England, Canada and the Great War Part 11

It is utterly incredible--but still it is true--that Mr. Boura.s.sa did denounce in his newspaper _Le Devoir_, the Ottawa Cabinet's action in borrowing money from the American saving public. In severe terms he blamed the Washington Authorities for not having lent millions to Canada at the low rate of interest they had agreed to accept from France and Italy. He a.s.serted that this refusal on their part was a testimony of ill-will against the Dominion. And in the most violent terms he charged all those who favoured Canadian borrowings in the American market with being traitors selling their country to the United States.

It is hard to say whether the charge is not more ridiculous than contemptible. It is the repet.i.tion, in an aggravated form of absurdity, of the argument accusing the British investing capitalists to have had for their only object in lending us their money to help coercing Canada into the Imperial wars.

Was Mr. Boura.s.sa ignorant of the fact that the building of the magnificent railway system of the United States, that their great industrial development, were due to the billions of British capital which for the last eighty years have flowed, in rolling waves, towards the sh.o.r.es of the Republic, invading, in the most peaceful and friendly way, her large territory, and drawing from its immense resources the greatest immeasurable acc.u.mulation of wealth ever created by the labour of man? I am not aware that any American writer ever ran the risk of being crushed by ridicule in accusing all the United States borrowers in the English market, governmental and others, of the hideous crime of selling their country to Great Britain. It would have been sheer madness to say so in the broad light of the marvellous economical progress of our neighbours. They knew very well that the billions of dollars invested by the British saving public for the development of their territorial riches, were producing returns much larger than the rate of interest paid to their British creditors.

No one in the United States ever apprehended, for a single moment, that because the Republic had borrowed enormous sums from Great Britain, she was likely to lose her State independence through the financial influence of the holders of her securities of all sorts.

Such "Nationalist" notions, as above exposed and contradicted, can only create very wrong and deplorable conclusions in the public mind, were they allowed to follow their course without challenge and without the refutation proving their complete absurdity.

CHAPTER XVI.

"NATIONALIST" VIEWS CONDENSED.

After refuting at length the "Nationalist" theories, I thought proper to condense them in a concrete proposition, and challenge their propagandist to call a public meeting in any city, town, or locality, in the Dominion,--Montreal for instance--and to find a dozen of citizens of standing in the community, to consent to move and second a "_Resolution_" embodying their doctrines.

This condensed proposition, I translate as follows:--

"Whereas England has unjustly declared war against Germany;

"Whereas Great Britain has done nothing to maintain the peace of the world;

"Considering that His Majesty King George V. _had not the right to declare the state of war for Canada without the a.s.sent of the Canadian Cabinet_;

"Considering that Canada, as an autonomous colony, _is a Sovereign State_;

"Considering that British Sovereignty over Canada _is only a fiction_;

"Considering that Canada, interfering in the present war, _should have done so as a Nation_;

"Whereas Canada should only have fought on her own account, like _Belgium, Servia, Italy or Bulgaria_.

"Whereas _the maintenance of a compact British Empire is the most permanent provocation against the peace of the world_;

"Considering that the supremacy of England on the seas is unjust;

"Considering that Great Britain's aspiration, for a long time past, has been universal domination by means of her military naval power;

"Whereas England is unfair against France in using her as a shield against German invasion;

"Considering that England is exercising by all possible means a strong pressure upon the Colonies for her only benefit;

"Considering _that all the social leaders have united to demoralize the conscience of the people, to poison their mind, to set their vigilance at sleep, and to represent to them as a national duty what would formerly have been considered as a betrayal of national interests_;

"Considering _that England is trying to crush Germany, being afraid of her colonial expansion and her maritime and commercial compet.i.tion_;

"Whereas our compatriots of the British races have many faults; _that they are ignorant, a.s.suming, arrogant, overbearing and rotten with mercantilism_;

"Considering that they have acquired _many of the worst vices of the Yankees_;

"Considering that Canada should never partic.i.p.ate, outside of her own territory, in the wars of the British Empire;

"Considering that the Canadian Cabinet and Parliament are criminally guilty of having ordered the organization of a Canadian army to go and fight against Germany on the French territory, and in authorizing the payment of the cost of this military expedition;

"Be it "Resolved", that this meeting energetically protest against the declaration of war against Germany by His Majesty King George V, _without the a.s.sent of the Canadian Cabinet_, to defend Belgium's territory invaded by Germany violating solemn treaties;

"That this meeting is of opinion that, for the purpose of favouring the restoration of peace as soon as possible, England should notify all the Powers that she abdicates for ever her supremacy on the seas, which supremacy Germany could hereafter safely exercise;

"That this meeting being absolutely convinced that _the maintenance of a compact British Empire is the most permanent provocation against the peace of the world_, is strongly of opinion that Great Britain should, in order to quiet the fears of the Nations friendly to peace and opposed to militarism, like pacifist Germany, dissolve her Empire, at once acknowledging the immediate independence of India and of all her autonomous Colonies;

"That this meeting's formal opinion is that the Canadian Parliament's imperious duty is to order without delay the dissolution of the British bond of connection, _which would be a public benefit_, and to proclaim the immediate independence of Canada;

"That a copy of the present "Resolution" be addressed to His Excellency the Governor General, to the Members of the Federal Cabinet, to the Senators and to the Members of the House of Commons."

The italics in the above draft "Resolution" and "Preamble" are quoted from Mr. Boura.s.sa's writings.

The "Preamble" and "Resolution" emphasize, in their true and complete meaning, the "Nationalist" doctrines perseveringly propounded for years past to poison French Canadian mentally. That such teachings can only produce disloyal feelings, stir up national prejudices and hatred of the Mother Country, and be most detrimental to the best interests of the Province of Quebec, of the Dominion of Canada, and of the British Empire as a whole, every one must admit with sadness.

My challenge, which is still maintained, has not been taken up yet. All may rest a.s.sured that it will never be. The most ardent "Nationalist"

knows that no responsible citizens would move the adoption of such views.

CHAPTER XVII.

LOYAL PRINCIPLES PROPOUNDED.

To the foregoing "Nationalist" proposition, I opposed one condensing, in a concrete form, the views and principles of the truly loyal Canadian citizens. I also translate it as follows:--

"Whereas, since 1870, the German Empire had been a permanent menace against the peace of the world by her threatening military policy;

"Whereas England, throughout the same period, and more especially during the twenty years previous to 1914, had done her utmost efforts to maintain peace;

"Considering that Great Britain had, in many ways, solicited Germany to agree to the limitation of armaments, especially of the building of war vessels;

"Considering that she had persisted in her attempts with the German Government to save the nations from the ruinous system of excessive armaments, in spite of the latter's refusal to accede to her demands;

"Considering that though in honor bound, like England, by three solemn treaties, to respect Belgium's neutrality, the German Government have, in August 1914, ordered their army to violate Belgian territory in order to more easily invade France to which they had declared war;

"Whereas Great Britain, in honour bound, could not permit the crushing of Belgium by the German Empire;

"Considering, moreover, that Germany, after mutilating and destroying Belgium, by the deprivation of her independence, after triumphing over France which she would have once again dismembered, would have undertaken to beat England to deprive her of sea supremacy, in order to obtain, by this last conquest, her domination over Europe and almost all the world;

"Considering that the defeat of England might very likely have resulted in the cession of Canada to Germany;