No Compulsion

A crisis in the Canadian Government has been simmering for weeks. Last week it boiled over. Out as Defense Minister went bulky, ruddy James Layton Ralston.

The cause of the crisis was the question of Canadian Army reinforcements. Evidence had been piling up that reinforcements for Canada's overseas army were inadequate. In Calgary, Brigadier P. R. Shields, home after five years of fighting, said that when he left England "they were scraping the bottom of the pot." The Montreal Gazette frontpaged a letter from a soldier wounded on the Western Front: "... all the politicians lie who say that reinforcements are adequate. ..." From London came word that the First Canadian Army, already reinforced by Poles, Czechs, Dutch and Belgians, was being further reinforced by U.S. troops.

Wanted: A Change. To assay these reports, Defense Minister Ralston had toured the battlefronts. Now, at a series of secret, full-dress Cabinet meetings in Ottawa, he demanded a change in government policy. He insisted that the Dominion's 70,000-odd "Zombies" (soldiers drafted for home defense service only) should be sent overseas. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and a majority of the Cabinet listened for ten days, remained unconvinced. They felt sure that if they decided to change policy now, they would be opening the door to serious internal ruptures, perhaps even to bloody riots such as occurred in conscription-hating Quebec during World War I. But Mr. Ralston was adamant. At last Mr. King accepted Ralston's resignation, which had been in his hands, undated, for two years.

To the vacant post the Prime Minister appointed popular General Andrew George Latta McNaughton, who less than a year ago was relieved as commander of Canadian Army troops overseas by Minister Ralston himself. What the new Minister intended to do about reinforcing the Army he did not say. Some thought that he might declare Canada out of the Italian campaign, augment western forces with the troops from Italy. But it was sure that he would not use the zombies. In his first public statement after taking office he said: "I am firmly convinced that the best hope lies in the maintenance of our long traditions of voluntary service."

Averted: A General Election. Temporarily, canny Prime Minister King had avoided a serious threat to his Government and the necessity for an immediate general election. But the matter was not yet at an end. For one thing, he had not yet told the people the story behind Minister Ralston's resignation. Pressed by reporters for the facts, he grumped: "Everything speaks for itself." For another thing, he was now vulnerable to accusations that he was playing politics. By hewing to his no-compulsory-combat policy, he had thrown a hoop around Quebec, enhanced his chances of winning the important bloc of Quebec seats in the next election.

Across Canada, newspapers (with the exception of Quebec's French-language press) yelped and snarled at the Prime Minister. Cried the Montreal Standard: "Let the people know." Ottawa's Journal foresaw a "bad harvest of bitterness and recrimination and . . . party controversy. . . ." Even the Winnipeg Free Press, friendly to the King administration, was sharp in its rebuke: "The departure of one Minister of Defense and the appointment of another does not add one man to our striking force. The problem today ... is exactly what it was yesterday."

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