5 MARCH 1932, Page 38

Current Literature

CANADA By Alexander Brady

' A NOTABLE addition to the "Modern World" series, edited by Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, is Canada, by Professor Brady of Toronto (Berm, I8s.). We know of no other recent book on the Dominion that is so comprehensive, so Well-informed and so 'judicious in its comments. The author regards Canada as a nation in the making and far advanced enough already to be quite distinct from the United States, despite the pressure of American influences through trade, the Press, the cinema and the wireless. He emphasizes the importance of the French Roman Catholics of Quebec in this nation-building. They, at any rate, want Canada to remain independent. And the differences between the two neighbour countries are manifest. Canada has somehow contrived to maintain respect for the law. "Since the Great War Canada has had in proportion to population about one murder to every five in the United States." Professor Brady expresses some concern lest excessive immigration from Eastern Europe may change the character of the population, hitherto mainly Anglo-Saxon and French. He describes clearly Canada's economic pro- gress, in agriculture, mining and manufactures, and notes the relatively slow development of trade unionism. In a closing chapter on Imperial relations he declares that "one policy is wholly without chance of acceptance in Canada to-day or in the near future—viz., 'Empire Free Trade.'" The Canadian Prime Minister has said as much, but advocates of that policy are notoriously blind to all the facts that tell against them.