Mr. CHISHOLM:

For a copy of all telegrams, letters, petitions and other documents, exchanged between the Post Office Department and any person in Inverness county during 1918 and 1919, in any way referring to the mail contract for carrying the mails from Inverness Railway station to Margaree harbour, N.S.

Mr. LEMIEUX:

For a return showing the amounts paid for advertising, printing, etc., by the various departments of the Government during the fiscal years 1916, 1917, 1918 to the following newspapers:-The Brandford Expositor, The Woodstock Sentinel Review, The Stratford Beacon, The Kingston Whig, The Hamilton Times, The Toronto Globe, The Toronto Star, The Guelph Mercury, The Niagara Falls Review, The St. Catharines Journal, The Ingersoll Chronicle, The Orillia Times, The Belleville Ontario, The Simcoe Reformer, The Richmond Hill Liberal, The Acton Free Press, The Mitchell Recorder and the Owen Sound Sun.

Mr. HUME CEONYN (London):

Mr. Speaker, I desire to ask the hon. the Acting Prime Minister (Sir Thomas White) what procedure -the Government purpose

[Major-General Mewbum.]

adopting for the consideration, and if necessary, for the ratification 'of the Peace Treaty the terms of which were brought to the attention of the House yesterday.

Sir THOMAS WHITE (Acting Prime Minister):

The signature of the Peace

Treaty is an executive Act. After signature by the parties to the Treaty, it will be submitted to Parliament for consideration and for legislative sanction. I understand that the Treaty provides for the deposit of the ratifications in Paris and that the Treaty becomes binding upon the powers as and from the date of the deposit of the ratification.

Mr. McKENZIE:

In reference to the

question raised by the hon. member for London (Mr. C'ronyn) do I understand the Acting Prime' Minister to say that this Parliament will have nothing to do with the ratification of the Treaty?

Sir THOMAS WHITE:

I said the precise opposite. I stated that the signing of the Treaty was an executive Act but that after the Treaty had been signed by the parties to it, it would be submitted to this Parliament, as to other Parliaments of the Powers concerned, for consideration and ratification -otf the executive act of signing. I stated further that there was a provision made in the Treaty for the deposit of the ratification at Paris and that each Power would be deemed -to Ibe hound toy the treaty as and fromi the date of such deposit of the ratification.

Mr. JACOBS:

May I ask what would

happen should this Parliament refuse to ratify the treaty?

Sir THOMAS WHITE:

Considering that it would be signed by the Prime Minister and by the accredited representatives of the Government, acting as plenipotentiaries I could not conceive that Parliament would refuse to ratify it. If it did, the usual constitutional consequences would follow-but that I do not at all apprehend. The ratification by this Parliament will be in the same manner as the ratification by the Imperial Parliament of the signature of its plenipotentiaries, by the Congress of the United States, and by the other legislative bodies concerned.

Hon. W. 6. FIELDING: Is the hon. gentleman correct in using the word " ratification"? Eatifieation is a part of the machinery without which a Treaty is not completed. I understand the hon. gentleman to say that this treaty will be com-

pleted without any ratification here. I suppose that he means that it will be submitted to this Parliament for approval or disapproval, if we so wish, but that whether it is approved or disapproved it is effective, and no ratification here is needed.

Sir THOMAS WHITE:

I am afraid I

cannot agree ' with my hon. friend. Let me give a case in point. An agreement was entered into by the late Government of Canada with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company and it was signed on behalf of the Government. It was afterwards submitted for the ratification to Parliament. It did not become' binding upon Canada until it was ratified by Parliament. Similarly, my hon. friend negotiated a treaty at Washington in 1911. 1 understand that was

signed by the hon. tnember (Mr. Fielding) and his colleagues, but it had not legislative effect until considered and approved, and it was not in that case approved by Parliament. I do not understand that the present case is different.

Mr. W. 8. FIELDING: My hon. friend, I submit, is mistaken. There was no treaty signed at Washington; but there was an agreement made which was subject to Parliamentary approval-not ratification; exchange of ratifications is a part of the machinery without which a treaty does not become effective.

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. We are wandering into a discussion on the Orders of the Day.

Sir SAM HUGHES:

Might I ask a question of the Acting Prime Minister. If this Parliament does not ratify t-he treaty does the war begin again?

Sir THOMAS WHITE:

My hon. friend is in good fettle; he might be able to start a new war.

Mr. A. B. McCOIG:

Mr. Speaker, there is a matter of extraordinary importance to the consuming public that I wish to draw to the attention of the Acting Minister of Trade and Commerce (Mr. Maclean). A report appears in yesterday's Toronto Globe in reference to the high cost of butter. An investigation was made by Dr. Hastings, medical health officer of the city of Toronto, who states that:

The demand for export butter at 80 cents per pound governs the price to the local consumer, and this demand has recently increased particularly in the English and United Slates

markets. On the other hand, Dr. Hastings can And no justification for the " enormously high price of oleomargarine."

In another part of the paper it states: Margarine, whidh has been selling in Great Britain at 25 cental a pound, is now 16 cents. Here the manufacturer's price is about 33 cents, with the dealers in some oases getting almost 50 cents.

And it wants to know why there should be this difference. We allow margarine to come into this country free of duty and if the manufacturers are extracting an unfair profit from the consumer an injustice is being inflicted upon the public and the matter is one that should receive the attention of the Government.

Mr. SPEAKER:

The hon. member is

hardly taking the proper course on the Orders of the Day. I assumed that he was going to ask a question of the Government. This would be the proper subject of a question to be placed upon the Order Paper.

Hon. A. K. MACLEAN (Acting Minister of Trade and Commerce):

I will endeavour to give my hon. friend (Mr. Me-Coig) a complete answer to-morrow. I am not in a position to give him what -he might -deem a satisfactory answer this afternoon.

I wish to repeat a statement that he has himself made, namely, that oleomargarine is on the free list.