A Good Piece

A British slang expression--which originated from a rider's sensation of breath less leveling off when his horse breaks from trot or canter into full gallop--is "flat out." Last week at last, Canada was flat out in her war effort.

National Defense Minister Colonel J. (for James) L. (for Lay ton) Ralston reported to the House of Commons in Ottawa on the senior Dominion's progress. Earnest in appearance, soft of voice, brisk of manner, like a hornet for energy (he has worked between 16 and 20 hours a day for the last month), J. L. Ralston is widely considered the ablest man in Canada's wartime Government and the one most likely to succeed Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. His report glowed.

Canada, he said, would soon have two full divisions (40,000 men) in action in Britain. For the time being that was all the extra man power the United Kingdom needed. The 3rd and 4th Divisions, already practically completed, would be trained and equipped in Canada. Last week there were already 133,500 in the Active Service Force, 20,000 in the Royal Canadian Air Force, 9,000 in the Royal Canadian Navy. Besides these all-purpose standing forces, another sketchily trained army of 300,000 would be assembled to stand at ease, ready for home defense. Beginning Oct. 1, bachelors between the ages of 21 and 45 would be called up in installments of 30,000 for 30-day periods of compulsory basic training.

In materiel, too, the Canada which had faced war last year with six destroyers, less than 300 military airplanes and an active militia of just over 4,000 men, had come a good piece. Minister of Munitions and Supply C. D. Howe told the House of Commons: "Canada's industrial tempo is at its highest peak in history." Airplane production, he said, was already at the rate of 1,300 a year and would reach 4,320 next year. Eleven types were already in production, and more on the drafting board. When plant equipment is completed, the country will produce 30 tanks a month. Also planned was a $10,000,000 naval artillery plant, the biggest and most up-to-date in the British Empire.

In last week's symphony of determination there were just two sour notes:

"Peremptorily Against." In order to clear the way for October's compulsory training, the Government prepared to register every person over 16 years of age. Registration begins this week. Last week a familiar trumpet of discord, Montreal's 51-year-old, 200-lb. Mayor Camillien Houde, came out against registration. Fiery, fancy French-Canadian Mayor Houde has no reverence for the Ottawa Government: in January 1939 he criticized the Federal Government's minuscule armament effort as "dangerous and leading to war. . . . What enemies have we?" He has no reverence for England: six months before the war, he warned that if England and Italy should ever fight, French-Canadians in Quebec might side with Italy. Nor has he any reverence for authority. When the King and Queen dined with him on their visit to Montreal, he got the conversation started by studying a list of conventions prepared for him, one of which was that he should not open the conversation. He has consistently opposed conscription, an issue which in 1917 split French and English Canadians wide open.

Said the mayor last week: "I declare myself peremptorily against national registration. It is unequivocally a measure of conscription. . . . Parliament according to my belief has no mandate to vote conscription. ... I ask the population not to conform, knowing full well what I am doing presently and to what I expose myself."

Late Monday night Houde found out. He was taken into custody and interned, presumably for the duration of the war. Too Much. Across the flat, silky wheatlands of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the great combines purred last week, cutting and threshing wheat. Every grain the machines gathered was a problem. Canada's wheat economy is built on an average annual production of 350,000,000 bushels, of which the greatest part was formerly shipped to Britain. Of that Britain marketed a large amount. Blitzkrieg and the fear of helping the enemy has knocked that market out. Last year Canada had a bumper crop of over 450,000,000 bushels, of which 275,000,000 is still in elevators, unsold. This year another heavy crop, probably 400,000,000 bushels, is at hand. Last week Britain bought 100,000,000 bushels. This was the largest purchase in wheat history, but it was very likely to be the last in some time. The Canadian Government bravely continued to purchase wheat from farmers at the pegged price of 70-c- a bushel, but everyone in Ottawa knew that though millions might starve in Europe next winter, Canada's worst problem, a problem of bitterest irony would be having too much wheat.

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