THE
ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.
By EVELYN WRENCH. FROM a Reuter telegram I gather that some extracts from my article in the Spectator of September 15th on the subject of Canada's relationship to the Empire were cabled to the Dominion and, in attenuated form, appear to have given the impression that I foretold the speedy withdrawal of Canada from the Empire The Ottawa Journal, for instance, suggests that those of us —specifically naming me—who are seriously concerned about Canada's position in the Empire should pay the Dominion a visit and we would soon be convinced that " we were writing and talking nonsense." In fairness to the readers of the Spectator I should like to state that my personal acquaintance with Canada extends over a period of seventeen years. In that time I have visited the Dominion five times, crossing from Atlantic to Pacific on three different occasions and visiting most places of importance in every province, with the excep- tion of Prince Edward Island, from Sydney, Cape Breton, to Prince Rupert, B.C. During these visits I have mixed with all classes of the community, so that my views on Canada, such as they may be, are based on first-hand knowledge of local conditions.
* * * * Cabled summaries of articles so frequently give wrong impressions that I should like to recall to the minds of my readers what I did say. The object of my remarks, inspired by the forthcoming Imperial Conference, was twofold : First, to emphasize the fact that attachment to the " Imperial " ideal varies in the different parts of the self-governing Dominions ; and, secondly, that the answer to the question, " Will the British Commonwealth of Free Nations be able to give sufficient scope within its orbit to the strongest nationalistic aspirations of its component parts, or will it split up as the result of centri- fugal tendencies ? " will probably be supplied during the next thirty or so years. If Canada—the Britannic nation furthest advanced along the path of independence —can find the freedom she requires within the British Commonwealth, then, in all human probability, the other Dominions will do so likewise.
* * * * We shall have solved in the British Empire in the twentieth century the problem which broke up the British Empire in the eighteenth—how two apparent opposites, independence and co-operation, can be recon- ciled in one political system. I believe that the more frank discussion we have concerning the dangers in the way the better. But it does not follow that just because I mentioned some of our difficulties I regard them as insurmountable. As a matter of fact, it is my profound conviction that we shall overcome these difficulties ; that during the twentieth century we shall triumphantly demonstrate to the world that the foundations of freedom on which our Common- wealth rests are the only lasting ones ; or, as Mr. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, said in the Canadian House of Commons a few months since, " I believe that in the British Commonwealth to-day we have the greatest example the world has ever known of a community of free nations in the nature of a league of nations which is an inspiration and a model to the League of Nations itself." * * * * Certainly the last thing I wished to do was to question the attachment of Mr. Mackenzie King, for whom I have the deepest respect, to the Imperial ideal. I called him an " extreme autonomist " as anyone who read the debates on the Halibut Treaty at Ottawa -would be bound to do. If the concluding of a treaty with a foreign Power and the signing of it by the Canadian Government alone, and the proposed appoint- ment of a Canadian Ambassador at Washington, are not examples of " extreme autonomy," I do not know what are. Those of us who believe in the utmost freedom of the parts of the British Commonwealth have nothing against this autonomy provided it is accompanied by a clear vision, as it is in Mr. King's case, of the ultimate goal of a Britannic Alliance, to use Mr. Richard Jebb's fine phrase. On the subject of my remarks concerning the sentiments of French Canada towards the Empire, it is apparent from the letters of your two correspondents last week, Colonel Brothers and " A. G. B.," that there is a divergence of views. The former quotes Sir Etienne Tache's famous statement that " the last gun in defence of the British Crown in Canada will be fired by a French Canadian," while the latter states that the old legend about the French Canadians " lining the last-ditch " in case of an American invasion was exploded in the last War. Whatever our views may be on this subject, of one thing we can be sure—that the more personal inter- course there can be between French Canadians and their fellow-citizens in Great Britain the better. What we want is more visits of French-Canadian journalists, Members of Parliament, professors and others.
* * * * As to the sentiments of the " British element in the country " referred to by A. G. B." towards the United States, I quite agree that there is a dislike in many quarters in Canada of the United States politically— not of its people. It is beyond my scope to investigate the causes of this feeling. Like the Ottawa Journal, I agree that " a plebiscite on the question (annexation to the United States) would reveal an absolutely over- whelming verdict for connexion with Britain." I was, however, discussing problems of the future rather than of the present. To-day Canada is very largely dependent for her periodical literature on the United States. For every British magazine or review sold in Canada there are ten American ones. For every British film there are ten American ones. Who can say what the ultimate effect of such conditions will be ?
* * * * Whenever Kenya has been mentioned in the British Press during the past year it has been in connection with her political problems. Now that the political situation has been dealt with by the Imperial Government, some of the settlers are turning their thoughts towards the task of making better known throughout the world Kenya's economic and scenic resources. A correspondent asks me to draw the attention of readers of the Spectator to the fact that the tourist in this British colony on the Equator may indulge " in winter sports on a fifteen thousand feet snow mountain all the year round." He also seeks to stimulate interest in Kenya's great cedar forests (Juniperus procera), from which cedar pencils are made. We are asked to insist that when we buy our pencils we see that they are stamped " Kenya Colony cedar." Perhaps on some future occasion my correspondent will inform us where Kenya cedar pencils can be obtained in Great Britain. * A few weeks since I recorded in these notes the utterance of an Englishman visiting America who stated that the most remarkable object he had seen in that country was a policeman in Los Angeles wearing silk socks. As a commentary on that statement a corre- spondent sends me the following Some time ago I met an elderly gentleman from Australia. It was his first visit to the old country since he emigrated forty-five years ago. I asked him what had struck him most in his visit. After a moment or two he replied, ' Well, I think the hand of a policeman at a London crossing. There is so much behind it—law, order, good government and obedience."
Previous page
