The Canadian Cabinet's Troubles The resignation of Mr. H. H.
Stevenafrom the Canadian Cabinet is another nail in the coffin of Mr. Bennett's Government, not so much because-of the personal loss involved—though Mr. Stevens is.a by no means negligible fighre—as by reason of the circumstances that made the resignation inevitable. Mr. Stevens, as Minister of Trade and COmmerce, was Chairman of a Royal Commission appointed to consider various charges against " big busi- ness " in Canada. While still holding that position; and before the Commission had reported or finished taking evidence, he made a speech indicting business leaders on the basis of testimony given before the Commission. The speech, he protested, was only made in private to the conServative Study Society; but he had then to explain why the speech was subsequently elaborated into a pamphlet, and the pamphlet mimeographed not by a pri- vate firm, but by the official Bureau of Statistics. The language in which Mr. Bennett called his colleague to account was restrained, though he went so far as to speak of " statements at variance. with facts," but Mr. Stevens' resignation necessarily f011owed. The GOvernment has been seriously Weakened ; the Prime Minister has made , a colleague into an enemy ; and the pending General Election may be less distant than appeared.
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