Mr. Claxton:

That is a good place for it too.

Our own Prime Minister, speaking here on June 22, was asked by the hon. member for Prince Albert whether he would be opposed to any extension of the British preference. This is the Prime Minister's answer, as recorded at page 5284 of Hansard:

That is not correct as a general statement. The matter will have to be considered in all its aspects and of course in the light of its possible repercussions upon the general tariff and trade arrangements which are still in force and which have proved to be of quite substantial benefit to Canadian trade.

The Prime Minister obviously is not very much interested in the preferences, and I think the Minister of Trade and Commerce is even less interested than the Prime Minister. Canada should be buying more in the commonwealth and less in the United States, but there is very little indication of a policy of that kind being adopted.

Finally, the amendment proposes that wider financial participation by Canadians in the development of Canadian resources should be fostered. Even the members of the government admit that this situation should be remedied, but what do they propose to do about it? So far, we have heard no proposal which would meet that situation. Tax exemptions? No, not a word about that. Tax reductions? Oh, no, they are holding off the reduction in taxation in order to help them win an election next year, although there are surpluses now in the moneys coming into the treasury.

Perhaps this is the most important point of all, because here is a case where a vision could be held out before the Canadian people, a vision of Canada for Canadians. The president of the University of British Columbia summed up the picture very neatly when he spoke in Rochester, New York, about a month ago. President Norman A. M. MacKenzie is not a politician, is not a partisan in any sense of the word. He is one of the outstanding Canadians today. Here is what he told an audience at the University of Rochester:

He said Canada is delighted to have United States capital in the country.

But "some of us like being Canadians and want to remain Canadians, and we are not unaware of the influences and pressures infiltration and intervention of this kind bring with them and imply".

Mr. Claxton:

That is a good place for it too.

Our own Prime Minister, speaking here on June 22, was asked by the hon. member for Prince Albert whether he would be opposed to any extension of the British preference. This is the Prime Minister's answer, as recorded at page 5284 of Hansard:

That is not correct as a general statement. The matter will have to be considered in all its aspects and of course in the light of its possible repercussions upon the general tariff and trade arrangements which are still in force and which have proved to be of quite substantial benefit to Canadian trade.

The Prime Minister obviously is not very much interested in the preferences, and I think the Minister of Trade and Commerce is even less interested than the Prime Minister. Canada should be buying more in the commonwealth and less in the United States, but there is very little indication of a policy of that kind being adopted.

Finally, the amendment proposes that wider financial participation by Canadians in the development of Canadian resources should be fostered. Even the members of the government admit that this situation should be remedied, but what do they propose to do about it? So far, we have heard no proposal which would meet that situation. Tax exemptions? No, not a word about that. Tax reductions? Oh, no, they are holding off the reduction in taxation in order to help them win an election next year, although there are surpluses now in the moneys coming into the treasury.

Perhaps this is the most important point of all, because here is a case where a vision could be held out before the Canadian people, a vision of Canada for Canadians. The president of the University of British Columbia summed up the picture very neatly when he spoke in Rochester, New York, about a month ago. President Norman A. M. MacKenzie is not a politician, is not a partisan in any sense of the word. He is one of the outstanding Canadians today. Here is what he told an audience at the University of Rochester:

He said Canada is delighted to have United States capital in the country.

But "some of us like being Canadians and want to remain Canadians, and we are not unaware of the influences and pressures infiltration and intervention of this kind bring with them and imply".

Hon. Brooke Claxion (Minister of National Defence):

When I noticed this report, Mr. Speaker, I naturally caused inquiries to be made, and I received from General Simonds a telegram explaining the circumstances of his statement and also stating more fully and perhaps more accurately what he said. He was at a meeting of officers of the Canadian Army in Saint John, New Brunswick, and after a talk he gave them he was asked a question which is quite frequently put on similar occasions. I myself have been asked it a great number of times. He was asked what his views were on the subject of national service. He made a reply which I think you could expect almost any officer to make, namely that he would be glad to see every youth in the country receive two years' military training. Then he went on to say:

I believe the vast majority of experienced soldiers would agree with me. But such training was impossible unless it received the wholehearted support of the people of this country and that was a matter for judgment and decision by political leaders, not soldiers. In any event experience tended to show that a period of universal military service of less than two years increased rather than diminished the problem of meeting commitment overseas. Further a system of universal military 83276-412J

Supply-Privy Council service was not a substitution for voluntary service, it could only supplement and never replace the voluntary system.

Mr. Claxion:

There are two sets of activities centred in the Yukon. The first is the part played mostly by the Royal Canadian Engineers in the maintenance and Qperation of the northwest highway system. The second is the operation of the Northwest Territories and Yukon telegraph system. The first has been carried on since the highway was handed over to the Royal Canadian Engineers in 1946, I believe. While we do not keep the accounts segregated that way any longer, my recollection is that the cost of maintenance and operation of the highway system is about $6 million a year. That would cover about 1,200 miles and it covers a good deal of replacement of capital installations such as bridges, culverts and the like on a more permanent basis. We are doing a steady program of replacement.

The Northwest Territories and Yukon telegraph system supplies all the telecommunication services, civilian and military, in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. Speaking again from memory, I believe there are twenty-one stations in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. They carry all the military traffic, all the government service and most of the commercial. My recollection would be that the amount of revenue they take from handling commercial traffic varies but averages approximately $500,000 a year.

They handle a good many hundred thousand messages for the armed forces, weather stations and other government services, so that these are two very considerable operations, one by the engineers and the other by the signals.

Mr. Claxion:

He talks about heavy antitank guns. We have anti-tank guns as a part of the tank equipment in the Centurions, and they occupy today an anti-tank role. That is their role. If he is talking about something heavier than that-