LE CANADA ET L'EMPIRE BRITANNIQUE

Pour prouver l'opportunité de l'enquête que poursuit {'Action française depuis janvier, citons quelques paroles récemment prononcées par lord Northcliffe. Revenu d'un tour du monde, il fut l'objet à Londres le 10 mai d'un dîner offert par l'association des journaux de l'Empire. D'après le compte rendu de la Gazette de Montréal (11 mai 1922) lord Northcliffe : "warned Grcat Britain against alienating the affections of the Canadian people by neglecting the affairs of tins Dominion. It must be remembered, he said, that small différences causée! the séparation from Britain of lier American colonies at the time of the révolution.

Lord Northcliffe, touching briefly on the important points to which his attention had been drawn in his prolonged trip, devoted bis addn mainly to what he termed the most important question hc had encountered — that of "the great slur cast upon the people of Canada by the British embargo placed on their cattle."

Ai the présent moment, he said, there was no désire in Canada for severing connection with the Crown, but ho was glad ho did not join the présent Cabinet when lie was invitcd, if only because it could not be

318 l'action française

said that hc helped tne beginning of the end of the British Empire l>y losing the prairie provinces of Canada.

Lord Northcliffe said : "We arc not watching Canada closely enough, especially as to what is happening in the prairie provinces. One of the cleverest men I ever met, Lord Shaughnessy, said to me twenty ycars ago: "I wonder if I am right in thinking that the future of the Empire is largely wrapped up in what happens in Alberta and Saskatchewan ?"

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