"Very, Very Nazi"

Canada had a belated twinge of conscience last week and Parliament heard all about it.

A bill to give the vote to Canadian soldiers overseas had gone through the House of Commons with a roar of unanimous approval. Everyone was pleased. But concealed in the bill's legal verbiage was an ugly clause. It would enable any provincial legislature to bar, for racial reasons, Canadians everywhere in Canada from voting.

The clause was intended to keep Canada's Japanese from voting, had the support of color-touchy members from British Columbia. There Japanese have long been barred from the polls. The effect of the new bill was to extend the British Columbia ban to all of Canada. Any legislature could as easily bar Canadians of German or Italian extraction from voting.

When the bill came before the Senate, the ban was whittled down to apply only to Japanese. Ten Senators (nine Liberals, one Tory) moved to strike out that offending clause. They battled stoutly but lost. For less important reasons, the Senate sent the bill back to the House. Canadian newspapers denounced the clause ("cowardly device," "very, very Nazi"). Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his Cabinet were on the spot. If they did not move to kill the offending clause, they would be denounced for limiting civil liberties. If they did, they would offend British Columbia voters.

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