Review: Canada and the Age of Conflict
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900114 |
| Date | 01 March 1984 |
| Published date | 01 March 1984 |
| Author | Richard Veatch |
| Subject Matter | Review |
224
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
ton's
style
that
he
does
not
try
to
elevate
these
political
bureaucrats
to
heroic
stature.
Indeed
wry
commentary
is
his
stock
in
trade.
Refer-
ring
to
Sir
Willoughby
Gwatkin's
appointment
in
1913
as
chief
of
the
general
staff
and
of
his
relationship
to
Sir
Sam
Hughes,
Morton
writes:
'Rarely
have
the
virtues
of
a
classical
education
been
put
to
a
harsher
test'
(p
17).
Hughes,
indeed,
serves
as
a
whipping
boy
for
Canadians gone
wrong
in
London,
as a
nationalist
comic
totem,
and
yet
somehow
as
the
man
who
inadvertently
created
the
conditions
under
which
discordant
elements
could
unite
to
save
the
Canadian
Corps
from
British
Control.
Perhaps
Morton's
most
perceptive
com-
ment
on
this
wild
colonial
boy
was
that
'Hughes
was
congenitally
unable
to
settle
down
to
systematic
administration.'
The
most
compelling
and
attractive
character
described
is
undoubtedly
Sir
Arthur
Currie.
Not because
he
was
a
great
general,
but
because
he
found
it
possible
to
operate
in
the
face
of
military
con-
trol
pressure
from
Haig,
and
of
political
control
pressure
from
Kemp,
and
to
turn
both
these
pressures
into
assets
in
his
command
situa-
tion.
The
book
is
well
written
as
one
would
expect,
although
a
little too
controlled
by
moving
narrative
for
those
who
may wish
to
extract
and
reflect
upon
particular
episodes.
It
demands
to
be
read
whole,
and
is
not
for
browsing.
The
book
makes
a
strong
contribution
to
the
field
of
Canadian
civil-military
relationships.
Donald
M.
Schurman/Royal
Military
College,
Kingston
CANADA
AND
THE
AGE
OF
CONFLICT
A
history
of
Canadian external
policies
Volume
2:
1921-1948
-
The
Mackenzie
King
era
C.P.
Stacey
Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press,
1981,
x,
491pp,
$30.00
cloth,
$12.50
paper
In
this
volume,
C.P.
Stacey
completes
his
history
of
Canadian
external
relations
from
1867
to 1948.
While
foreign
policy
during
the
eventful
five
years
of
R.B.
Bennett's
government
is
fully
dealt
with,
Mackenzie
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