Conscription Complications in Canada
The final issue of the debate, partly public partly secret, on con- scription in the Canadian House of Commons has not been revealed as we write, but it seems probable that Mr. Mackenzie King will secure his vote of confidence by a sufficient majority. The Govern- ment has executed some remarkable manoeuvres.. After letting the Defence Minister, Colonel Ralston, resign because he regarded conscription for overseas service as essential, and putting General- MacNaughton in his place to secure the required drafts for overseas without compulsion, Mr. Mackenzie King suddenly announced a week ago that, unless the necessary 16,00o men volunteered, enough home-service conscripts would be sent overseas to make up the required total. This middle course has lost him one member of his Cabinet who favoured conscription and another who opposed it, and his Government is exposed to fire from both sides. Under ordinary circumstances he would doubtless seek to solve such a problem by an appeal to the country, but that, as he points out, would not be any real solution of this question here and now—because it is precisely now that the reinforcements are wanted, and he is not willing to jeopardise the Canadian fighting front and the conduct of the war while a decision is being taken at the hustings. Hence his appeal for a vote of confidence. The strike —in other words, mutiny—which has occurred among the soldiers of certain units is a disturbing repercussion of the dispute, and shows the depth of the feeling on this issue existing more especially among French Canadians. But Mr. Mackenzie King has given a spirited explanation of the circumstances which have led him to seek a compromise, and stands to his decision. The last word rested with Parliament.
