CANADA AND AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17191, 19 December 1917, Page 4

CANADA AND AUSTRALIA.

Tiib relation between the result of the general election in Canada and the polling at tho referendum to-morrow in Australia may not, at first sight, be very apparent. It is nevertheless distinctly real. The of the Coalition Government in Canada would be a serious misfortune for the Empire and would be a grave blow to the advocates in Australia of a modified form of compulsory service abroad. It would be this because it would be liable to be interpreted as a proof that the electors in Canada had refused; to endorse the policy of conscription which Sir Robert Borden has introduced , and which the Coalition Government has been formed to enforce. Fortunately, there is no question about the, success of the Canadian Government. The latest information on the point indicates that the Government is being confirmed in office by the votes of the electors, and that, in fact, it is only in Quebec, where the French-Canadian population is notoriously indifferent concerning the war, that it is not carrying the day. A victory for the Government is essential to the concentration of tho efforts of Canada upon the necessary work of tho war. If the Government were defeated, the conscription' law Would assuredly not be enforced vigorously and might even become a dead letter. Conscription has been the main issue at the election, and the choice of the electors , has been between a Government, which gives the war issue its appropriate place as overriding and dwarfing all other, considerations, and a party which dloes not see so x clearly the supreme importance of providing the Canadian soldiers, who have fought so gallantly, with the support in reinforcements that is required by them. The Coalition Government in Canada has, therefore, been combatting the same influences as are being exerted against the Federal Government in Australia. Its success at the polls will provide the supporters of compulsory service in Australia wicn another telling example within the Empire of the subordination of everything else to the one vital object of rendering all possible assistance to the Empire and the allied nations in the prosecution of the war in the interests of liberty and of humanity.