The hour was 10:30 p.m. The date was July 7. "Call in the Members," intoned Speaker James W. Glen. Division bells clanged through the marble-floored corridors of Canada's House of Parliament. Each M.P., conscious of an historic occasion concluding one of the bitterest debates in Canadian history, rose to record himself yea or nay. The Government was sustained, 158-to-54.
Prime Minister Mackenzie King, shrewd, cautious and fearful of the threat of civil war between English-and French-speaking Canadians over the issue of conscription for service overseas, had shoved through another compromise.
In an...