Dastardly? Cowardly?

In World War II Canada has conscripted 15,000 men for home service, has sent 175,000 volunteers abroad. Last week Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King called for a national plebiscite on conscription for overseas service.

Ever since World War I, when the French Canadians were embittered by a draft act, conscription has been a political issue in Canada. As late as November 1941, Mackenzie King pledged no conscription. But since then the U.S. has gone to war, and opposition critics have been sledgehammering demands for Total War with "conscription" as their battle cry.

By asking a vote to "release" his Government of "past commitments," the wily Prime Minister sidestepped his critics in Ontario and his promises in Quebec.

Screamed Mackenzie King's best-hated enemy, Ontario's "Mitch" Hepburn: "I think this is one of the most dastardly, contemptible and cowardly things ever perpetrated."

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