Canada was desperately hoping that the Hyde Park Agreement could be kept alive. The oral pact made in 1941 between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister King had treated Canada like a 49th state in sharing scarce commodities—especially oil and steel. Last week, in a speech in New York City, Humphrey Hume Wrong, Canada's Ambassador to the U.S., made a bold bid for perpetual preference:
"In wartime we [shared], under the Hyde Park Agreement, the things needed to keep the production of both countries at the highest level. It worked, and made no small contribution to victory. If this . . ....