CHANGE EVIDENT

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21365, 8 March 1941, Page 7

CHANGE EVIDENT

AMERICA’S ATTITUDE BRITAIN AND THE WAR CANADA’S GREAT EFFORTS “I meet a great many people from the United States in travelling between Canada and that country, and I have seen a steady change in theii attitude to Britain and the war,” said the Rev. S. Robertson Orr, of the Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, who is at present visiting Hamilton [ "At first it was ‘your war,’ uttered in j a spirit of isolation,” commented Mr ! Orr, "but eventually they began to I speak of ‘our war’ and to see in Britain the outpost of their own defence. One American said to me a few weeks ago that Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt had been raised up specially for the deliverance of liberty - loving peoples.” When asked if this new attitude of Americans had taken any more practical form, Mr Orr referred to what is known in Canada as the Ogdensburg Agreement, which set up the permanent Board of Defence for North America. “This is one of the extraordinary features of this war,” he said. "America is a neutral nation and yet she has entered into a contract of defence with a nation at war. In this way President Roosevelt has implemented his announcement of August, 1938, when he said that the people of the United States would not stand idly by if domination of Canadian soil was threatened by any other Empire. America is already at war. In Honolulu an American naval officer told me that the service was 100 per cent for Britain.” Cabinet Shake-up Mr Orr referred to a recent cabled item from Toronto which said the Financial Post claimed that a Cabinet shake-up was imminent as a result of Lord Macmillan’s report criticising the munitions programme, probably involving the Minister for Munitions, Mr C. D. Howe, although Mr Mackenzie King will survive as Prime Minister. "That cable reads strangely to a Canadian citizen,” said Mr Orr." “Mr Mackenzie King is in a stronger position than any other Prime Minister of Canada has been. There can be no question of his ‘survival.’ "Before the war there was a little joke in Canada about our Navy. We were accustomed to say that we had two ships—one in the East and one in the West, but never the twain did meet. But now we have 155 ships in our Navy with a personnel of 14,850. Some are. on the Atlantic Patrol, some on the coasts of Newfoundland and Iceland, and some are around the British Isles. We have also in training for the Navy men from other countries, such as Norwegians who, when Norway was captured, put in to Canada in their whaling ships and are now being f trained for service.

Training for Air Force “Of course we nave in Canada the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan with 37,000 men in training for the Royal Air Force. Whenever one of your ships comes in it touches at | my own town in Canada and there the New Zealand Air Force boys get their first Canadian welcome. By the way, we also have in training for the Royal Air Force men from the United States and all the young Englishmen are also being trained ! there. Our Army? We have 175,000 j men. Two divisions are already in 1 the British Isles. After Dunkirk, Britain was dependent upon the Canadians and their equipment for the defence of the Islands after the British Army lost all its equipment in that evacuation. Our men have not yet seen service as the New Zealand men have. Three times they were ready to embark—once for Norway, once for the Low Countries and once for France, but on each occasion the orders had to be cancelled. The Empire’s Gaol “For various obvious reasons Canada has been assigned the task of being the Empire’s gaol,” said Mr Orr. “It is a big job. Every week brings in new detachments from overseas, mostly from England. In December there were more than 12,000 of the queerest assortment of prisoners of war ever herded together. There are swash-buckling German U-boat skippers, fiery youngsters from the Panzer divisions, fallen pilots, cap- , tured seamen, even a millionaire • who flashed the tint of the ‘fiftl; ' column.’ ! "Then there was Prince Frederick I of Prussia, grandson of the ex-Kai-i ser. Last week he was sent back i to Britain because of the outcry in : England that some had been sent out ! too hastily. He and others are bei ing returned under voluntary enlistment in the British Pioneer Corps, which cleans up bomb wreckage and does salvage work. These are mostly men who fled to England from Germany shortly before the war, many of whom openly profess anti-Nazi sentiments.” Little Hope of Escape “Starting 10 miles from the American border, Canada’s spreading chain of concentration camps reaches from Lake Champlain to Alberta. The combatant group of prisoners is located in unidentified rough country, where there is little hope of escape. In this group 16 have attempted to get away, but all but one are back in custody. Tpe one. Ernst Nueller, is dead, shot when he resisted capture in the Ontario bush. "During the Great War. only about 2000 men were held in Canada for Britain, but the danger of numbers of them escaping and engaging in fifth column work led' to this increasingly large number in this war. Through these Nazi prisoners in i Canada, Britain is finding out a lot J about Hitler’s strength and plans I and his weaknesses with the German people. I "The prisoners get free mailing! privileges,” concluded Mr Orr. “They | are allowed no visitors, but are allowed to receive communications and packages. Officers are paid their regular salaries for doing nothing, and receive the courtesies of their rank. They are even allowed to have their chela prepare special dishes from the

materials available or to buy what they like and prepare what they like This is where a certain Italian chef from a London restaurant already has made himsell quite popular.”