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;
"Considering that the world at large is greatly interested in the
maintenance of England and France as first class Powers on account of
their services in favour of Human Civilization and Liberty;
"Considering that the German armies have accompanied their military
operations with untold barbarous acts, by the murder of priests, of
peaceful citizens, of wounded soldiers, of religious women, of mothers,
of previously criminally outraged young girls, of old men, of young
children, with the destruction by fire and otherwise of Cathedrals,
Churches,--monuments of the Christian Art,--of libraries--sanctuaries of
Science--of historical monuments, the legitimate glory and pride of
Human Genius;
"Whereas the German Government is guilty of the murder of thousands of
persons, men, women and children, by the sinking of merchant
vessels--the Lusitania, for instance--by its submarine ships, without
giving the notices required by International Law;
"Whereas from the very beginning of the war, the Allied Nations,
England, France and Russia, have jointly agreed, in honour bound, to
require, as the essential peace condition, the cessation by all the
belligerent Powers of the crushing and ruinous militarism prevailing
before the opening of the hostilities, by the fault of Germany's
obstination to constantly strengthen her military organization both on
land and sea;
"Considering that England and her Allies are struggling for the most
venerable and sacred cause:--_outraged Justice_--; that, being a
British Colony, _Canada is justly engaged in the present cruel and
deplorable conflict, for the defence of the Right and the true Liberty
of Nations; that our Canadian soldiers are valiantly fighting with those
of England, France and Belgium for the great cause of sovereign
importance--the protection of the world threatened by Germanism_;
"Considering that England, to which the political life of Canada is
bound, and France, to which the French Canadians owe their national
existence, _have to fight for sacred interests in a war of endurance_
requiring the incessant renewal of all the energies of the most ardent
patriotism, the victims of which falling on the field of honour have
the merit of giving their lives _for Justice_";
"Considering that, though wishing the restoration of peace as soon as
possible, and earnestly praying Divine Providence to favour the world
with the blessings of peace, more and more urgently needed after this
assault of abominable barbarism against Christian Civilization lasting
for the last four years, the Allies are absolutely unable to terminate
the war by giving their consent to conditions which would not protect
Humanity against the direst consequences of the militarism fastened by
the German Empire on the Nations so anxious to bring it to an end;
"Be it "Resolved":--
"That this meeting approves of the free and patriotic decision of the
Federal Parliament to have Canada to participate in the so very Just War
which England, France, Belgium, the United States and Italy are fighting
against the German and Austrian Empires, allied in an effort to dominate
the world;
"That this meeting's strong opinion is that, on account of the terrible
crisis menacing the British Empire and Civilization, it was the bounden
duty of Canada to intervene in the war for the safety of the Mother
Country and her own, for the salvation of Liberty and _of the sacred
cause of outraged Justice_;
"That this meeting desires to express her admiration and profound
gratitude for the braves who enlist in the grand army which the
Canadian Parliament has ordered to be organized for the defence of the
cause of the Allies, which is also that of the civilized world;
"That this meeting also concur in the opinion that Canada is in duty
bound to continue to participate in the present war until the final
victory of the Allies, which will guarantee to the world a lasting peace
and put an end to German militarism which has been the direct cause of
so much dire misfortunes for Humanity."
The italics of the above draft "Resolution" are quoted from the writings
and speeches of leaders of French Canadian Roman Catholics.
There was no need of calling meetings to adopt the preceding
"Resolution" with its well defined preamble. It had been approved, in
all its bearings, at the outset of the hostilities by the unanimous
decision of the Canadian Parliament, by the almost unanimous consent of
public opinion, by the religious, social, commercial, industrial and
financial leaders of the country. It had been so approved by the four
hundred thousand brave Canadians who rallied to the Colours; by the
subscribers, by thousands, to the national war loans.
Since writing the above draft "Resolution", its full substance has been
almost unanimously approved by the Canadian people in general elections,
the two contending political parties entirely agreeing so far as the
Justice of the cause of the Allies was concerned, differing only as to
the best means for Canada to adopt to achieve final victory.
Without entering into any considerations respecting the divergence of
the views of the leaders of political thought, in the still recent
electoral campaign,--from which it is more advisable for me to abstain
in the interest of the cause I am defending--I may be allowed to remark
that only a small remnant of the "Nationalist" element dared to reaffirm
his hostility to Canada's intervention in the conflict and to avow his
opinion _that the country had done enough_.
What did those irreconcilable "Nationalists"--so few in numbers as the
event ultimately proved--mean by their assertion that _Canada had done
enough for the war_? According to its literal wording, it must have
signified that no more sacrifices should have been incurred for the
triumph of the Allied cause. If it was so, the conclusion to be drawn
from such sayings was that, to put an end to any further Canadian
contributions, orders should be given to bring back the Canadian Army
from Europe, and to send home all the forces still on Canadian soil. It
is plain that even if the new Canadian Parliament had decided not to
increase our contribution of man-power, in order to maintain the
efficiency of the Canadian divisions at the front, large sacrifices
would have had to be made to keep on the theatre of war the forces which
were still in the field.
To refuse to participate in the war would have been deserting the flag
at the hour of danger, and a total misconception of our plain duty.
Giving up the fight, once engaged in the struggle, before triumphant
victory, or irremediable defeat, in the very thick of the battle so
heroically carried on by the Allies, would have been sheer
cowardice--bolchevikism of the worst kind.
Whether they meant it or not, those few "Nationalists" dared not openly
propose the recall of our troops. The solitary "Nationalist" candidate
who had the nerve to face the electorate was defeated by a very large
majority.
No better proof of the weakness of the hold of the doctrines of
"Nationalism," on sound public opinion, is required than the decision of
its most outspoken advocate and leader, Mr. Bourassa, to refrain from
being a candidate in any constituency, and to advise all his supposed
friends to do likewise. No one was deceived, with regard to this
decision, by the reasons, or rather excuses, given to explain it.
Evidently, if the "Nationalist" group and their leader had been
confident of the support of the large number of electors whose opinion
they pretended to represent, they would certainly not have lost the
chance to show their strength, and the opportunity to elect many
candidates of their persuasion to enter Parliament free from any party
allegiance but that of their own element. But any one somewhat posted
with the currents of public opinion in the Province of Quebec, knew very
well that if pure "Nationalist" candidates had been nominated in all
the constituencies of the Province, running between the regular party
nominees,--ministerial and opposition--the average number of ballots
cast for them would scarcely have reached ten per cent. of the French
Canadian votes, less than two per cent. of the whole Canadian
electorate.
It was moreover highly probable that, had they tried the game, they
would not have even succeeded, in two-thirds of the constituencies, in
inducing citizens of sufficient standing to accept their nomination and
their political program. Once engaged in such a hopeless electoral
contest, they would have had either to humbly retire from the field, or
to await the doomed day by nominating men of no weight whatever. Both
alternatives would have led them to an equally disastrous defeat.
UNJUST "NATIONALIST" GRIEVANCES AGAINST ENGLAND.
At the end of the very first page of Mr. Bourassa's pamphlet,
entitled:--_What do we owe England_?--in French:--Que devons-nous a
l'Angleterre?,--The following lines are found:--(_Translation._)
British Imperialism, in its concrete and practical form, can be
defined in ten words: =the active participation by the Colonies
in the wars of England=. It is almost precisely the definition I
gave of it as early as the days of the African war. It is exact.
Considered from a larger point of view, from its profound causes
and far reaching consequences, British Imperialism calls for a
more ample definition. Its object is to have Great Britain
dominate the world by means of the organization and
concentration of all the Military Forces of the Empire--both Sea
and Land Forces--; it means the gradual annihilation, or at
least the enslaving of all the divers nationalities constituting
the British Empire, in order to bring about the World's
supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race, of her thoughts, of her
language, of her political conceptions, of her commerce and her
wealth. Its object is to crush all competitions, all internal
and external oppositions. It is the German Ideal; it is the
Roman Ideal. It is the Imperialism of all countries, at all
times, enlarged to the limits of the monstrous pretensions of
Pan-Anglo-Saxonism.
All the propositions of the above quotation do not bear, for one single
instant, the light of historical research, of reason, even of common
sense.
I challenge Mr. Bourassa, and any one else, to read the speeches and the
writings of all those who have studied the great question of the future
of the British Empire, and to detect therein one single word to justify
the assertion _that the organization and concentration of all the
Military Forces of the Empire have for their object to help England to
dominate the world_.
I have already abundantly proved that England never aspired to dominate
the world. I answered Mr. Bourassa's unfounded propositions as
follows:--
1--I will surely be allowed to say that for nearly the last fifty years,
I have done my best efforts to keep myself well informed with the
opinions expressed by the most authorized political men of the Mother
Country--of all parties--by the most renowned publicists, by the most
distinguished writers of the great English press. I have yet to read one
sentence leading me to suppose that the mind of any one of them was
haunted by the foolish hope of Great Britain's domination of the world.
Many of them have spoken and written to persuade their countrymen of the
growing urgency to consider the most effective measures to be adopted to
defend the Empire, in view of the efforts of other nations--notably
Germany--to strengthen their military organizations. No one advised them
to incur the most heavy sacrifices _in order to dominate the world_.
They had too much political sense to believe that such a ridiculous
scheme could ever be carried out.
2--What the "Nationalist" leader calls British Imperialism never had for
its objective _the gradual suppression, or at least the enslaving of the
divers nationalities constituting the British Empire_.
Such an assertion is nothing less than a stroke of the imagination which
recent history utterly refutes, proving, as it does, the very reverse,
as follows:--
A--The creation, by Imperial Charters, of the great autonomous federal
Canadian, Australian, South African Dominions.
B--The federal system adopted for the Dominion of Canada purposely for
the protection of the French Canadians whose special interests are
entrusted to the Legislature of the Province of Quebec.
C--The South African Union Charter is the guarantee of the Boers'
control of the future of that vast stretch of country, by means of the
two fundamental principles of the British constitutional
system:--government by the majority combined with ministerial
responsibility.
No Empire in the world grants as large a measure of freedom as the
British Empire does, to the various national groups living under the
protection of her flag.
3--British Imperialism, contrary to Mr. Bourassa's assertion, was never
deluded by the wild dream _of a world wide supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon
race, of her thoughts, of her language, of her political conceptions, of
her commerce and her wealth_.
Surely, I have yet to learn that Great Britain has dreamt, and is
dreaming, to impose _by Force_ her "mentality," her language, her
political institutions to China, to Japan, to Russia, to France, to all
the South American Republics, to Italy, to Spain, to Germany, to
Austria-Hungary, to Turkey, &c., which, considered as a whole,
represent, any one must admit, a pretty large part of the universe.
4--Mr. Bourassa's assertion that England aspires to dominate the world,
_economically_, _commercially_, is most positively contradicted by the
history of the last eighty years. Who does not know--and I cannot for a
moment suppose that Mr. Bourassa ignores it--that, nearly a century
ago, Great Britain, finally rallied in favour of a Free Trade Policy,
has opened her market free to the products of all the nations of the
world. Is that not a rather strange way of aspiring to an economical
domination! And whilst all the countries of the earth, the British
colonies as well as foreign nations, can freely sell their goods in the
British market, they protect their own markets by high customs
duties--in some cases almost prohibitive--against British goods.
National commercial statistics are opened to the "Nationalist" leader's
perusal as to any one else. If he had referred to them, he would have
learned that the Foreign Trade of Great Britain, in 1913, the year
preceding the outbreak of the war, amounted to $7,017,775,335; exports
were valued at $3,174,101,630; imports totalized $3,843,673,695,
exceeding the exports by the large amount of $669,572,065.
By looking at the figures, Mr. Bourassa would only have had to call upon
his common sense to draw the conclusion that England was certainly not
moving along an easy road to the commercial domination of the world by
maintaining a policy resulting in an import trade larger, by an annual
average of nearly twenty per cent., than her exportations.
Before the war, Germany, by rapid strides, had succeeded in attaining
the second rank amongst the great trading nations, coming next after
Great Britain. In the same year--1913--her Foreign Trade totalized
$5,351,500,000, divided as follows:--Imports $2,801,675,000; exports
$2,549,825,000.
The really wonderful industrial and commercial expansion of Germany,
during the last forty years previous to the war, offered another
opportunity to Mr. Bourassa to show his spite against Great Britain. He
would have been sorry not to make the best of it. Calling into play his
fertile imagination, he unhesitatingly charged England with deep rooted
jealousy of Germany's trade success and the guilty intent to crush it
out of existence.
To this absurd assertion--not using the word offensively, being always
determined to be courteous in any discussion I engage--I answered by
quoting the figures of the reciprocal relative external British and
German trade. In 1913, Great Britain sold to Germany goods to the amount
of $203,385,150, and bought German products for a total value of
$402,055,285. Great Britain's exports to Germany were then only about
fifty per cent of her imports from the same market. It is indeed
difficult to detect in such trade relations between two nations any sign
of the intent, on the part of the country buying from the other double
the value of her sales to her, to dominate her people commercially.
Any one knowing all the circumstances and the causes that imposed upon
Great Britain the duty of taking part in the European struggle, cannot
help being shocked at Mr. Bourassa's accusation _that England has
incidentally been brought into the conflict only through the frantic
desire of her business men to use it to crush the commercial competition
of Germany_. No serious men could have entertained such strange notions.
And the "Nationalist" leader certainly charged the political leaders and
the business community of England with sheer madness.
With all right minded men, the world over, I have long ago reached the
sound conclusion that universal economical domination is only a
chimerical idea absolutely outside of all possible realization. England
does not indulge in any such extravagant dream, being too well aware how
vain it would be.
May I ask my readers--and Mr. Bourassa has been one of them,--to join
with me in a short general review of the economical progress of the
world, in its broadest lines, rising, for this purpose, as should be
done in all cases, superior to all national and local prejudices. A
grand natural scenery is always better appreciated from the mountain
top. Equally so, questions of universal import must be considered from
the heights of the noblest principles inspiring the Christian desire to
promote the general good of Mankind. Considered from this elevated
standpoint, very short-sighted indeed is the man who fails to see THAT
THE ECONOMICAL PROGRESS OF THE WORLD, AGRICULTURALLY, INDUSTRIALLY,
COMMERCIALLY, IS BOUND UP WITH INTELLIGENT, ENERGETIC AND PERSEVERING
LABOUR; THAT IT IS THE OUTCOME OF THE IMPROVEMENTS OF ALL THE MEANS OF
PRODUCTION, TO THE CONSTANT INCREASED PERFECTION OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND
INDUSTRIAL ARTS, TO THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE RESOURCES OF CAPITAL,
ACCUMULATED BY JUDICIOUS SAVINGS. It is bound with the improvement of
means of transportation by land and sea; with the much enlarged
facilities of the exchange of all kinds of products; with the superior
management,--the result of a much wider experience--of all the
institutions distributing credit; with the energetic development of all
the resources which generous Providence has profusely provided the
earth for the good of Humanity. It is more than useless to expect
economical progress from disastrous armed conflicts which, in the course
of a few years, nay, only a few months, destroy the accumulated wealth
of many years of incessant labour.
War is productive of untold material losses. As a general rule, it
cannot make the nations of the world richer. Many successive generations
have for a long time to bear the crushing burden which they inherit from
guilty ambitious Rulers as the only result of their thirst of vain
glory. Materially, a nation may profit by an unjust war, resulting in
the defeat of a weaker rival, but the riches thus acquired by the one,
either by territorial acquisitions, or by the payment to her of war
contributions and indemnities, or both, from the other, are merely
transferred from the vanquished to the victor. The great society of
nations, instead of gaining anything by it, is only losing, as a whole,
the total amount of the financial cost of the military operations, of
the squandering of hard earned savings, of diminished labour and
production, of the waste of productive capital, of the loss of so many
long days which could have been so much better employed. But most
deplorable is the loss entailed by the warring nations, and the universe
at large, by the sacrifice of the younger generations, of early youth
and of strongly developed manhood, for the success of tyrannical and
criminal purposes.
There can be but one justification--and it is a noble, a glorious
one--of the sacrifice of so many valuable lives and so much material
wealth: the sacredness, the sanctity of the cause for which a nation, or
a group of peoples, take up arms against an enemy, or enemies, only
intent on crushing weaker rival, or rivals, by all the illegitimate
means at his, or their command, for self-aggrandizement, for unjust
domination. Such is the present war: sacred and just on the Allied side;
abominable, brutal, barbarous on the German side, enhanced in its guilt
by the ferocious Turks and the shameful submission of the enslaved
Austrians to the overpowering will of their teutonic masters. It will
not have cost too much if it has the result of freeing Mankind from the
horrors of German militarism, assuring to the world a long reign of
justice and moral grandeur.
England can rightly claim a very large part of the merit accruing to all
those who have contributed to the immense material progress of the world
during the last century. She has actively and most intelligently worked
for it by her vigorous industrial and commercial development, by the
very numerous billions of dollars she has contributed, all over the
world, to railway building and oceanic navigation. She has contributed
to it by her extraordinary amount of savings which allowed her to supply
the capital required for so many varied enterprises over all the
continents. She has played the very important part of universal banker,
distributing her immense treasures to foster production of all kinds
everywhere. She has most largely contributed to the economic phenomenon
of the gradual diminution of the universal rate of interest.
If, according to Mr. Bourassa's strange notion, all this is to be
considered as equivalent to economical domination, the more the whole
world will enjoy it the better, more prosperous it will be, and future
generations will have so much more cause for rejoicing at its increased
development, and to be grateful to England for it.
The witnesses who, for the last sixty years, have lived with their eyes
opened, preferring the full shining light of the bright days of
universal economical development to the darkness obscuring fanatical
minds only intent on stirring up local, sectional and national
prejudices, and miserable petty ambitions, have rejoiced at the greatly
varied advantages Humanity has derived from the gifts of Providence
favouring her with the great scientific discoveries which have worked,
are still, and will for all times, work wonders for her material
prosperity. The regular tendency of those natural forces recently
applied to production is an increased movement towards the unification
of the industrial, commercial and financial interests of the world. The
vital energies of all peoples have more or less been stimulated by the
same causes, operating everywhere, reaching until lately unknown and
undeveloped regions. Engineering genius, broadened by the new scientific
resources at its command, has triumphed over all difficulties. The
gigantic locomotive, drawing palatial passenger coaches, and sometimes
as much as a hundred heavily loaded freight cars, run by thousands and
thousands daily through luxurious prairies. They cross giant rivers,
ascend with alertness the highest mountains, or rush through tunnels
which the skill and hard work of man has pierced through them, backed by
the financial power of millions of money. Automobilism covers the whole
universe, multiplying intercourse and human relations, and making
possible, in a few days of marvellous organization, a glorious military
victory like that almost miraculously carried at the Marne.
Giant steamers, of fifty to sixty thousand tons--of a hundred thousand
in the near future--ply, day and night, over the high seas. In
mid-ocean they scatter human thoughts through the air to very distant
points. They carry within their large skulls immense quantities of the
most varied products.
Means of transportation have become so numerous, so improved, so rapid,
that the surplus agricultural production of the most fertile regions do
reach, in a few short days, the countries which, on account of their
numerous industrial and commercial population, have to import a large
quantity of food products. The equilibrium between production and
consumption becomes yearly more easily obtainable. Famine by the
inequality of agricultural production is very much less to be
apprehended. Millions of human beings are no longer, as hitherto,
threatened to die by starvation at the same time that more favoured
regions had a surplus of food products which they could not use, sell,
or export.
Without a most powerful capitalization of savings--totaling, in some
cases, billions of dollars--without the marvellous development of the
great transportation industry by land and sea, could the Canadian and
American western grain crops be delivered, within a few days' time, with
an astonishing rapidity and at very small cost, on all the markets where
they are absolutely required for daily consumption.
Every country on earth is multiplying her efforts to develop her
manufacturing interests by an active and intelligent use of the raw
materials with which her territory has been favoured by Nature.
To this intense economical development of the world, all the peoples are
contributing their shares in various proportions, of course:--In Europe,
Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy, Belgium, &c.; in
the two Americas, the United States, Canada--Canada with the sure
prospects of such a grand future--the Argentine Republic, Brazil, &c.;
in Asia, Japan, China, and the so very large Asiatic regions of Russia;
in Africa, the British colonies, Egypt, Algeria, &c.; and Australia, so
recently opened to the glories of Christian Civilization, blooming in
the Pacific ocean washing her shores, fertilizing her lands nearer to
its refreshing breeze.
Who does not see that all this development tends naturally to the
economical unity of the world. If Humanity is ever effectively delivered
from the dangers of wars like the one actually desolating her so
cruelly, she will have to be grateful for this great boon to the
unification, on a larger scale, of the general interests of all the
nations requiring permanent peace for their regular and harmonious
growth.
To the wonderful material prosperity achieved as above explained,
England has contributed her legitimate share, without trying to dominate
economically the universe which derived all the great advantages which
her business genius has so largely developed.
It must not be supposed that I lose sight of the inconveniences which
material prosperity may entail. One of them is the tendency to bend the
national aspirations to materialism. This can be counteracted by the
national will to apply material development to the more important
intellectual, moral and religious progress of the people at large.
Any nation aspiring to dominate the world by brute force or by the power
of wealth, would be guilty of attempting an achievement just as vain as
it would be criminal in its conception.
Any nation is within her undoubted right and duty in aspiring to the
legitimate influence of her material progress, of her intellectual
culture, of her moral development, of her religious increased
perfection. Happy indeed would be the future of Humanity if all the
Nations and their Rulers understood well, and did their best efforts to
practice Christian precepts in the true spirit of their Divine
teaching.