We hope that Sir 'Wilfrid Laurier may be invited, if
it seems good to the Canadian Government, to sanction the naval programme before it is published ; for naval policy should be a non-party question, and the appearance of excluding the Opposition might tend to shape and harden unnecessary and petulant criticism. At Ottawa on Tuesday Sir Wilfrid Laurier himself made a speech on the British Navy and Anglo-Germaii relations which, according to the Toronto correspondent of the Times, has excited much discussion in Canada. If Germany wanted only a place in the sun, he said, there was nothing to fear, for there was place enough in the sun for all. (But is there P We only wish we could find pleasant places for Germany where the population would readily consent to be taken over.) " The German peril," he added, " does.not exist.". He deprecated the mad race of armaments, and thanked God that Canada was so far exempt from it. He also deprecated the idea of organic Imperial union; the problems of the different nations of the Empire were too diverse. He preferred autonomy.
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