Book Review: A Canadian Errant
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206101600206 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
184
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
who
paid
so
little
attention
to
the
problem
of
imperial
re-organization,
and
who
apparently
gave
little
or
no
thought
to
Canada's
policy
in
the
post-war
world.
While
he
felt
strongly
about
Canada's
wartime
role,
he
was
prepared
to
sacrifice
the
best
union
government
on
the
altar
of
his
own
ambitions;
under
no
circumstances
could
his
primacy
in
the
West
be
threatened
by
the entry
of first-class
Liberals
from
Manitoba.
Meighen
was
a
minister
of
measures,
not
of
men,
and
of
means more
than
measures.
It
might
be
argued
that
two
volumes
for
Meighen
are
one
too
many.
His
papers
for
this
period
are
thin
and
his
own
accounts,
written
for
the
author,
do
not
help
very
much.
Much
of
the
book
deals
with
general
political
history,
a
necessity
perhaps
for
a
popular
audience
but
not
very
enlightening
for an
academic one.
Perhaps
the
volume
could
have
been
reinforced
with
more
material
about
Meighen
and
more
material
about
the
questions
dealt with
from
outside sources,
from
the
Dafoe,
Rowell,
Scott,
and
Martin
papers,
to mention
a
few
examples.
The
Union
Government
story
could
certainly
have
been
fuller
and
Meighen's
role
better
understood
and
appraised
if
the first
two
had
been
thoroughly
used.
There
is
no
evidence
that
Professor Graham
consulted
the
excellent
dissertations
on
Dafoe
and
Rowell
by
Doctors
Cook
and
Prang.
However,
Professor
Graham
has
written
a
book
for
an
audience
far
wider
than
the
cloister,
and
it is
perhaps
unfair
to
criticize
the
volume
on
its
appeal
to
professional
historians
alone.
In
style
and
readability
the
book
is
of
the
same
high
standard
as
other
recent
academic
biographies,
thus
affording
further
proof
that
some
historians
at
least
can
write.
In
waiting
for
volume two
one
can
oniy
hope
that
the
author
will
not
be
too blinded
by
the
halo
and will
be
calm
in
style
and
judgment
when
the
hare
and
the
tortoise
really
come
face
to
face.
University
of
Toronto
JOHN
T.
SAYWELL
A
CANADIAN
ERRANT.
Twenty-five
Years
in
the
Canadian
Foreign
Ser-
vice.
By
James
P.
Manion,
edited
by
Guy
Sylvestre.
1960.
(Toronto:
The
Ryerson
Press.
ix,
196pp.
$5.00.)
James
P.
Manion
(1902-1959),
son
of
the
one
time
leader
of
the
Conservative
Party,
served
as
a
Canadian
Trade
Commissioner
con-
tinuously,
except
for
three
years
as
an
officer
in
the
Army,
from
1931
until
1956.
His
posts
included Tokyo
at
the
time
of
the
"Manchurian
Incident",
Paris
from
1934
until
the fall
of
France,
New
York
during
the
period
of
American
neutrality,
North
Africa
before
the
dust
of
war
had
settled,
Rome
during
the
arduous
but
inspiring
initial
phases
of
Italian
reconstruction,
Geneva
for
the
negotiation
of
the
GATT,
Paris
again,
and
finally
(but
not
covered
in
the
book)
the
oil
regions
of
the
Middle
East.
His memoirs
have
been
edited
by
Guy
Sylvestre
and
drastically
boiled
down
(from
200,000
to
80,000
words)
from the
manu-
script
left
by
Mr.
Manion
on
his
untimely
death.
Much could
be
expected
from
this
book.
The
author
was
a
witness
to
and
minor
participant
in
some
of
the
great
events
of
the
century;
a
member
of
the
Canadian
foreign
service
in
the
period
of
its
growth
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