Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-03-03
WNU Service, Union Trust Building,
Washington, D. C.

One of the most beautiful build
ings in Washington is the Pan-Amer-
lean Union with palm-and-parakeet-
ed patio, its great lily pond with an
ancient Inca idol idly dreaming be-
side its waters.
But there is one valuable object
dart in the cellar, swathed in pro-
tecting burlap and excelsior which
is not displayed. 1t is chair which
matches suite of 81 others which
stand around a great table in the
hall of the Americas, each of which
bears the seal of a Latin-American
republic.
The chair in the cellar has the
genial beaver, Canada's national pet,
carved upon it.
The news is that that chair is
threatening to burst out of its cere-
ments and walk on its four legs up
the cellar steps to its place at the
table.
Two men, more than any others,
are responsible for the restlessness
of this piece of furniture. One is
tall, gray, dynamic Leighton McCar-
thy, Canadian ambassador to the
United States. The other is Prime
Minister Mackenzie King.
There probably never has been a
time in history when the United
States and Great Britain have been
closer in thought and action, despite
their multifold points of difference in
peace time, than they are today.
But, paradoxically, it is some of the
points of difference that have
brought Canada nearer to the Unit
ed States than Our Lady of the
Shows has ever been before. The
United States very nearly occupies
the position of an interpreter between
the mother country and the domain
on some points, but the great bond
between the Yanks and the Canucks
is probably the simple, common
sense fact that we look upon Canada
as Rudyard Kipling (who once al
most became an American citizen)
wrote, (making Canada the speak
cry:
daughter am I in my mothers
house, but mistress in my own"
The 'Tentotiue'
That is why so many people in
Canada or the States were NOT
surprised when the government in
Ottawa and the Canadian press re-
jected politely but firmly what the
diplomats call a tentative" put
forth by Lord Halifax, British am
bassador to the United States week
or so ago.
That is why SO many people in the
United States and Canada who pom
der such matters WE'RE surprised
that Lord Halifax, undoubtedly with
the advice and consent of that fire.
quent visitor at the White House,
Winston Churchill, preached the sug-
gestion at all. (The fact that Mr..
Churchill said emphatically that
Lord Halifax was speaking for him.
self, not the British government,
merely proves-well, you know how
diplomacy works.)
Lord Halifax had said:
"But what is, I believe, both
desirable and necessary is that
in all the field of interests, COM
mon to every part of the Com
monwealth-in foreign policy, in
defense, in economic affairs, in
colonial questions and in COM
munications--we should leave
nothing undone to bring our peo-
pie into closer unity of thought
and action. 1t may be that we
shall find it desirable to main
tain and extend our present war
time procedure of planning and
consultation, which itself adapt
ed and extended the methods we
practiced in time of peace. The
question admits of no easy an
SWer.'
Now let me say at this point, if
there are any Fenians or their de-
scendants in my audience, who think
l am stirring up anti-British feeling
or echoing the anglophobia of the
Colonel McCosmics, let them take
no comfort from me. 1 am report
ing the attitude of lot of good and
loyal subjects of his Brittanic
Majesty whose sons are dying for
king and country.
AS the years passed, Mother Eng
land voluntarily loosed the apron
strings that bound her far-fung fam
lily to her. Willingly she bowed to
Kipling's verdict and accepted the
statute of Westminster, giving the
dominions their autonomy. Now she
wonders about that union which is