66 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

CHAPTER IIL

THE CANADIAN VIEW OF ENGLISH
POLITICS.

No one who goes to Canada can fail to be struck
by the surprisingly meagre information about
Great Britain that is supplied by the Canadian
newspapers. Foreign telegrams fill a very small
part of these journals: scarcely any of them appear
to have foreign correspondents, and they rely
almost entirely upon one or two news agencies.
However, in a country which is too large for any
paper to have much more than a local circulation,
and where every little township has its two or
more morning and evening papers, it can hardly
be expected that a paper will be in a position to
afford a large outlay upon foreign intelligence. It
is very unfortunate that this is so, for it must
necessarily narrow the outlook of the average
Canadian upon matters of Imperial and even worldwide
 concern, and it often makes him extremely
impatient of British foreign policy simply through
ignorance of the complicated interests at stake.
The paucity and badness of the news is an
Imperial misfortune, and it is to be hoped wireless
 telegraphy or direct cable communication
will one day remove the necessity of filtering