Book Review: The Growth of Canadian Policies in External Affairs
| Author | J. D. B. Miller |
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206101600207 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
185
from
infancy
to
cautious
adolescence; a
worker
in
that
all-important
phase
of
Canadian
external
affairs,
the
searching
out
and
development
of
foreign
markets.
The
result,
however,
is
disappointing.
The
title,
A
Canadian
Errant,
is
apt
both
as
a
comment
on
Mr.
Manion's life
and
his
literary
style.
The
book
suffers
from
indecisiveness,
a
lack
of
care-
ful
organization, an
excessive
attention
to
the
trivia
of social
life,
and
commponplace
digressions
on
all
manners
of
things.
It
must
be
doubted
whether
Mr. Manion,
in
preparation
of
the
book,
ever
asked
himself
in
a searching
way
what
was
the
chief
significance
of
his
career
for
international
relations,
for
Canada,
and
for
Canadian
external
affairs.
In
this
failure
to
ask
and
answer
important
questions,
the
book
resembles
somewhat
the rambling
Borden
Memoirs.
Some
sections
of
the
book
are
better
than
others.
The
early
chapters,
except
where
contemporary
letters
are
printed,
are
the
poorest;
they
reflect
a
psychological
malaise
from
which
the
author
clearly
suffered. The
chapters
on
his
mission to
North
Africa
and
his
part
in
establishing
Canadian
diplomatic
relations
with
Italy
after
the
war
are
good.
Material
on
the
mission
to
the
Middle
East
was too
incomplete,
when
death
intervened,
to
be
included.
The
appearance
of a
memoir
by
a
Canadian
foreign
service
officer,
a
class
little
inclined
to
publication,
is
to
be
applauded
even
while
it
is
hoped
that
future
memoir-writers
will
not
take
it
as
a model.
Duke
University
GADDIS
SMITH
THE
GROWTH
OF CANADIAN
POLIcIES
IN
EXTERNAL
AFFAIRS.
By
Hugh
L.
Keenleyside,
James
Eayrs,
Gaddis
Smith,
David
R.
Deener,
Gdrard
Bergeron,
Vincent
W.
Bladen,
Edgar
McInnis.
1960.
(Durham,
N.C.:
Duke
University
Press.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern
Ltd.
viii,
174pp.
$6.25.)
Here
is
another
set
of
seminar
papers
from the
Commonwealth-
Studies
Center
at
Duke
University,
presented
in
the
summer
of
1959
and
now
available
for
general
study.
The
papers
divide
into
those
which
take
up
broad
general
issues
and
those
which
are
concerned
with
particular
questions.
The
first
group
includes
a
perceptive
Introduction
by
Hugh
L.
Keenleyside;
a
paper
on
Economic
Aspects
of
Foreign
Policy
by
Vincent
W.
Bladen,
which
attempts
to
provide
a
general
strategy
for
the
economic policy
of
the
West,
rather
than
a
discussion
of
Canada's
special
problems; and
one
by
Edgar
McInnis
on
A
Middle
Power
in
the
Cold
War,
which
tries
to
draw
together
the
threads
of
Canada's
situation
since
1945.
The second
group
includes
chapters
by
James
Eayrs
on
The
Origins
of
Canada's
Department
of
External
Affairs
and
on
Canadian
policy
in
the
inter-war
years;
by
Gaddis
Smith
on
external
affairs during
World
War
I;
by
David
R.
Deener
on
the
treaty
power;
and
by
Gerard
Bergeron
on
French
Canada's
progress
from
provincialism
to
internationalism.
Inevitably,
the
second
group
is
more
interesting
than
the
first. The
veterans
who
wrote
on
the
general
issues
confronting
Canada
did
so
with
wisdom
and
experience,
but
their
papers necessarily
suffer
from
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