Canada: Advice to the U.K.

Malcolm MacDonald, 45-year-old son of Britain’s famed “Ramsay Mac,” lived for five years in Canada as the United Kingdom’s High Commissioner. In that time he learned more than most Britons know about Canada and the way Canadians feel. Last week in London, headed for a new post as Governor General of Malaya, he gave Great Britain some sound advice on how to get along with her oldest daughter.

To the Royal Empire Society, studious Malcolm MacDonald said: some day Great Britain could conceivably lose Canada as a member of the Empire, if she ever forces Canada to choose between the U.S. and Britain. If she wishes to avoid that loss, Britain had better recognize the toughness of Canadian-U.S. ties. Britain must “conduct her affairs so that Canada will never have to make the choice between . . . the United Kingdom and . . . the United States.” Canada is under the influence of American thought and ideas, but she is still essentially British in instinct. Britain’s job, said Malcolm MacDonald is to keep Canada that way.