$100,000,000 Asked

The question that the Canadian Government was asked to decide last week was: Is Labrador worth $833 a square mile? The Government of Newfoundland thought it was, and Newfoundland sorely needs the money.

Newfoundland's serious money troubles started in May when Premier Sir Richard Anderson Squires darted from Montreal to New York and back to St. John's unable to sell a bond issue. The rumor started that Sir Richard was willing to sell about the only unmortgaged property of the Colony, the Territory of Labrador.

Labrador (see map) is a vast and draughty triangle nearly three times the size of Newfoundland. It contains many a lake. The eider duck and the hair seal are disappearing, but on the word of Medical Missionary Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, the country is infested with mice "of many varieties." A will-of-the-wisp to Labrador explorers and Labrador investors are the perennial stories of a great-unexploited gold field somewhere up the Hamilton River.

In July a fantastic note was introduced into the proceedings when a buxom mysterious lady known as Jeannette M. Lewis suddenly appeared in Montreal and announced that she was prepared to lend Newfoundland $109,000,000, presumably taking Labrador in security (TIME. Aug. 10). Miss Lewis disappeared and newspapers were about to dismiss the entire story when she reappeared in St. John's in September and made the same offer over again.

Last week came the first definite official statement on the Labrador question. Sir William Ford Coaker, minister without portfolio in the Squires Cabinet, admitted that the Territory of Labrador had been offered to the Dominion of Canada for $100,000,000 net, or $833 a square mile.

"The Canadian Government did not turn down the proposition," said Sir William sadly, "but was unable to deal with the matter while the financial depression in Canada continued. Of course Newfoundland would not dream of selling the sovereignty of Labrador to any country but Canada, but there would be no objection to leasing the territory for a 99-year term to any interests which would submit satisfactory guaranties."

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