Mr. COLDWELL:

I am glad that the Prime Minister has made that statement. It certainly was not clear from what the Secretary of State for External Affairs said, and I am glad that we have had that point clarified because it removes what seemed to some of us to be an objectionable feature. We are most anxious that this country shall retain its independence.

Mr. MACKENZIE:

So are we.

Mr. COLDWELL:

We are under tremendous economic pressure from our great neighbour to the south, as we are bound to be because of our proximity to her, and we are most anxious that we shall in no way jeopardize our independence.

Mr. MACKENZIE:

So are we.

Mr. COLDWELL:

I am glad to hear that, and I believe it is true.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: You never doubted it.

Visiting Forces

Mr. COLDWELL:

No, I did not doubt that for one moment, but I do think that those of us who are looking into these matters should emphasize that point of view, that we want our country to retain its independence of any foreign power.

The minister says that there is reciprocal legislation. I listened to the reading of the proclamation made by the President of the United States bringing into effect their legislation under which our troops were disciplined in the United States, but let me say that I noticed one word in that proclamation which does not assure me that that reciprocity is now being carried on or will be carried on in the future. That word is "co-belligerents." We, the United Kingdom and Canada, are described in the President's proclamation as co-belligerents. It may be argued that we are still co-belligerents because the peace treaties have not been signed. On the other hand, we know perfectly well that, so far as Canada is concerned, it is generally believed that the war ended on a date when the wartime measures were to go out of existence.

Mr. MACKENZIE:

Was not that proclamation issued in 1944?

Mr. COLDWELL:

In 1943, was it not?

Mr. MACKENZIE:

The war was on, so that we were co-belligerents then.

Mr. COLDWELL:

That is my point. We were referred to then as being co-belligerents because we were then co-belligerents. We are co-belligerents no longer and therefore I wonder if it applies now. I still think this bill should go before the external affairs committee before its second reading, before this house assents to the principle of a bill about which there has been considerable discussion in the house, and no doubt will be considerable discussion across the country. I suggest that, in spite of what the Secretary of State for External Affairs has said about the bill being killed if it goes to a committee, it will not be killed any more than the railway pensions bill of my hon. friend the member for Winnipeg North Centre will be killed when it goes before the appropriate committee, where it can be considered, revised, redrafted or returned to this house, with a recommendation, if the committee so desire, for concurrence in the measure.

Mr. DONALD M. FLEMING (Eglinton): Mr. Speaker, I want to take just a moment to correct a statement made by the Secretary of State for External Affairs (Mr. St. Laurent) this afternoon with reference to the statement which he attributed in yesterday's debate to

the hon. member for Muskoka-Ontario (Mr. Macdonnell), who is not in his place this afternoon. The interpretation put upon that statement by the minister in his remarks this afternoon was that the hon. member for Muskoka-Ontario was saying that we should refuse to tolerate the idea that war is possible. I would ask the minister to refer to Hansard, page 3831, where he will see that the hon. member for Muskoka-Ontario said something quite different. His words were these:

. . . we should refuse to tolerate the idea that war is coming and accept it as a kind of inevitability.

What he was objecting to was our resigning ourselves to treating the coming of war as inevitable, and I say that the minister in what he said this afternoon, in reply to the purported statement of the hon. member for Muskoka-Ontario, was simply building up and knocking down a straw man of his own making.

Mr. ST. LAURENT: Mr. Speaker, I

wonder if I might have your indulgence and the indulgence of the house to answer a question that I intended to answer, put by the hon. member for Vegreville (Mr. Hlynka). Last night he referred to certain maps that appear to be printed in the Russian language. One of them is in the Russian language, and the other in the language of Czechoslovakia. They are the official maps annexed by the council of foreign ministers to the peace treaties. They were not ready when the peace treaties were distributed to hon. members, but hon. members will have noticed that there was a pocket envelope in the binding of the treaty, and just as soon as we could get the maps they were mailed to those to whom the treaties had been distributed. So far we have been able to get only those two. As to the peace treaty with Italy, there were twenty-one or twenty-two maps selected by the council of foreign ministers. The hon. member asked why these two maps were not printed in English. I do not know. I was not present at the council of foreign ministers. The map selected by them for Finland was printed in the Russian language, and the map selected by them to describe the boundaries of Roumania was printed in the Czechoslovakian language. That is the explanation.

Mr. POULIOT:

Mr. Speaker, I have a word of explanation to give the house. I voted against the amendment to refer the bill to the committee on external affairs because I believe the bill cannot be improved-

[Mr. St. Laurent.)

Order.

Mr. POULIOT:

I am speaking on second reading.

Mr. SPEAKER:

The hon. member is out of order.

Mr. CASSELMAN:

It has not been called.

Mr. SPEAKER:

The motion is not yet before the house.

Mr. POULIOT:

I have the right to speak an second reading.

Mr. SPEAKER:

The motion for second reading is not actually before the house; so there is nothing before the house.

(Translation):

Mr. HAMEL:

I was paired with the hon. member for Champlain (Mr. Brunelle). Had I voted, I would have voted for the amendment.

(Text):

Mr. HERRIDGE:

I was paired with the hon. member for Richelieu-Vercheres (Mr. Cournoyer). Had I voted, I would have voted to refer the bill to the committee.