loss ol approximately £3,000,000 on one crop, and the prospect that Russia will prevent the leeway being made up. They wanted spot cash from Air Bennett to snpolement the guarantee of the Prairie Governments. He gave them the shadow for the substance, in the form of a Credit Corporation which would finance them over the period of change from wheat to mixed farming. Afany economists say Air Bennett is right, but farmers are not usually economists. At the moment, at any rate, they are pondering the efficacy of their action at th 0 last election and indulging in little talks aside about secession from Eastern Canada. These are two of the issues confronting Mr Bennett. There are others, such as unemployment, which he has done his best to solve, but they leave in their wake a note of criticism that must be met. With revenues down to a low ebb, and industry not yef out of the doldrums, although 'beginning to make a brave show, and the tariff likely to be reopened to the wildest limits, the Premier has his hands full. He will want the active co-operation of his Cabinet and .party, ratlies than the subtleties of a singlebrain if lie is to ride out the .storm. During all tbeis P months Mr Mackenzie King, in bis Ottawa retreat, has been piling stones round his garden beds, chopping trees, tending bis poultry, and reading bis favourite poets. He has made no public appearances, preferring solitude, even from bis party, doubtless probing the holes in AH Bennett’s armour, and preparing his attack. What form that, attack will take .is indicated by the treatment the Aleighen “Shadow •Cabinet” of 1926 got at his hands. He is without the services of AH Dunnin, who still lies on the field of honour where he fell, but Mackenzie King is nothing if not a strategist, and, when tile attack opens, the whole of Canada will be at the ringside, anticipating a fight worthy of two doughty opponents.