Book Review: The Road to Nationhood
| Published date | 01 September 1947 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070204700200310 |
| Date | 01 September 1947 |
| Author | J. E. Potts |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
International
Journal
new
Charter.
At
Geneva
she
pleaded
her
'limited interests,'
at
San
Francisco
her
general
interests;
at
Geneva
her
geographical isolation,
at
San
Francisco
her
central
position
in
the power
zone
of
the
air
age."
Prof.
Eastman
well
reflects:
"When,
in
1946,
we
witness
the
general
harmony
of
opinion
prevailing throughout
this nation,
among
the
rank
and
file
as
well
as
in
parliamentary
circles,
with regard
to
the
imperative
necessity
for
whole-hearted
Canadian
support
of
a
world
organization
with
authority
and
power,
and
for
bold
and
unequivocal commitments
to
that
end,
many
of
us
may
ask
ourselves,
with
a
feeling
of
honest
bewilderment,
why
it
was
that
our
national
attitude
a
short
quarter-
century
ago
was
as
negative
as
today
it
is
positive."
The
book
first
describes
Canada's
positive lead
in
the
retreat
from
sanctions
and
emasculation
of
the
Covenant,
its
chief
contribution
to
the
League
in its
early
years.
The
wealth
of
well-documented
quotations
from these
early
days
make
astounding
reading
in
1946.
Canada's
"ritual
allusion"
to
its unfortified
boundary
and
its
"fire-
proof house
far
from inflammable
materials,"
the
Manchurian
affair,
the
Riddell
incident
of
1935,
and
the
German
rearmament,
are
described
with
force
and
irony.
While,
perhaps
naturally,
political
aspects
bulk
largest,
the more
significant
economic
and
social
developments
at
Geneva
(including
the
I.L.O.)
and
Canada's
policy
with
respect
thereto,
are
well covered.
Canada's
embarrassing
constitutional
difficulties
in
ratifying through
the
federal government
conventions
affecting
matters under
provincial
juris-
diction
can
still
provide
rather
wry amusement.
At the
1936
I.L.O.
Conference,
the
Canadian
delegation
had
to explain
that,
pending
higher
court
decisions
on
federal jurisdiction
in
labour
matters,
it
would
be
"compelled
to abstain
from voting
on
certain
of
the
questions
coming
before
the present
session."
(Truly
an
awkward situation,
Dr.
East-
man
adds.)
The
book
is
no
mere
catalogue
of
Canadian
participation,
but
gives
a
striking
background
of
the
events
that
led
unlearning
man
again
to
a
world
war
before he
was
out
of
the
shadows
of
the
last.
In the
field
of
Canada
and
world
organization
it
is
likely
to become
a
classic.
Ottawa,
May
1947.
Eric
W.
Morse
THE
ROAD
TO
NATIONHOOD.
A
Chronicle
of
Dominion-
Provincial
Relations.
By
Wilfrid
Eggleston.
1946.
(Toronto: Oxford
University
Press.
336
pp.
$2.50,
members
$2.00)
THE
ROAD
TO
NATIONHOOD
makes
no
attempt
to
deal
with
constitutional
issues
but
confines
itself
to
"reporting
and
summarizing
the
history
of
Dominion-Provincial
relations
on
the
financial
side"
up
to
the
failure
of
the
last
conference in
May,
1946.
For
the
average
reader,
even
for
the
student
of
Canadian
history,
this
summarizing
process
264
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