Mr. DUNNING:

Explain.

Mr. CHURCH:

The object of this bill is

to require in the public interest the names and addresses of the owners, editors, publishers and stockholders in newspapers and periodicals published' in Canada to be filed and printed in such papers. The bill as passed last session required the filing and printing of the ownership of publications, including the names and addresses of the editor, publisher, business managers, owners, stockholders, known bondholders and other security holders. This bill adds that such additional information is to be given concerning the interest, direct or indirect, of any person in such publication or its stock, bonds, or other securities as the Postmaster General shall by regulation require, such information to disclose the ownership of such publication.

The bill is the same as that which passed this house the past four years with the addition of "the interest direct or indirect of any person in such publication of its stock, bonds or other securities'' in view of the revelations before the United States trade commission of the secret buying of several large American papers by the Graustein interests and the power and paper trust.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

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

Before the orders of the day

are called, Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege arising out of the debates yesterday. I think from the record it is possible the right hon. Prime Minister (Mr. Mackenzie King) -was confusing the report of the Associated Press as to certain matters in connection with wheat pools in Canada with the report from other sources. He observed that so-me Tory newspaper was responsible for the propaganda, and that he had been informed by the High Commisisoner's office that a sensational despatch had appeared- an. the London Times sent by its correspondent here. I took the trouble this morning to go through the recent numbers of the London Times and I find that the -statement in question appears on page 13 of the issue of Friday, February 7, 1930. In reasonably small type appear the words:

Canadian Wheat Pools

A Grave Situation

(From Our Own Correspondent)

Ottawa, February 6,

The second paragraph reads:

The Toronto Star, yesterday, under the heading "Financial catastrophe confronts Dominion if wheat sale forced,"

And so on. I took the trouble to get the Star for Februaj}' 5, and it contains the statement quoted:

Financial catastrophe confronts Dominion if Wheat sale forced.

On the following day the Toronto Star printed in large type these words:

Grain prices drop despite guarantee.

I think there has been misapprehension on the -part of the right hon. Prime Minister as to where the despatch came from. What appeared in the London Times was an accurate statement of what was printed in the Toronto Star of the preceding day.

Mr. Speaker, my hon.

friend is quite right in stating that the article to which I had reference is the one which he has just read. An article appeared- in the Toronto Star about a financial catastrophe confronting the Dominion. As I said last night, any one in Canada who understood the situation would have known that that was a sensational article as it appeared in the Toronto Star, and would not in the circumstances have cabled it to England. But it was cabled to the London Times by its correspondent in Canada and was published in

[Mr. Church,!

the Times, as my hon. friend has just indicated to the house. When the article appeared in the London Times I received from the High Commissioner's office in England a communication stating that there was considerable concern in London as a consequence of the article which had appeared in the London Times and asking that as speedily as possible some word be sent which would be reassuring to the British public with respect to any financial situation that had arisen in Canada through the efforts of the pool to market the grain. If I remember correctly-I am speaking from memory at the moment-that communication came on a Saturday morning, and before the day was far advanced I had prepared and sent to the High Commissioner's office a communication indicating that the article quoted was simply a despatch that had appeared in one of the Canadian papers, that it was without any real foundation and that there was no occasion for any fear as to the financial situation with respect to the -marketing of grain, and in Monday's papers in England the erroneous impression which had been created by this despatch was -corrected.

Mr. BENNETT:

It was in Tuesday's

Times; I have it before me.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

That is so.

Mr. BENNETT:

The question of privilege to which I desired to direct attention was in reference to the -remark that the article had appeared in a Tory paper.

Mr. MACKENZIE KING:

I question

whether this is at all a matter of privilege, but if my hon. friend looks at my re-marks he will see that the reference to what appeared in the London Times has n-o relation to my remarks about a Tory paper. My remark about the Tory paper had reference to what appeared with respect to placards which were supposed to be distributed 'by some bakery o-r restaurant establishment in England.

Mr. BENNETT:

And it did not appear in the Times.