"Nationalist" Views Condensed.
After refuting at length the "Nationalist" theories, I thought proper to condense them in a concrete proposition, and challenge their propagandist to call a public meeting in any city, town, or locality, in the Dominion,—Montreal for instance—and to find a dozen of citizens of standing in the community, to consent to move and second a "Resolution" embodying their doctrines.
This condensed proposition, I translate as follows:—
"Whereas England has unjustly declared war against Germany;
"Whereas Great Britain has done nothing to maintain the peace of the world;
"Considering that His Majesty King George V. had not the right to declare the state of war for Canada without the assent of the Canadian Cabinet;
"Considering that Canada, as an autonomous colony, is a Sovereign State;
"Considering that British Sovereignty over Canada is only a fiction;
"Considering that Canada, interfering in the present war, should have done so as a Nation;
"Whereas Canada should only have fought on her own account, like Belgium, Servia, Italy or Bulgaria.
"Whereas the maintenance of a compact British Empire is the most permanent provocation against the peace of the world;
"Considering that the supremacy of England on the seas is unjust;
"Considering that Great Britain's aspiration, for a long time past, has been universal domination by means of her military naval power;
"Whereas England is unfair against France in using her as a shield against German invasion;
"Considering that England is exercising by all possible means a strong pressure upon the Colonies for her only benefit;
"Considering that all the social leaders have united to demoralize the conscience of the people, to poison their mind, to set their vigilance at sleep, and to represent to them as a national duty what would formerly have been considered as a betrayal of national interests;
"Considering that England is trying to crush Germany, being afraid of her colonial expansion and her maritime and commercial competition;
"Whereas our compatriots of the British races have many faults; that they are ignorant, assuming, arrogant, overbearing and rotten with mercantilism;
"Considering that they have acquired many of the worst vices of the Yankees;
"Considering that Canada should never participate, outside of her own territory, in the wars of the British Empire;
"Considering that the Canadian Cabinet and Parliament are criminally guilty of having ordered the organization of a Canadian army to go and fight against Germany on the French territory, and in authorizing the payment of the cost of this military expedition;
"Be it "Resolved", that this meeting energetically protest against the declaration of war against Germany by His Majesty King George V, without the assent of the Canadian Cabinet, to defend Belgium's territory invaded by Germany violating solemn treaties;
"That this meeting is of opinion that, for the purpose of favouring the restoration of peace as soon as possible, England should notify all the Powers that she abdicates for ever her supremacy on the seas, which supremacy Germany could hereafter safely exercise;
"That this meeting being absolutely convinced that the maintenance of a compact British Empire is the most permanent provocation against the peace of the world, is strongly of opinion that Great Britain should, in order to quiet the fears of the Nations friendly to peace and opposed to militarism, like pacifist Germany, dissolve her Empire, at once acknowledging the immediate independence of India and of all her autonomous Colonies;
"That this meeting's formal opinion is that the Canadian Parliament's imperious duty is to order without delay the dissolution of the British bond of connection, which would be a public benefit, and to proclaim the immediate independence of Canada;
"That a copy of the present "Resolution" be addressed to His Excellency the Governor General, to the Members of the Federal Cabinet, to the Senators and to the Members of the House of Commons."
The italics in the above draft "Resolution" and "Preamble" are quoted from Mr. Bourassa's writings.
The "Preamble" and "Resolution" emphasize, in their true and complete meaning, the "Nationalist" doctrines perseveringly propounded for years past to poison French Canadian mentally. That such teachings can only produce disloyal feelings, stir up national prejudices and hatred of the Mother Country, and be most detrimental to the best interests of the Province of Quebec, of the Dominion of Canada, and of the British Empire as a whole, every one must admit with sadness.
My challenge, which is still maintained, has not been taken up yet. All may rest assured that it will never be. The most ardent "Nationalist" knows that no responsible citizens would move the adoption of such views.