CANADIAN ELECTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19386, 22 July 1926, Page 9

CANADIAN ELECTION.

RIVALS TAKE THE FIELD. RECENT CUSTOMS SCANDAL. ISSUE OF THE CAMPAIGN. THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. (Received 8.55 p.m.) Reuter. OTTAWA. July 20. The Prime Minister, Mr. Arthur Meighen, in opening the Conservative election campaign with a policy speech this evening confirmed the statement that the general election will be held on September 14. Referring to the revelations made by the committee which investigated the administration of the Customs Department, Mr. Meighen asked whether the Government, which had been responsible for the utter collapse of that great department of State, should be given a "certificate of character," and be declared by the electors of Canada to be the kind of Government the people wanted. Mr. Meighen said it was natural that Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, the exPremier, should have chosen another issue, namely the so-called constitutional issue. As a matter of fact there was no constitutional issue.

Never in the history of Parliamentary government, as they had it to-day, had any Prime Minister ever demeaned himself so much as to ask for a dissolution of Parliament while a vote of censure was under debate. Mr. Meighen said he would not plead the cause of Parliament, but with the object of preventing Parliament expressing its will, Mr. King had asked for a dissolution.

The Prime Minister said that if he were elected he intended to restore definitely the principle of protection in the customs tariff and to lay the basis of a vigorous immigration policy. In order to avoid misunderstanding as to the relations between the Governments of Britain and Canada in respect to the constitutional issue which has arisen in Canada, Mr. King —with the permission of the Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, and the Secretary of State for the Dominions, Mr. L. S. Amery—has published his correspondence with those Ministers after his resignation.

Mr. King points to the mutual assurances of good-will contained in the correspondence as an effective answer to those who, he says, are endeavouring to involve the constitutional question with an alleged lack of good-will and co-operation between the late Liberal administration of Canada and the Government of Britain.