CANADA AND WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23486, 25 October 1939, Page 9

CANADA AND WAR

QUEBEC IN REVOLT* CONSCRIPTIO N OP P 0 SED BITTER ELECTION SPEECHES - By. Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received October 24, 7.35 p.m.) MONTREAL, Oct. 23 The outstanding questions which the Quebec Province will poll on Wednesday are: Provincial autonomy, conscription, and Canada's participation in the war. The spirited campaign was marked by charges of gangster methods, and' mirepresentation on the conscription issue. The Premier, Mr. Maurice <©uplessis, called the election two years before the end of his five-year term on the ground that the Federal Government's war measures threatened the province's autonomy. Government Attacked Mr. Duplessis charged the Dominion Government with attempting centralisation and assimilation. He drew the Quebec members of tile Federal Cabinet into the campaign alongside the Liberal Party under Mr. Joseph Adelarde Godbout. The Federal Minister of Justice, Mr. Ernest Lapointe, announced that the Quebec members of the Federal Cabinet would resign if the Duplessis Government were re-elected, making an election for the Quebec seats in the Federal Cabinet almost certain. In spite of repeated -assurances that the Dominion would not countenance conscription, and of similar pledges by other party leaders, Mr. Duplessis campaigned as the champion of anti-con-scription. In closing his Montreal rally he said: "This is a battle for sur\*ival> not for the success of one man., party or Government, but of the province' and the race.

Fight Conscription "The Quebec Go\ r ernment does-, not put: up with Imperialists. It is time it was known here and in England that we are not strangers, but are here by right of our age and history and that we intend to stay." Mr. Paul Gouin, leader of the Action Liberale Party, said that national conscription had needlessly been mada / & major issue. All the parties opposed it. If Ottawa tried to enforce conscription it would be a fight to the. bitter end. They would not resign.: They would rather break the confederation. ; ■ ~ ' ■ " " X, NOT FOR GERMANY SOVIET GOLD SHIPMENT PURCHASES IN AMERICA BRITISH ORDERS DIVERTED \ . ; . (Received October 24, 6.20 p.m.) LONDON, Oct, 24 The Daily Telegraph says Germany is not receiving the 17£ tons of gold from the Soviet. ; The bullion has been ■" deposited in Dutch banks. It is destined to finance Russian purchases of goods in the United States, including manufactures previously ordered from Britain which cannot be delivered | owing to the war. A cablegram from , London on October 11 stated: —consignment of 17} tons of gold (worth from £3,000,000 to £4,000,000, according to measure-' ment), from Moscow passed through Lithuania by rail for Berlin, apparently under obligations in the recent Russo-German economic agreement. ARMY ARRESTS TWO GERMAN GENERALS RESTORATION OF MONARCHY ALLEGED TO BE SUPPORTERS : BERLIN. Oct, 23 The Army officers arrested on the ground that they supported restora- ' tion of the monarchy in Germany include General von Hammerstein, Chief of the General Staff before General von Fritsch, and General von Stulpnagel. Von Hammerstein was appointed commander of the army of occupation, in Poland, but was removed before taking up the post. General Curt von HammersteinEquord, who is 61 years old, comes of an old military family and has always held that the Army stands outside the political parties. He has opposed political activities by officers and | men and, while supporting the Nazi | regime, has struggled to maintain the j independence of the Reichswehr from political influence or control. This has not pleased Hitler and in 1933, when the general was at the height of his powers, his resignation was announced, but obviously it was. not ■ voluntary. Von Hammerstein was a friend of General von Schleicher, who was killed by the Nazis in the "purge" of June Geueral Joachim von Stulpnagel, who is in his 60th year, served in the Army during the Great War, at the conclusion of which he held the rank of major I ~ Afterward he was head of a section of the Supreme Command. In 1927 he was made head of the personnel section at the Reichswehr Ministry, and in 1929, by which time he hod become a lieuten-ant-general, he was made commander of the 3rd Division and of the Berlin District. . In 1931 von Stulpnagel resigned from the Reichswehr and joined the staff of tlie Berliner Borsenzeitung, of whose publisher he is a nephew. When Hitler began the expansion of the German - Armv lie rejoined it with tlie rank of general, in 1935. and was appointed j commander of the newly-constituted Air ' War Academy. NO NEW PEACE MOVE DECISION BY GERMANY LONDON, Oct. 23 The official German news agency denies that Germany is likely to present now peace proposals. \ "The German conditions," says the statement, "can only be those which Hitler stated in his Reichstag speech r when Britain brutally repulsed the Fuehrer's outstretched hand. Germany has not the least cause to take the initiative in setting forth new-condi-tions for an attempt to secure peace.