Evening star., 1939-10-26
Canada on Guard
To Bar Wartime
Flight Of Capital
Buying Of Stocks Abroad
Subject to Approval
Of Government
By LOUIS M. LYONS,


TORONTO. Ontario. Oct. 26 MA.
N.AD.-Canadas picket lines are in
visible, but vigiIant. The border is
patrolled, not by soldiers, but by
the police power Of the new Foreign
Exchange Commission. A tourist
cannot take more than 500 in cur
rency out of Canada without a GER
tificate of permission. A Canadian
cannot buy share of stock on the
New York stock market without
approval of the Dominion govern
ment. Canada is on guard against
any flight of capital or any draining
Of her gold.
Money is the chief coward of mod
ern war. Canada has armed herself
against financial deserters.
The first lines of defense in this
preliminary chapter of war are not
troops, but the baldish, middle-aged
professors of economics who have
stepped out of the universities into
the emergency war boards.
One OF them answers his tele-
phone while I sit by his desk. It is
an inquiry whether the ban on ex-
porting wool permits the shipment
OF a special tapestry wool to a
foreign order. My economist friend
never heard of tapestry wool. But
ne takes no more chances than a
picket with stranger who has lost
the password.
Send IN sample and explanation
OF the request" he said.
England Bought All Wool.
The wool emergency in Canada
Is boomerang from England,s
earlier and more drastic war mobil-
lzation. Canada imports from Aus
traha four-fifths of her wool con-
sumption. But England instantly
bought the whole Australian wool
crop. Now Canada, with her wool
stocks insufficient to equip the SOL
olers already enlisted, has had to
arrange with England for diversion
OF 100000 pounds of their reuuisi-
TONED wool. But Canada has bene-
f1ted by England's equally complete
control OF the sugar crop of the
British West Indies. Sugar hoard
ing mere was so general in the first
weeks OF war that government
action was necessary to get sugar
out into circulation. But Canada
has now arranged to share with
England the West Indian crop which
Aonoon bought with one blanket
order at the first shot of war.
Sugar will be cheaper in Canada
at war than in the United States at
peace" grins my economist friend.
1T is now"
The British are here now with
their war missions, to teach the
Canadians how to spend their
money IN a war. Ottawa sWarms
with titled emissaries and uniformed
1ords OF the several British war
services. They are talking big
money and big measures and the
Dominion dollar-a-year men listen
open-mouthed. The war measures
here had been little on the small
potatoes side. Some Canadians had
grumbled that they couldn't see any
signs OF getting geared up to war.
But the British talk of spending
S100OO0,0 900 as if it was cents"
Canadian official tells me.
Contracts Being Let.
Canada is catching on. Under the
strenuous direction of Wallace Camp
bell, president of the Ford Co. of
Canada, her war supply board is
getting out contracts now in a big
way. They have had the industry
OF the Dominion surveyed and they
know just where they can get war
orders and in what size.
Canada responds to the British
urge to spend freely with the eau
. ton Of the party who expects to
pay the bill. That is one difference
from last time. Then England
financed Canada's effort until near
the end of the war. This time Can
ada expects to finance her own and
part of England's efforts. England
expects Canada to finance England S
credit for her Canadian wheat
needs. OF course, that is the first
line of Canadian supply. Canada is
prepared to be the empires food bin
for war.
Canada fancies herself this time
IN a new role, as "the arsenal of the
empire" 1t is a familiar phrase.
It suggests that the Dominion is
the reserve of the British war effort.
Right now, it counts more for
morale than actuality. But, in a
long war, it will become actual.