Right Hon. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

In respect to the return asked for, I am sorry that I did not catch at the time what my hon. friend said, but whichever minister is concerned, I will direct his attention to it, and ask that the return be brought down as soon as possible.

Mr. PETER McGIBBON (Muskoka-On-tario):

I would like to direct the attention of the Postmaster General to the fact that summer service on the Muskoka lakes will not be started until the 15th instant. In view of the importance of the service, I would like to ask if it could not be started on the 5th.

Hon. P. J. VENIOT (Postmaster General):

Mr. Speaker, in reply to the hon. member for Muskoka regarding the mail service to the summer resorts of that district

Mr. McGIBBON:

There are a lot of villages as well as summer resorts.

Mr. VENIOT:

It is a mail service which commences at the opening and ceases at the close of navigation as carried on by the steamship company. These facts have been

brought to my attention: Last year navigation opened on the first of May. Our contract calls for the payment of fifty dollars a day to the steamer which performs the service. I considered last year that there was not a sufficient quantity of mail matter to warrant the payment of fifty dollars a day before some time later in May. I had an investigation made and a check placed upon the mail matter received during that period, especially at those summer resorts, and that check bore out that contention. This year I had another check made and I found that the only mail service required there between the first of May and the fifteenth was for attendants who are getting the summer resort houses and other equipment ready for tourists.

Mr. McGIBBON:

I would like to draw the minister's attention to the fact that there are a lot of business places there.

Mr. VENIOT:

The service to those business places is not hampered at all by the fact that the summer service will not begin until the 15th May. I may say that the decision has been taken that the usual summer service will not begin until the 15th May, and I do not intend to change the decision.

Mr. JAMES ARTHURS (Parry Sound):

The hon. member from Muskoka is not the only person interested in this question. There are in Parry Sound, not tourist resorts, but permanent villages that demand the service from the opening of navigation, whatever date that may be, whether it is the 15th of April or the 15th of May, and they have a perfect right to that. The minister has not taken these people into account, but is talking of the tourist and summer residents who may be there only from June to September.

Mr. VENIOT:

Mr. Speaker, I may answer that I have taken the reports of the officials of my department after a thorough investigation, and if I cannot depend upon those reports I cannot depend upon the word of anybody else.

Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Leader of the Opposition):

I sent a note to the right hon. the Secretary of State for External Affairs asking whether or not the Secretary of State of the United States had forwarded a copy of his note on the outlawry of war, sent to Great Britain, and whether the Prime Minister has had notice of that.

Civil Service

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

My hon. friend was kind enough to advise me in advance of his intention to ask a question on this subject on the orders of the day.

On April 13 the United States ambassadors in London, Berlin, Rome and Tokyo delivered notes stating that the government of the United States was prepared to conclude with the British, German, Italian and Japanese governments a single multilateral treaty, open to subsequent adherence by any or all governments, binding the parties thereto not to resort to war with one another. Copies were also transmitted of a preliminary draft of a treaty which the government of the United States would be prepared to sign.

The government of France, with which the United States had originally discussed the question of the renunciation of war, has indicated its views in an alternative draft.

We were informed by the British government that the United States note had been received and the French note was expected shortly, and that copies of these documents and the view of the British government would be communicated shortly. This further information has not yet been received.

Meanwhile the correspondence between the United States and France, and the draft treaties submitted by both countries as made public are being carefully considered from the standpoint of possible Dominion participation.

Mr. BENNETT:

But the note was not

sent to our minister or to our government by the Secretary of State of the United States?

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

No, only to

those I have mentioned. I understand that our minister at Washington did forward to us a copy of the document sent to London.

INQUIRY FOR RETURN On the orders of the day:

Mr. C. H. CAHAN:

Mr. Speaker, some

time ago an order of the house passed for a return of certain documents relating to applications for the construction of a dam between lake St. Francis and lake St. Louis. The return has not been brought down, and I would like to direct the attention of the government to it.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

My hon. friend may rely upon his request receiving attention.