1932-02-05

Mr. SPEAKER:: I have the honour to
inform the house that during the recess I received communications from two members, notifying me that the following vacancy had occurred in the representation, viz:
Of John Francis Buckley, member for the electoral district of Athabaska, by decease.
I accordingly issued my warrant to the chief electoral officer to make out new writs of election for the said electoral district.



NEW MEMBERS

Pierre Édouard Blondin: I have the honour to inform the house that the clerk of the house has received from the chief electoral officer certificates of the election and return of the following members, viz:
41761-X
Of Charles Bourgeois, Esquire, for the electoral district of Three Rivers-St. Maurice.
Of Humphrey Mitchell, Esquire, for the electoral district of Hamilton East.



NEW MEMBERS INTRODUCED

[Stage Direction]
Charles Bourgeois, Esquire, member for the electoral district of Three Rivers-St. Maurice, introduced by Right Hon. R. B. Bennett and Hon. Mr. Guthrie.
Humphrey Mitchell, Esquire, member for the electoral district of Hamilton East, introduced by J. S. Woodsworth and A. A. Heaps.

[Stage Direction]
Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister) moved for leave to introduce Bill No. 1, respecting the administration of oaths of office.
Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

Pierre Édouard Blondin: I have the honour to
inform the house that when the house did attend His Excellency the Governor General this day in the Senate chamber, His Excellency was pleased to make a speech to both houses of parliament. To prevent mistakes I have obtained a copy which is as follows:
Honourable Members of the Senate:
Members of the House of Commons:
In addressing you for the first time, I desire to express my gratification at having been selected by His Majesty as his representative in the Dominion of Canada, and to acknowledge with profound thanks the reception which has been accorded to me by the people of this country. I accept it as a proof of their loyalty and devotion to the crown. I shall count it a happiness as well as a duty to associate myself with you in your labours for the welfare of Canada.
You enter upon your duties at a time of continuing and universal economic disturbance and distress. World conditions are beyond the control of the Canadian people. But I rejoice that their resolute adherence to policies designed for the welfare of the nation has minimized the adverse influence of external economic forces. This period of trial has shown the Canadian situation to be fundamentally

Governor General's Speech

sound. The oversubscription of the national service loan manifests both the unity and patriotism of the people, and their supreme confidence in the financial strength of the Dominion. Canada still maintains its high place in world commerce. Within the last few months, a favourable balance of trade has been established. The provisions made at the last session of parliament for unemployment and farm relief are proving effective.
You are successfully meeting difficult domestic problems. Conditions are gradually improving. But prosperity in full measure must await the satisfactory adjustment of accounts between debtor and creditor nations of the world and the restoration of international monetary standards, from which the acute financial difficulties have compelled a temporary departure.
Since the last session of parliament my ministers have commenced negotiations with the government of the United States of America for the completion of the St. Lawrence waterway.
A commission has been appointed to inquire into the whole problem of transportation in Canada. My ministers expect that the report of the commission will be ready for submission to parliament during the present session.
My ministers have under consideration a commercial treaty with the Dominion of New Zealand.
A Canadian delegation is participating in the disarmament conference, which -was opened at Geneva on the 2nd of February. I join with you in the prayer that the representatives of the nations there assembled may reach an understanding which will put beyond peril the cause of enduring world peace.
On the invitation of my government, an economic conference of members of the British commonwealth of nations will meet in Ottawa on July 18th next.
The Geneva Narcotics Convention of 1931, the Red Cross. Prisoners of War and other conventions, will be submitted for your approval.
Among the other measures to which your attention will be invited will be a bill relating to insurance and bills relating to patents and trade marks.
Yrou will also be asked to consider bills to amend the Canada Shipping Act and the Fisheries Act.
Members of the House of Commons:
The public accounts for the last fiscal year and the estimates for the coming year will be submitted at an early date. The estimates will conform to my ministers' determination to maintain a policy of rigid economy, consistent with the discharge of those statutory and contractual obligations, which is essential to the preservation of the integrity and credit of the Dominion.
Honourable Members of the Senate:
Members of the House of Commons:
I sincerely congratulate you on the fortitude and patience with which the people of Canada have borne the hardships of this period of depression and maintained their usual high regard for law and order. A sense of unity more abundantly prevails. The spirit of sympathetic cooperation has been strengthened. The Canadian people have united in the fight against adversity. Prosperity is their just 
reward. I know it will be your privilege, by the unselfish and zealous discharge of your duties to hasten its return. May Divine Providence bless and guide you in your deliberations.
Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT ' (Prime Minister) moved:
That the speech of His Excellency the Governor General to both houses of parliament be taken into consideration on Monday next.


[Stage Direction]
Motion agreed to.

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister) moved:: That a special committee be appointed to prepare and report, with all convenient speed, lists of members to compose the select standing committees of this house under standing order 03, said committee to be composed of Messrs. Rhodes, Duranleau, Simpson (Algoma West), Stewart (Edmonton West), and Casgrain.


[Stage Direction]
Motion agreed to.

[Stage Direction]
Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister) presented the following message from His Excellency the Governor General:
The Governor General transmits to the House of Commons a certified copy of an approved minute of council, appointing the Honourable E. N. Rhodes, Minister of Finance; the Honourable D. M. Sutherland, Minister of National Defence; the Honourable Alfred Duranleau, Minister of Marine and the Honourable T. G. Murphy. Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, to act writh the Speaker of the House of Commons as commissioners for the purposes and under the provisions of chapter 145 of the revised statutes of Canada, 1927, intituled "An Act respecting the House of Commons."

Pierre Édouard Blondin: I have the honour to
inform the house that the Sergeant-at-Arms, with my approval, has appointed Lieutenant J. L. Williams to be his deputy during the present session of parliament.



ADJOURNMENT-BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

[Stage Direction]
Mr. BENNETT moved the adjournment of the house.
Mr. MACKENZIE KING:: Majr I ask my right hon. friend if it is the intention to adjourn until to-morrow?


Richard Bedford Bennett: Yes.


William Lyon Mackenzie King: I assume that to-morrow will be devoted to further preliminaries, and that the debate on the address will be proceeded with on Monday?

Tributes to Deceased Mcmoers


Richard Bedford Bennett: Yes, Mr. Speaker, the
right hon. gentleman is correct. Personally I share the view that it would be always wise to proceed at once with the debate on the address, but that view is not entertained in all quarters; therefore we wall follow the usual custom of meeting to-morrow and disposing of some preliminary business that might well engage the attention of the house, especially business with respect to those members who are no more. On Monday the debate on the address will take place.


William Lyon Mackenzie King: May I ask if,
since last session, there has been any further correspondence between Ottawa and Washington with respect to the St. Lawrence waterway which might be tabled before the debate takes place?


Richard Bedford Bennett: I think there is no correspondence except an intimation that on a given day the Canadian minister would be at a given place. There is no correspondence touching the merits of arrangements or negotiations for a treaty between the United States and Canada; up to the present time there has been nothing but purely verbal discussions.


William Lyon Mackenzie King: Has any order in council been passed since last session pertaining to the St. Lawrence waterway?


Richard Bedford Bennett: So far as I know, Mr. Speaker, no orders in council have been passed since last session. But I will make that perfectly certain, and if there are any I will send copies to the right hon. gentleman.
Motion agreed to and the house adjourned at 4.10 p.m.
Friday, February 5, 1932



INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY


Hon. C. H. CAHAN (Secretary of State):: I desire to lay on the table a copy of the international convention for the protection of industrial property, which was signed on behalf of Canada on November 6, 1925, and ratification of which was authorized by the Canadian government by order in council and deposited on May 1, 1928. As nearly as I can ascertain, this convention has not been <1761-1J
laid before parliament, and, as I wish to introduce a bill based upon it, I am laying it on the table now.



ILLEGAL WARFARE CLAIMS

Charles Hazlitt Cahan: I wish to lay on the table the interim report made by Errol M. McDougall, commissioner on reparations, upon daims made arising out of the ill treatment of prisoners of war. This report is rather voluminous. Many requests have been made for it, and I should therefore like to make the usual motion as to the printing of the report for distribution. By leave of the house I move:
That six hundred copies of the interim report to His Excellency the Governor General in Council, dated January 13, 1932, made by Errol M. McDougall. Esquire, a commissioner appointed to investigate and report upon illegal warfare claims and reparations payable in respect thereof, laid on the table of the house this day, be printed forthwith, and that standing order 64 in relation thereto be suspended.


Mr. MACKENZIE (Vancouver):: Will this report be available for discussion?


Charles Hazlitt Cahan: I am laying it on the table
to-day and am now moving to have it printed at the earliest possible date.


[Stage Direction]
Motion agreed to.

[Stage Direction]
Hon. ALFRED DI'RANLEAU (Minister of Marine): Mr. Speaker, as it is required that a statement of the amounts paid by way of fishing bounties be laid on the table of the house, I desire to point out that such payments are mentioned at page 32 of the report of the Department of Fisheries which has been tabled this afternoon.


Richard Bedford Bennett: Mr. Speaker, I should assume that
when we left here in August last it was the sincere hope of every member of the house that upon reconvening our ranks would not be depleted by the hand of death. Unfortunately it is my sad duty to record the fact that two of our number have passed to the great beyond. I offer to my right hon. friend (Mr. Mackenzie King) and his associates my very sincere sympathy in the loss they have sustained, a loss which is common to the house as a whole. In the passing of the two members to whom I have referred we have lost

Tributes to Deceased Members
warm-hearted, genial companions, men who served their party loyally but whose relations were most friendly with every member of this house.
The first to meet his death was the hon. member for Athabaska (Mr. Buckley), who had attained the age of forty years only the day before his death. Although born in the neighbouring republic he was a citizen of Great Britain and came to this country while still a young man. After serving with great distinction in the war he attended one of the Inns of Court in London and as his vocation in life adopted the profession of law. Settling in northern Alberta he gained for himself a very creditable reputation not only in his immediate community but throughout that large district, and was elected to this house by a substantial majority.	.
With the improved conditions for transport there is also an enhanced risk; while motoring on the day succeeding his birthday he met with sudden death. The very large number of people who attended his funeral-the largest known in that section of the country- attest to the high regard in which he was held by the people in the community he served. We have lost one of our number who gave promise of being not only a very worthy citizen in every respect but one who, I doubt not from what I knew of him, would have attained a high place in the councils of his party. I am sure the sympathy of this house is extended to his bereaved widow, who had become his wife only within the year, and to all those who were dear to him through family ties.
The second one of our number to cross the river, the late Mr. Robitaille, represented a riding in the great island of Montreal. He too followed the law as his profession, and although he took no great part in the debates and business of this house he had those qualities which so endeared him to the community in which he lived that time after time he was elected not by majorities of a few hundred but by majorities of many thousands. I am told by those who are well able to express opinions that his position in the profession was one of singular importance because he acted not only for municipalities but as a wise and loyal friend for all those requiring the services and advice of a sound counsellor. We recall him as he sat in his seat, but he will be with us no more. He left behind him a large family, and it will be a matter of satisfaction to them, as it is to us, to know that occupying a place of great importance and having been elected several 
times by the people of his constituency he was held in such high esteem not only by them but by hon. members in this house of all shades of political opinion. Mr. Speaker, we desire to convey our expressions of sympathy and regret not only to those who will miss him most in this house but also to the immediate families directly concerned and to that wider circle of friends who will feel a deep sense of loss in his passing.
Alas, as I said in my opening words, we had hoped that in the short time we have been separated we might meet with no breaks in our ranks. Such is not the case; we are constantly reminded that death is ever about us and that the span of life, although it is becoming longer through the learning and teachings of science, is always uncertain.


William Lyon Mackenzie King: Mr. Speaker, I
thank the Prime Minister (Mr. Bennett) very warmly for having expressed to those of us on this side of the house who have lost two of our colleagues the sympathy of himself and his party. I thank him even more for the touching tributes which he has paid to the memory of our date friends, who were also friends of many in his own party.
Some lives there are which are lived so quietly, so unobtrusively, that it is not until they are taken from us that we begin to realize how considerable was the place they held in the communities from whence they came, and just what their presence meant to those who shared their accustomed environments. Such was the case with the lives of Mr. Buckley and Mr. Robitaille, each of which was brought to a close with such tragic suddenness.
Mr. Buckley was one of the youngest members of this house, having entered, as the Prime Minister has just said, at the beginning of this parliament. Having just completed his fortieth year, he was among the number of those who have still much of youth on their side. It is an evidence of the hazards and chances of life that, having been among the first to enlist in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and having served with his regiment throughout the war, Mr. Buckley should have survived the perils and vicissitudes of the great war, to meet instantaneous death within a short distance of his own home and in the constituency which some eighteen months before had honoured him with its representation in this parliament. The tragedy of his death is further emphasized by the fact, also mentioned by my right hon. friend, that his marriage had taken place only last year.

Tributes to Deceased Members
Mr. Buckley had everything before him; he had pioneered in the land of his adoption, he had risked his life in the service of his country overseas, he had obtained an enviable place in his profession, he had won for himself a seat in parliament, and had gained the happiness of a home. Though he was but a short time a member of parliament, he gave such evidence in this house of manly character and of ability that the promise of future prominence in his profession and in public life was self evident. By his death his province, this parliament, and our country have suffered loss. It is difficult indeed to understand the decrees of fate in circumstances of the kind. We can only hope and believe that somehow, somewhere:
-that force,
Surely, has not been left vain!
That:
Somewhere, surely, afar,
In the sounding labour-house vast of being, is practised that strength, Zealous, beneficent, firm!
Mr. Robitaille was a member of the same profession as Mr. Buckley. He was, however, considerably his senior in years, he had been for a much longer time a member of the bar, and was a much older member of parliament, having been in this house during the last ten years. To many of us he was a very close personal friend and we shall miss him greatly, particularly because of the quality which has been referred to by the Prime Minister, the quality of loyalty to those whom he supported in the house and to the principles and convictions which he held as a public man and which he espoused so ably. His death too was tragically sudden. Only two days before, he had been at his office, apparently in good health; he passed away almost without warning in the midst of his family circle, leaving to mourn his loss a wife and eleven children.
As has been said, Mr. Robitaille did not take an active part in debate, but he was very faithful in his attendance upon the duties of parliament, and in watching and serving the interests of the large constituency which he represented. The fact that representing, as he did, one of the most populous and important constituencies, namely that of Maisonneuve, he was returned to this parliament by very large majorities on all occasions shows the confidence and affection in which he was held by those who knew him best. All of us in this house will I am sure, as the Prime Minister has said, -cherish his memory irrespective of party. We can truly say that he has honoured the name of the province from which he came, and the race which in so many
ways has contributed so much of what is best to the public life of this dominion.
I join very warmly, Mr. Speaker, with the Prime Minister in expressing the hope that through you will be -conveyed to those who in their homes have been so greatly bereaved, the sympathy of the entire house.


Mr. ROBERT GARDINER (Acadia):: Mr. Speaker, may I be permitted on behalf of those who sit in this -corner of the house to join with the Prime Minister (Mr. Bennett) and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Mackenzie King) in conveying our sympathy to the families of the two members who have -left us since the house last .met.
I bad known Mr. Robitaille ever since I became a member of the house. It is true that he was of a very quiet disposition, but I am sure all of us who had -come in contact with -him -for any length of time were very mu-ch distressed to hear of his sudden death.
With regard to Mr. Buckley, we in the province of Alberta felt a great affection for him because of the fact that he was one of us. Probably I was the last member of t-his house to see him, having had the privilege on the sixteenth day of November of meeting him in his home town and congratulating him on his fortieth birthday. I had made arrangements to see him a couple of days later, -and when further east of the town of St. Paul I was ad-vised by telephone of -his death I can assure you, sir, that I was very much shocked by the tragic news. Mr. Buckley was in the best of health when I saw him and was looking forward to meeting the members at this session. During the succeeding days I had the privilege of meeting many of his constituents, and they assure me that they felt they had lost not only a good friend but a man who would have gone far in his profession and in public life had he been spared.
When, Mr. Speaker, you -convey the sentiments of this house -to the bereaved families, will you please include the members in this corner as sharing in the general regret at the passing of our two old friends.



MINISTERIAL CHANGES


Richard Bedford Bennett: Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to
inform the house that owing to the ill health of the Minister of Labour (Senator Robertson) I have been compelled to advise His Excellency to accept his resignation. The Hon. Wesley A. Gordon has relinquished the portfolio of immigration and colonization to
Ministerial Changes

become Minister of Labour. He will continue to discharge the duties of Minister of Immigration and Colonization, and of Minister of Mines. It is a question whether those departments should not be merged, and it is one to which the government has given some consideration and attention.
I should like to bear tribute to the service rendered to this country by Senator Robertson. A man of great breadth of view, fair-minded, with a warm appreciation and understanding of the conditions of others, and interested in the welfare of humanity to a singular degree, it may be truthfully said, that he actually wore himself out in the service of his country. If ever there was a casualty in the conflict against economic conditions you may speak of him as a casualty, for he has been stricken by ill health through the services he has rendered to Canada.
The Department of Fisheries will be administered by the Minister of Marine (Mr. Duranleau), the department to which it was once attached, the former minister (Mr. Rhodes) having relinquished the portfolio to become Minister of Finance-a position which I have relinquished, much, I am sure, to the sorrow of my right hon. friend.
It also gives me very great pleasure to advise this house that Right Hon. Arthur Meighen, a member of 'the Senate, has been sworn as a member of the administration without portfolio.


William Lyon Mackenzie King: 
Richard Bedford Bennett: It will mean two or three fewer senators at an early date.


William Lyon Mackenzie King: We will hope that is not the only effect it will have. Up to the present I had thought that as far as the political citadel of the Conservative party was concerned there was not room there for more than one big gun. However, we will wait and see.
Apart from this pleasantry, which my right hon. friend has not found it possible to take in that spirit, I do say that I believe the country even more than the right hon. gentleman will be relieved by the fact that he has surrendered one of the many portfolios which he has held and that the country will welcome at this time particularly whatever evidences he may find it possible to give of a strengthening of his ministry.


Robert Gardiner: Charges by Hon. G. N. Gordon
before him. That is our wish regarding the present Minister of Finance. May I also take this opportunity to congratulate my good friend who has held the portfolio of Immigration and Colonization (Mr. Gordon) upon his appointment to the portfolio of Labour. I had some experience with the hon. gentleman last summer and I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, that there is not a member of this house who stands higher in my esteem than does the hon. gentleman who has just been appointed to the office of Minister of Labour. May I again congratulate both hon. gentlemen, repeating that I have no advice to offer the Prime Minister.



ADJOURNMENT-BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

[Stage Direction]
Mr. BENNETT moved the adjournment of the house.
He said: I may say that there are no orders in council with respect to the St. Lawrence waterway. I made perfectly certain that this was so; there has been nothing in the way of orders in council since last session.
Motion agreed to and the house adjourned at 3.50 p.m.
Monday, February 8, 1932