Mr. Bennett's Conversion The remarkable speech made by the Canadian
Prime Minister, Mr. R. B. Bennett, in Montreal on Saturday evening, has aroused much less attention than might have been expected in the British Press. Only The Times, indeed, appears to have reported it. When the high priest of Conservatism can say no more for the capitalist system than that he thinks it should continue, but with its profit motive controlled, and confesses that his change of views is due to the influence, among others, of M. Litvinov and Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. John Strachey, who is an avowed Communist, it must be difficult for any party in Canada to know where it stands today or where it will stand tomorrow. Parliament has now resumed, and the Conservatives intend to push a radical social programme through before the impending dissolution. But obviously nothing like a united Conser- vative party can go to the polls in view of its leader's voile face, and though some Liberals may be detached from Mr. Mackenzie King under the allurement of the Prime Minister's new orientation, a Liberal victory still seems little less than certain, and the Conservatives may find themselves not merely in opposition but in disintegration.
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