CANADA: The Rub

During World War II, the U.S. rated its bases in Newfoundland as the strongest outpost in North America’s Atlantic defense. Nearly $400 million was pumped into Newfoundland during the war years to build air and naval installations on the rugged island. In peacetime an average of $30 million a year continued to flow from Washington to keep the bases in first-rate shape and, incidentally, provide Newfoundland with the equivalent of an important industry.

On the human side, the U.S. deal with Newfoundland looked every bit as sound. In 1940 President Roosevelt, announcing the 99-year lease of the bases from England, had called them “gifts, generously given and gratefully received.” Since then, both sides seemed to live up to the spirit of the exchange. Some 900 U.S. servicemen married Newfoundland girls. Yank troops visited Newfoundlanders’ homes; islanders were invited to the Americans’ parties and theaters. To all appearances, the hospitable Newfies and the free-spending Yanks had worked out a near-perfect landlord & tenant arrangement with never a thought of breaking the lease.

Law & Order. This week, like a diligent lawyer checking up on the fine-print clauses, Maclean’s magazine stepped in to warn the landlord that the new tenant was not all he seemed to be. Maclean’s Ottawa editor, Blair Fraser, wrote an eyebrow-lifting article entitled “Where the Yanks Rule a Part of Canada.” He charged that U.S. legal privileges in Newfoundland were out of line, and that Newfoundlanders had no real protection of law against the U.S. forces. Fraser cited examples:

¶ A customs inspector, searching for contraband U.S. goods near two U.S. bases, was threatened with arrest by a gun-toting U.S. captain. The Newfoundland supreme court awarded damages to the customs man, but nobody paid.

¶ Newfoundlander involved in a minor traffic accident at a U.S. base was ordered by an MP to report to the gatehouse. When he refused, the MP fired two warning shots; one ricocheted and hit the man in the leg. The Newfoundlander spent 23 days in the base hospital and was billed $49.50 for services; to date, he has collected no damages.

¶ Two Newfoundland motorists whose cars had been hit by U.S. military vehicles sued in their own courts and won damages. They could not collect.

Fraser’s verdict: “These [incidents] are invasions of sovereignty at the most vital of all levels, the protection of the citizen by law.”

Truth & Consequences. Fraser’s charge that Newfoundlanders’ legal rights end at the gates of the U.S. bases was perfectly true. That was the letter of the British U.S. agreement drawn up when the bases were leased. Since then Newfoundland has become part of Canada, and Canada is not willing to grant, in one of her provinces, concessions to the U.S. as liberal as those that Britain handed over when Newfoundland was a colony. The occasional snarl-up of Canadian and U.S. legal authority rubbed Canadian pride raw.

Although Fraser had magnified the importance of the few incidents in Newfoundland, his article seemed likely to do more good than harm to U.S.-Canadian relations. For more than a year, Canadians have been working patiently and getting nowhere trying to iron out the problem with the U.S. State Department (and with U.S. Air Force brass who saw no reason for either generosity or haste). With the grievance aired in public, U.S. response might come a little faster.