TaÌˆgliche Omaha tribuÌˆne. [volume] (Omaha, Nebr.) 1912-1926, 1917-06-23
FRENCH CANADIAN OPINION ON ENGLAND'S WAR
L. CANADA".

Several Of ou Ministers at Ottawa declare themselves ready to dis
organize Canada to satisfy the medley jingoHtic element One talks Of
railways, the third Of going to the very last man. The prosperity Of
Canada signahzed by intensive production viii do more for the Allies
than to Pile up indefinitely the already considerable figure Of our army
or to throw into the conflict all our resources in a state Of panic,
"Ie DEVo1Rn.
In an article entitled @The Problem Of the Raee-Two Concepts Of
Patriotism, NJ Bouassa, in lie Devon. declares that there actually
exists between the Angocanadans and French-Canadians "a deep line
of cleavage. 1t is not to "demagogues" that one should turn for the
cause of this condition, but Of the fundamental differences OF viewpoint
of the two races. The development Of this difference Of point of view
could be traced through a century and a half Of history. Since the English
conquest there has been a divergence OF OPINION M 81 aspiration pc
tween the races. Was it reasonable n possible to expect that French
Canadians and APPROXIMATIONS could have common thought or common
effort when it was remembered that there resided simultaneously on
Canadian soil a compact Of nearly 100000 Canadian citizens of pure
French race and heterogeneous races Of nearly 100000 Engishspeaking
people-of whom a quarter was not Of British origin. The French
Canadians, it could not be too often repeated, were exclusively Canadians,
and had no other country but Canada. They recognized toward other
countries at all times and in ali places, those duties which are incumbent
alone on the citizens of those countries. Separated from France for $50
years, first BY the conquest and perhaps even more by the French Reyou-
ton, they had conserved toward their country of origin a sincere affection
than the French Of Europe would fee. themselves under an obligation to
were attacked by the United States or Japan.
Canadians, duty toward France, the latter felt the same Impotence which
would be felt in Brussels or Geneva if the French made the sane at
with regard to England, Freneh-canadians believed themselves bound
by all duties which resulted from the constitution. The agreement, half
a century old, arranged between the Imperial Government and the Cana
dian Government and the respective constitutions Of the two countries
international order-but BY nothing else. For half q century their leaders
in all fields Of thought had taught them that they had no other duty to
perform than to defend Canadian territory when it was attacked These.
same leaders had constantly repeated that England, sole mistress Of the
international policy Of the Empire, was alone under the obligation Of
wagng imperial wars AS long as this conception was accepted through
out the whole Of Canada, there was no limiting Of trouble between the
two races.
The great influx Of British immigration had, however, disturbed the
balance, and the Canadian nation had entered into the war divided both
within itself and upon sentiment with regard to Great Britain and her
Allies. The majority Of the leaders Of the FrencrCanadians had UNDER
taken the task of consolidating their compatriots in aid Of the cause Of
Britain and her Allies They had not succeeded and they could not sue.
coed because one could not change in a moment the mentality of a people
its temperament and its ideas, particularly when it was attempted TO
teach a doctrine radically opposed to that which had been preached as the
one true one during the last century and a half