CANADA: Truck with the Yankees

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CANADA Truck with the Yankees

There has been more talk this year of Canadian-American friction than at any time since 1911, when a Dominion election was fought, in part, on the issue of "no truck nor trade with the Yankees." The 1951 disagreements, ranging from policy in Asia to the St. Lawrence seaway, have obscured the quiet work of the men who are meshing the two nations' military resources. In three bits of incidental news last week, there was ample evidence that their work is going well: ¶The U.S. Government is acting as purchasing agent for Canada to procure restricted American weapons which U.S. manufacturers are normally forbidden to sell abroad. One example: guns for Canada's F-86 jet fighters. ¶Trainloads of U.S. equipment arriving in the next month will replace the thousands of British-model infantry weapons that Canada has already donated to outfit three NATO divisions in Europe. ¶The U.S. Air Force is lending Canada more than 100 planes for its expanding air training program, pending deliveries of Canadian-made trainers.

Canada and the U.S. have plainly reached a higher degree of military partnership than that existing anywhere else in the Western World. Said a top Dominion official: "This is more than cooperation. It is trust."