Mr. GREEN:

I thought I made it clear

that I gave the Prime Minister every credit for this preference in the lumber trade. I simply wish to point out, from a non-partisan standpoint, altogether regardless of party, that it is absolutely vital to us-and I say this in case some question may come up next year or the year after with respect to the empire agreements-that we must have these empire agreements. They are absolutely vital to our lumber trade and are far more important than the agreement with the United States.

Mr. GREEN:

I was just going to explain

that. This quota of 250 million feet applies only to Douglas fir and hemlock, although it must be remembered that in 1929 we sold the United States twice the amount of this quota. Quotas are something new to Canada. I believe this is the first time that one has ever been placed against us by the United States. I ask hon. members not to be misled during the next few months by the increases in lumber shipments to the United States, because at the present time lumber exporters are rushing lumber to that country in order to get their own lumber in before the quota is used up.

I should like the committee to compare that quota of 250 million feet with the sales to the empire totalling 640 million feet. This comparison will give the whole picture in a nutshell. It will show why the lumbermen of British Columbia are more concerned with the empire agreements than they are with

Canada-U. S. Trade Agreement

the Canada-United States agreement. The empire trade is far more important than the trade with the United States, because in empire trade there is great room for expansion while in the case of the United States we are met with the quota. Russia, Sweden and the Baltic countries sell to the United Kingdom four times as much lumber as we do; this shows the vast possibilities for expansion in that market. Also our empire trade is not subject to the dangers confronting our trade with the United States. The chief competitors of British Columbia in the American market are the lumbermen of Washington and Oregon, and they offer stiff competition. I should like to give some figures in explanation of this competition. In 1929 these two states shipped 550 million feet of lumber to the British empire in competition with British Columbia; this was nearly three times as much as the sales of British Columbia. Last year as a result of the empire trade agreements, Washington and Oregon shipped only 70 million feet to empire countries as compared with the 550 million feet shipped in 1929; this was just about one-ninth of what we shipped. Naturally this has irritated the lumbermen of the two states in question. These people have a strong lobby in Washington, and if the Roosevelt administration is defeated, I believe there will be little doubt that the lumbermen and other interests will make short work of this Canada-United States agreement.

My own opinion is that there is more scope for the development of trade within the empire than with the United States. The products of that group of nations which we term the British commonwealth are of great variety. This is not the case with Canada and the United States. As I have said already, the lumber of British Columbia must compete with the lumber of Washington and Oregon. As the hon. member for Yale (Mr. Stirling) told us the other evening, British Columbia fruit must meet American competition. The same thing applies to the fruit of Ontario and Nova Scotia. Wheat and other grains from our prairies and the manufactured products of Ontario and Quebec must compete with similar products of the nation to the south. The same applies to the cattle of the west and the fish of the maritime provinces. Both Canada and the United States produce practically the same commodities and there are definite limitations to the expansion of trade. This is not the case within the empire.

Finally, I believe it will always be more satisfactory for us to deal within the empire. Just as sentiment helps in business, so does

it help in trade between nations. There is a certain sentimental feeling between the different countries comprising the British empire. We know we are not so apt to be cut off on short notice by any of our sister nations, which might happen in the case of the United States, whose dealings with us are on a cold-blooded bargaining basis and always have been.

Mr. GREEN:

During the course of the discussion on the lumber items last evening the hon. member for Temiscouata (Mr. Pouliot), for whom I have a very sincere regard, made the following statement:

The Tory party is responsible for the decrease in the lumber trade. Whatever they

say they cannot change the facts; they are guilty of that great offence of destroying the lumber trade of this country. That is the fact, and every lumber man is a witness to it.

Those remarks were very largely concurred in by the hon. member for Dauphin (Mr. Ward). I would not presume to explain the situation in eastern Canada, but so far as the lumber trade in the province of British Columbia is concerned, those statements are just the reverse of the facts. From my observations I believe that hon. members are only too anxious to hear the actual facts in regard to any of these questions. I propose to give a brief summary of the position of the lumber trade in British Columbia, and I shall try to give it from a non-partisan viewpoint entirely.

The most important fact, and one that I cannot emphasize too strongly, is that our lumber trade in British Columbia is to-day standing on the foundation of the empire trade agreements, and the one thing we do not want, and the one thing we will not stand for, is to have the empire trade agreements endangered in any way. That statement about the empire trade agreements may sound a little strong to some hon. members, but I think I can best explain it by giving the committee a picture of the lumber trade during a few of the recent years.

The figures I am going to give the committee are taken from the 1935 report of the trade extension committee of British Columbia Lumber and Shingle Manufacturers Limited, an organization composed of all the leading lumber exporters of British Columbia. It is a non-partisan organization concerned only with promoting the lumber trade. May I say that behind all foreign trade, of which we hear so much, there has been the splendid work of some group of Canadian citizens, and I do not think there is any group of citizens in Canada to-day deserving of more credit for promoting our foreign trade than is this group of lumber men in my own province. They have gone to great expense to send trade representatives to the different dominions; they have gone to Washington to try to reason with the government there; they have really

Mr. H. C. GREEN (Vancouver South):

There is very little that I can add to the discussion on this resolution, but there is one material feature which should be brought out, and that is the efficiency with which work for the blind has been carried on in Canada during the last ten or fifteen years, perhaps longer. That is a material point, because the leaders of the blind come before this parliament to-day as a group who have done efficient

Pensions for the Blind

work. I suggest that these men have done all that could possibly be done, and they are now up against a blank wall.

I should like for a minute or two to deal with the work of some of these men. It has been my privilege to see some of them at work. First I should like to mention Captain Baker. Captain Baker lost his sight during the war. He was a promising young engineer, a graduate of Toronto university, decorated for gallantry in the field, and one night he was shot across both eyes and blinded. From that time to the present his life has been an epic of courage and initiative, a life that in times to come I think will be looked back upon by the Canadian people as outstanding in his generation. Captain Baker, like most of the blinded soldiers, was trained at St. Dunstan's in England. When he came back to Canada he took charge of work for blinded soldiers; then he took over work for all the blind in Canada. He is now managing director of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and probably one of the leading younger executives in Canada to-day.

Captain Baker has been able to draw around him several other leading young men, for instance, Mr. Harris Turner, who although blinded overseas was at one time leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition in Saskatchewan; also there is Mr. Myers, and we have in Vancouver M. C. Robinson, superintendent of the western division of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Mr. Robinson was blinded overseas at the age of nineteen, and his work and experience have almost duplicated that of Captain Baker. Then we have Joe Clunk, placement officer of the institute, an American, a qualified solicitor doing wonderful work; and we have the work of the Layton family in Montreal.

I refer to these men for this reason, that in all their work their main idea has been to help to make the blind people independent, make them feel that they are taking their share in the life of the nation. In addition they have tried to raise the morale of the blind. As many hon. members know, blind people easily become discouraged, and it is no wonder they do. These leaders of the blind have started social clubs; for instance in Vancouver we have a club known as the Nil Desperandum club, which might be interpreted as the Never Say Die club. By such means the morale of the blind has been greatly improved. Despite this able leadership and good work there is a class of blind people for whom little can be done, and they are the ones for whom we are asking help to-day, the blind over forty years of age. These older blind folks are in many cases not active enough to work for wages; the

majority of them have not the initiative to run concession stands, or carry on a business of their own and are really unemployable; they are just stranded, and I would suggest that the government could very well extend the provisions of the Old Age Pensions Act to cover these people.

The Old Age Pensions Act is particularly suitable because under its provisions only those blind people who are not earning a certain income would get assistance, and it would throw a portion of the burden on the provinces, which, while perhaps not so good for the provinces, would -ensure their checking very carefully every application for a pension.

I personally am convinced that if we in the parliament of Canada adopt this resolution we shall be expressing the sympathetic feeling of Canadians generally for the blind and carrying out the wish of an overwhelming majority of the people of our nation.

Mr. GREEN:

What is the approximate

number of whites engaged in this work with the Indians, and what are the types of work?