MacNider to Canada

One day last week an army airplane piloted by Captain Ira C. Eaker carried Hanford MacNider, Iowa banker, onetime (1925-28) Assistant Secretary of War, from Washington to Ottawa, where he presented his credentials as U. S. Minister to tall, slender, white-whiskered Freeman Freeman-Thomas, Viscount Willingdon, Baron of Ration, Governor-General of Canada. Before he left Washington, Minister MacNider had been thoroughly coached by President Hoover on the major problems at issue between the U. S. and Canada.

The Canadian election which turned out Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and turned in Conservative Richard Bedford Bennett (TIME, Aug. 11) increased the difficulties of Minister MacNider. Mr. King had been inclined toward a friendly co-operation with the U.S. Prime Minister Bennett's election had been won on an implicitly anti-U. S. platform. MacNider problems:

Tariff. Last spring the King Government raised duties against the U. S. because of the Hawley-Smoot rates, but failed to up them enough to win the election. Prime Minister Bennett, pledged to smack on duties as high as the U. S. rates if not higher, awaits only the assembling of the new parliament this month to execute this promise. Minister MacNider was ready to protest for the U. S. but his protests were expected to be no more effective than those of Canada against the new U. S. tariff.

Waterways. President Hoover was most anxious to negotiate an agreement with Canada for joint development of the St. Lawrence as a seaway from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. The King Government was favorably inclined to such a project. Prime Minister Bennett was understood to oppose it on the theory that it would benefit the U. S. midwest at the expense of the Canadian northwest. Potent objections were also made by the province of Quebec which feared damage to its shipping at Montreal and Quebec, loss of hydroelectric power to the U. S.

Prohibition. Prime Minister Bennett during his campaign threatened to have repealed for economic reasons the new Canadian law forbidding the export of liquor to the U. S. Should Minister MacNider fail to avert such repeal, the whole Prohibition smuggling question would come up afresh between the two countries.

Pulp. Of particular concern to the U. S. is Canada's control of the newsprint paper supply. Minister MacNider will have to work against the Provincial movement to raise the price of this commodity.

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