CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20706, 2 May 1929, Page 7

CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

STRAINED RELATIONS. (Fsom Otm Own Corbespondent.) ’ VANCOUVER, April 3. The Legislature of Quebec gave consideration last week to the question of repatriating 200,000 Canadians from the New England. States. This was consequent upon a thoughtless statement given by a United States immigration official there that they might be deported under the new immigration law. An assurance from Washington that it was not contemplated to deport these Canadians did not fully allay the annoyauce caused the oldest of the Canadian provinces.The above is one of a multiplicity of Incidents that are severely straining relations between Canada and the United States. The demand of the United States for a tariff to shut out agricultural products from Canada has caused bitter anti-American outbursts in the three prairie provinces. ’A similar demand for protection against lumber from British Columbia has thrown the Pacific province into a ferment. The maritimes are not feeling very friendly toward the United States after the treatment meted out to one of their native sons, Captain Randall, by having his small schooner shelled and sunk with war-time ferocity by an American coastguard during a heavy gale. The maritimes have another source of complaint against the United States, in that they consider their present economic condition due in large measure to the importation into Canada of American coal 4n competition with their own, which has difficulty in finding a domestic market. War between Canada and the United States is not a pleasant subject to make even most passing reference upon. But it has been publicly discussed by prominent Americans during the past week, in expressing their disgust at the action of the coastguard in sinking the I’m Alone.. Mr Britten, who is chairman of the Naval Committee of the Housff of Representatives at Washington, said if the present position were allowed to continue,, they might expect the American coastguard to pursue British ships into , the Englisji Channel and sink them there. Mr La-Guardia, Congressman from New York,, who commanded American aviation units in the Great War, asks, in a public interview, “ Are we ready to go to war with Britain T Can we rely on enough troops volunteering to fight for prohibition?”' War is openly hinted in many of the editorials in Canadian papers, which plainly point out to their readers that the I’m Alone incident is a' dangerous provocation between kindred peoples of the English tongue. An incident that occurred last week shows the feeling that has grown up as a result of endeavouring to enforce a domestic law of the United States on the high seas, - ' A native-born American was deported from the United States because he served with the British armies in Flanders. At the age of 18, he left the United States in 1913, going to England, where, when war broke he enlisted. His right leg was shattered with shrapnel on the Somme. Later he served with the Royal Air Force, and was discharged in 1919. He was working in Dublin when his mother, who resides iii Rhode Island, sent him funds to bring him home. The official reason given for deporting him was that Jie took the oath of loyalty to the British Crown at enlistment. "I thought a war veteran might have been treated more kindly,” was his simple comment on being put aboard a steamer for England. On, the authority of an ex-prohibition administrator, Cheater P. Mills, who recently won the 25,000 dollars prize for the. best means of. enforcing prohibition it is stated that only 2 per cent, of the liquor consumed in the United States is imported. The rest is manufactured in the United States. On account of tuiß 2 cent., therefore, America is being put in a very unfavourable light In the eyes of the rest of the world, most of aU m the eyes of Canada. The people of the Dominion have a fairly good idea whether the bulk of the citizens of the United States are-sincere about prohibition. Despite that fact, they have freely responded to requests from Washington for aid in enforcing it. Many administrative act< have been instituted at Ottawa to help America enforce the law. But the evidence from America does not inspire Canada to impose any further restrictions on its people. In one of the principal hotels in Washington it was dis covered last month that the “bell hops’ would supply liquor on demand to any of the guests. The hotel was the permanent residence of the Chief Administrator of prohibition in Washington. Press reports indicate that officials in Washington do not take kindly to the expressed desire of President Hoover that ttiey do not serve liqnor to their guests The president of the Institute of Journalists in England,, recording his impras sions of a tour of English editors through the United States, said that at only one function cf the scores they attended was liquor not served. The people of Canada have a good memory for the unpleasant incidents that nave befallen them over prohibition. They recall just now ■ that, in the notorious case of the Vancouver steamer Coal Harbor, the American coastguard com mander eventually .confessed that he falsi fied his log to make it appear that she was boarded inside the territorial limit. The vessel was released, but nc apology V.as ' forthcoming. The coastguard down the Union Jack from the on the high seas, but because her English commander’s papers were not In order, Great_ Britain would have nothing to do with him. Why the gratuitous insult to the flag? Captain Robert Pamphlet* who served with the Canadian Forc.-s in France, is now i.v'.rying two years in a United States penitentiary on M‘Neil! Island—not a very savoury place from all local accounts—for saving the lives of nine drowning Americcn sailors. An admitted rum-runner, he was 60 miles outside the territorial limit when he the S.O.S. Without regard for anything but the law of humanity, he dashed inside the territorial limit and rescued the nine sailors as their boat went down, and took them to the nearest American port, where he was arrested. He received a gold watch, inscribed with the gratitude of the owners ot the boar, and a testimonial from the- families of the men he saved. Captain Hudson, Vancouver, skipper of a former rum-runner, says in an interview that the coastguard commanders are not navigators. They cannot take a sight, but like yachtsmen judge their distances by objects on shore. The famous rum-runner th" Malahat which is said to have been the most successful of the Pacific Coast fleet, was trailed by the coastguard to Tahiti and back. Events connected with the coastguard operations are not all serious, however. There are many humorous incidents associated with them. Perhaps the best story was told here at a Canadian Club banquet the day before Good Friday by Colonel John Leckie, who has just returned from commanding the Northern Aerial Minerals Exploration, which spent the winter in the Hudson Bay and Barren Lands sectors. When their ship left the St. Lawrence roadstead, he said she was trailed for four days by ar. American coastguard. Eventually Colonel Leckie had a huge sign, “Who Won the War?” painted and hung over the side. The coastguard then left them. To understand the situation in regard to the American enforcement of prohibition on the high seas, one must study the methods employed within his borders. In half a dozen cases in the last year

innocent motorists have been shot clown as suspected bootleggers. In one case an Englishwoman, visiting the United States, was shot dead. A woman,, who hap 10 children, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Michigan for having a pint of liquor on hey premises. “Dry” raiders called at a home, and clubbed the father into unconsciousness and shot the mother dead as she bent over his prostrate body. The only other occupant 't the house, a boy of nine, shoe the leader of the raiding party. At the United States border, near here, officials held up Tito Chipa, who ranks with Gigli as the world’s greatest operatic tenor, for six hours while they considered whether-they would let him return to the United States after visiting Canada to give a couple of concerts here. And so on. These cases could be quoted ad nauseam. They com" to us from American writers and news services, and we have no call to distort them, Shortly sifter President Hoover was elected, Congress passed the Jones Law, imposing a fine of 10,000 dollars and five years’ imprisonment for any prohibition offence. Immediately this was followed by a published pronouncement of prominent New York lawyers, that, by way of protest against this law, they would defend offenders free of charge- In the first case that was tried, the prisoner got a suspended sentence —which means he will be liberated shortly. What it is all leading to no one knows. Canada is beginning to show the strain. Her people are disgusted at continued affronts. • They hesitate to take any definite steps, as they wish to live in friendliness with their neighbour. But already there is a feeling that there must be some limit. From New York comes news that Canadians have indicated that they will discontinue buying American goods unless there is some let-up in the tariff war. It is fully expected that better counsels will prevail in the United States regarding the I’m Alone incidcn*, and that the charges will be dropped. The sharpest condemnation of the action of the coastguard comes from the New York Times, which says the United States has no right to attempt to annex the high seas to enforce a domestic law.