CANADA: East Meets West

CANDADA

One of the chief advantages of Canada’s membership in the British Commonwealth is the opportunity it affords for close contact and frank talk with India and other distant Commonwealth nations. That advantage was pointed up clearly last week when another Commonwealth conference opened in London. From the outset, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and External Affairs Chief Lester Pearson strove to explain Canada’s−and North America’s−diplomatic viewpoints to India’s Prime Minister Nehru and other neutralist Asians.

The Canadians’ talks with Nehru began the day before the conference opened, when the Indian leader lunched at Canada House. Nehru and St. Laurent, who correspond frequently, have had a high regard for each other ever since St. Laurent’s tour of India in 1954. Their table talk ranged over such touchy subjects as disarmament, coexistence, Soviet trade, recognition of Red China. Nehru argued for closer cooperation with the Communists, while St. Laurent and Pearson bluntly opposed it. “Don’t be fooled,” the Canadians warned the Indians. “There’s really no new look there. It’s the same old look, and just as dangerous. Don’t trust them an inch.” At the conference sessions held in the Cabinet room at No. 10 Downing Street, Commonwealth relations with the Communist bloc were the main topic. Again the Asians argued for a softer policy, while the Canadians firmly opposed any letdown. At times the vigor of St. Laurent’s and Pearson’s objections seemed almost out of character, since at other conferences (particularly with U.S. diplomats) the Canadians have often argued for a more flexible policy toward Russia. But Pearson explained that the Canadians were merely seizing the opportunity to impress the West’s policy on the Asians as forcefully as possible. Said he: “These things must be said−and we Canadians are the only North Americans here to say them.”