Eight Against One

Blunt and true were the words of aged and revered Brigadier General George P. Vanier, commanding officer of the Fifth (Quebec) Military District.

"The irresponsible fanatics in this province who speak with contempt of the British achievements," warned Vanier, "are rendering a dreadful disservice to their compatriots. There is no surer way of drawing on the head of this province the hatred and violence of the other eight [English-speaking provinces]. Such men will bear a terrible responsibility if they succeed in loosing this flood which might engulf us."

Without Leadership. What Vanier realized was that French-Canadians, embittered over the conscription issue and distrustful of their national leaders, were being drawn into secret orders and nationalistic groups working for secession, inviting civil war. Dawdling Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King knew about them,* but did not act. The longer the Government dawdled, failing either to crack down on Fascist agitators or come to a showdown on conscription, the wider became the breach between English-and French-speaking Canadians.

Members in the House of Commons snarled at each other, sharpening their claws for the debate expected this week on striking out the clause in the National Resources Mobilization Act guaranteeing that conscripted soldiers will not be sent overseas.

It is not true that the great majority of French-Canadians are war slackers, or that they are afraid to fight. But it is true that, after being voted down more than 2-to-1 in a national "conscription" plebiscite (TIME, May 11), they are not yet prepared to bow to the will of the majority. In one hinterland village a mob stormed the jail to release two home-service army deserters; in another village a mob threatened, with pitchforks, soldiers seeking an R.C.A.F. deserter.

With Leadership. Fierce words were spouted by a provincial lawyer-legislator named Rene Chaloult, who made a bid for antidemocratic, nationalistic support by ridiculing the war effort of Russia, China and Britain. He called on French-Canadians "to seek points of contact" and hinted darkly: "There is always an after-war, and we shall know what we have to do. . . ."

* Or could find out about at least one--the underground, British-hating, Fascist-patterned Order of Jacques Cartier, claiming 12,000 members--by reading the liberal weekly newspaper, Le Jour.

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