CANADA AND EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19806, 29 November 1927, Page 13

CANADA AND EMPIRE.

HOW TO GO TO WAR. CONSERVATIVE PARTY'S POLICY. RUPTURE BETWEEN LEADERS. [JFROV Of I> OWN CORRESPONDENT.] TORONTO, Oct. 22. The most piquant incident that has occurred in Canadian politics in many a long day developed at the National Conservative Convention in Winnipeg in a violent rupture between the two outstanding men in the party, Mr. Arthur Meighen, ex-Prime Minister of Canada, and Mr. Howard Ferguson, the popular Premier of Ontario. Its results will be much more far-reaching. How Canada in the future shall go to war, was the issue that caused the fireworks.

The origin of the discord was a speech made by Mr. Meighen in 1925 in Hamilton —and therefore known as " the Hamilton speech " —immediately after the general election of that year. In that election Mr. Meighen had all but wrested power from the Liberals and was only prevented from doing so by the solidity of Quebec's hostility, a hostility based on a campaign which depicted Mr. Meighen, in his own words, "as a tyrant and man-eater, driving the sons of Canada with a whip to be slaughtered in foreign lands." To show how baseless was this characterisation Mr. Meighen in his Hamilton speech declared that in the event of future war he would not only consult Parliament, but would submit " to the judgment of the people at a general election before troops should leave our shores." The declaration was obviously intended to reassure Quebec where, in Bagot, was pending a by-election whose issue, so evenly were the parties divided, might easily have determined then and there the fate of the Government. Desired Success Not Achieved. But Mr. Meighen did not win Bagot, and in the succeeding general election of 1926 he lost ground iD Ontario and other English-speaking provinces. Many of Mr. Meighen's followers, ignoring the fact that new and overshadowing issues were raised in 1926, harked back to " the Hamilton speech," blaming it for their non-success and discomfiture. Mutterings grew, and Mr. Meighen resigned the party leadership. Mr. Meighen carried with him to private life the conviction that he had suffered a grievous misinterpretation of his proposal, not merely by his opponents, but by a section of his own party. For two years he kept silent. But at Winnipeg he said the time had como and the right tribunal had assembled for him tp explain and defend, as a private citizen and without committing tho party, the basis for the conviction he had expressed in his Hamilton speech. This he proceeded to do in the Meighenisque manner, keen, analytical, convincing, masterful. Mr. Meighen endeavoured to prove that his proposal of an election before sending troops abroad was entirely practicable and desirable, and declared: —"My object is not, and never has been, to throw a shadow of indifference or doubt over tho fidelity of this country to its rightful obligations as a member of tlio British Empire. My objpct- was, first of all, to remove an apprehension which was doing injury to Canada; to quiet fears ■which were utterly unfounded; to assure the whole people that this was a real British democracy and that wherever they could be. consulted on a great public issue they would not be ignored. My object was n<?t to sow dissatisfaction in the heart of a' single Canadian, but, on the contrary," to plant the seeds of contentment; to give assurance to the whole people that their just rights would be respected, and thereby to establish on a firmer and a more lasting foundation British institutions and British fidelity." Mr. Ferguson's Bludgeon. As Mr. Meighen sat down Mr. Ferguson strode to the' front of the platform. He ignored Mr. Meighen's protestations of loyalty, of good faith, his declaration that as a private citizen he no longer sought to commit the party. Instead he fell upon his former leader with his heaviest bludgeon. He told of a private conversation he had had with Mr. Meighen before the Hamilton speech in which he had strongly advised against it. He concluded with the threat that if the Convention endorsed Mr. Meighen he would retire from the convention. Mr. Ferguson, the most popular man in the convention, could scarcely get a hearing for his attack on Mr. Meighen. Only the chairman's continued intervening preserved the semblance of dignity for his conclusion.

But still another paradox. The Convention did not endorse Mr. Meighen—it was not asked to do so; but it elected Mr. Ferguson's candidate, Mr. R. B. Bennett, and an old rival of Mr. Meighen's, as leader, and an orthodox talk among the delegates afterwards was that Mr. Ferguson, whom they had all but refused to listen to, had done a great and courageous thing in dissociating himself and the convention from Mr. Meighen and his Hamilton speech. Uew Conservative Platform. Mi - . Meighen has a wide following of devoted friends and the Conservative organisation since Borden's retirement has been in his hands. The party has now cast Mr. Meighen and his works on the junk heap. For the future it pins its faith to Mr. Bennett with his millions, and to Mr. Ferguson with his winning ways. To what purpose remains to be seen. As to war policy which caused the rupture, it may be noted that the new Conservative platform makes no reference to it whatever, or to any other contentious Imperial issue. The Liberal policy is somewhat less democratic than air. Meighen's. It declares that Parliament, not the people, must decide the issue of war when it arrives. '