THE CANADIAN NATION

The publication of the will of the Canadian gentleman who bequeathed a legcy to his politically unsympathetic brother on conditions that the later should once a year shout from his front porch the words, "Hurrah for Sir Wilfred Laurier and Reciprocity!", recalls the days of a decade ago when Champ Clark suggested that Reciprocity would be merely the first step in the annexation of Canada to the United States.

The contrast presents itself strikingly when a report arrives from Ottawa that Canada hopes to persuade the State Department at Washington to receive an official Canadian Ambassador, that diplomatic negotiations shall be maintained directly with the Canadian government rather than through the medium of Sir Auckland Geddes, and that Great Britain has not offered any opposition to this ambition of her colony, but has rather approved it.

Whether the United States government would lend its recognition to such a scheme, with its tacit invitation to Australia and the other British self-government colonies to do likewise is doubtful. But the situation is strongly indicative of a growing spirit of nationalism across the border. Like the other colonies Canada is becoming more and an independent political and economic unit.

The six British votes in the League council may be said to be not six votes for the British empire, but for six nations existing under the principles of self-determination, the English language and the English Law.