ARTHUR MEIGHEN

CANADA'S PROBLEMS AND OUTLOOK

The Right Honorable Arthur Meighen was born in Perth County, Ontario, in 1874, brought up on the farm, and graduated from Toronto University in 1896. He entered the Canadian House of Commons in 1908, and has held various offices in the Cabinet. At present he is Leader of the Opposition. The following speech was delivered at the Dominion Day dinner, London, July 1, 1921. Another speech by Mr. Meighen is printed in Volume XII.

I THANK you heartily for the warmth of your welcome. It is a matter of deep satisfaction to me that, at a time when, far from its shores, I am called upon, so far as it lies within my ability, to interpret the mind of our country upon affairs of great importance to it, I am permitted to seek support and counsel from so numerous and representative a gathering of my fellow countrymen as that assembled here to-night. The tasks to which I address myself are not ones which I can hope to bring to success unless the solutions proposed receive general assent, and I hope you will believe that I have approached them with the most earnest desire that they shall be solved in a manner satisfactory to our countrymen and to the people of the Britannic Commonwealth as a whole.

There is a constant desire of all His Majesty's subjects, a deep-rooted desire which springs from our common traditions, our undivided allegiance, our mutual loyalty, that, after consultation and conference, decisions arrived at shall speak the united opinion of all. Individual points of view there must be, but we are determined that no thought of separate advantage, no claim of special privilege shall overweigh the overriding common interest. This is a principle which we Canadians can well appreciate, for it has been the foundation of our national policy and endeavor since Canada was a united country.

I shall not traverse ground familiar to every one to point out landmarks in our national development. I prefer, if I may, to suggest, rather than accurately to define, some of the obligations which fall upon us by reason of the position which our country has attained as a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and of that wider society of states to which British practice has given the model, and to whose maturity and usefulness the assistance of British statesmanship will continue to be essential.

What then is our national position? Our allegiance to its common Sovereign and our membership in the Empire are fundamental; but our geographical situation, our social composition, our economic heritage and development raise problems which are not identical with those which confront the motherland or any other dominion.

First it must be noted that we are a western continental power, vitally affected in our aspirations and actions by our position on the globe. We are justly proud that, when earth's foundations were threatened, we came earliest from the New World to help redress the overweighted balance of the Old; and I believe we have a duty to bear our part in reasserting and maintaining the equilibrium of civilization. We span a continent and are a link between East and West. We touch on four thousand miles of unfortified boundary another great branch of the English-speaking peoples; and I believe, because of our intimacy and understanding, that we have no small part to play in finding a remedy for some effects of a division which the Prime Minister of South Africa aptly termed "a historical mistake." We cannot, if we wouldbut if we could I feel it would be our duty not to stand aside from the stream and tendency of civilization. The world lately learned by stern experience that no nation, as no man, lives unto itself alone. Canada will be more fully carrying out her task as an inheritor and molder of British practice and policy as her interest and influence in every part of the world expand.

I will not venture a prophecy as to what the future critic of national characteristics will discover to distinguish the Canadian people, but one fancies that sometimes there is mis

conception in this respect about parts of the Empire with which one is not so well acquainted as with one's own. Because the dominions inherit the same strains of blood and tradition it will not do to identify them with each other or with the motherland. New, immature perhaps, they may be; but it is a misconception, from force of circumstances more current in the United Kingdom than overseas, to suppose that each of the dominions is but a replica of the mother country, instead of a living, throbbing society, developing a common stock of conventions, aspirations, and ideals, molding them in its own way and according to the measure of its own genius. The people of two of the dominions are not composed of one race, but they are the inheritors of the co-partnership of western European civilization to which the world owes the ideas still dominating it. We have lately witnessed a fresh and luxuriant creation of racial States. No free man may question the justice of their national aspirations: the claims of freedom against tyranny stir a sympathetic chord in every free breast. But there is authority for the principle that the united support of common ideals by those who, though of different descent, have a common allegiance, may hold the best guarantee and promise of liberty and civilization. This, at all events, is Canada's conviction.

The task of subduing the natural products and forces of half a continent to the uses of man is no light one, especially if it is conducted by a small population which, I am glad to think, is not wholly concerned with the material things of existence; but it is a task which kindles enthusiasm and encourages optimism. If a vast amount remains to be done, we have made rapid strides in the distance we have gone; have, I think, proceeded along right lines; and ought to regard the future with abounding confidence. We have built up by the forethought and energy of successive generations a well-balanced and increasingly self-contained national existence. Our communications, built, many will think, in advance of our needs, will serve the purpose of national development, and will in the long future, I am fully persuaded, become in the aggregate a paying national investment.

Every phase of our national advance gives ground for hope.

There are no dark shadows on the path of our national destiny. Within the ambit of the Britannic system we may anticipate continued security, ordered liberty, and sound economic development; and foresee an increasing contribution to the civilization, peace, and happiness of the world.

THE BRITISH POLITICAL TRADITION

This address was delivered at the Royal Gallery, House of Lords, at the dinner of the United Kingdom Branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association, June 24, 1921.

THE peoples of the British realms are not specially gifted with the faculty for expressing their deepest emotions and aspirations, nor do they often care to proclaim them publicly, so it appears to me that this gathering is one of peculiar significance. It is eloquent evidence of the common loyalty and essential unity of the peoples of all His Majesty's Dominions; of their attachment to British institutions; and of their desire to repay, at this ancient shrine and fount of freedom, their homage to the tradition which is Britain's legacy to them and her example to the world.

So experienced and informed a student of politics as Lord Bryce has lately made the grave admission that "the dignity and moral influence of representative legislatures have been declining"; but with reasoned optimism he considers that if democracy has not fulfilled every extravagant hope, judged, as it has a right to be judged, by systems it has displaced, "it has in some countries destroyed, in others materially diminished, many of the cruelties and terrors, injustices and oppressions that had darkened the souls of men for many generations." We, inheritors of the British tradition, are, I think, entitled to share Lord Bryce's optimism. Our unity of sentiment and aim have maintained while multiplying our parliamentary institutions, which in turn have protected while they advanced our freedom. Other countries developed representative institutions as clearly as England; but while her unity

"Modern Democracies," Vol. II, p. 391. 'Ibid., Vol. II, p. 585.

maintained them, their class divisions, reflected, even embodied in their assemblies, permitted, if they did not promote, the establishment of despotism on the ruins of liberty. It is our fundamental principle that the interests of no class, no party, no nation even, shall displace the overriding interests of the commonwealth.

But her legacy to the Britannic Commonwealth is not the full measure of Britain's contribution to the world. That vast and powerful community of British origin, where, though the King's writ does not run, the King's English is spoken, and the Common Law enforced; where British ideals of liberty and government prevail; which, on a four-thousand-mile undefended boundary of the King's Dominion that I represent, has kept for a century the King's Peace: the great Republic has received her share and upheld her part of the British legacy, molding and completing it by her own peculiar genius. I hope it may not prove to be beyond the resources of statesmanship that that great country, to the exclusion of no other, may be included in that congeries of nations which shall keep the peace and complete the reëstablishment of civilization.

To that wider association, to which the United States has as yet refused her adhesion, but to the constitution of which almost no amendment could be objectionable which would secure it-to the League of Nations, what has British statesmanship contributed, and from it, what may the world expect? The contribution of my South African colleague is well known; the League's foundation on consultation and conference is a British contribution drawn from the practice and conventions with which we, in the narrower, more intimate, and presently more successful league of which we are members, are familiar. The world must not too soon become impatient with the League's timid, tentative efforts. It is a great experiment which demands and requires our hearty support. The war showed us the intimacy and interdependency of international relationship. The world once centered round the Mediterranean, then round the Atlantic, its center of gravity may now be the Pacific; but British interests are world-wide, and surround and traverse the Seven Seas. No narrow policy will suffice for the safety of any nation. All must coöperate for the world's peace.