Report of Another Journey

LT.-COL. LEGGE: Today we are to hear at this special meeting of the Canadian Club of Toronto and The Empire Club of Canada, an address by the Publisher of the Toronto Telegram, Mr. John Bassett. This is the second time in recent years that our clubs have met jointly to hear Mr. Bassett report his observations and impressions of his journeys abroad. At a time when all Canadians are so proud of the richness of our ever-unfolding development and so eager to have Canada's strong voice listened to in the councils of the West, it is necessary for us to know of the accomplishments and aspirations, as well as the difficulties and needs of others.

Mr. Bassett's career has revolved around newspapers and he is in a particularly favoured position to bring us accurate reports and wise opinions. Our speaker came to the Telegram as Director of Advertising in 1948, and after a term as General Manager he assumed control as Chairman and Publisher in 1952. He is also the Past President of the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association, a Director of the Canadian Press and the President of the Sherbrooke Daily Record.

Mr. Bassett attended Ashbury College, Bishop's College School and Bishop's University at Lennoxville, Quebec. During the war he served as an Infantry Major in Italy, with the famed Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. John Bassett is a young man whose interests reach out beyond his profession to sports and to charities, because he is a Director of the Argonaut Football Club, a Director of the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and a Trustee of the Hospital for Sick Children. This year he was specially honoured as a guest of the Israeli Government on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel.

The Publisher of the Telegram is, therefore, a man of many activities and achievements whom I am pleased to introduce in the phrase of Rabbi Slonim as "the incomparable John Bassett", who will now give us his 'Report of Another Journey'.

MR. BASSETT: It was this month three years ago that I had the pleasure of speaking to you before, upon my return from a rather extended trip to Europe, at which time I had the opportunity of talking to political leaders in France, Italy and England. I am delighted to have this opportunity today to discuss with you some of the things that I talked about with journalists and politicians in Italy and England, and above all, to share with you the experiences that I enjoyed during an eleven day trip to Israel as the guest of that state's government. Some of you will perhaps remember that three years ago I spoke, among other things, of the growing stature of Canada in international affairs and of the respect in which this country is held, both by the people and the political leaders of other nations.

I am sure you will be as pleased as I was to know that Canada not only continues to hold a high place in the affections of the people of other lands, but also that more and more political leaders of friendly nations are looking to this country to set an example of constructive leadership in foreign affairs. By personal experience, I found garded as an important force on the side of peace and, in out that everywhere in the western world Canada is refact, the stature of this country is still, in my opinion, much more fully recognized in Jerusalem, London and Rome than it is in Halifax, Toronto or Vancouver. My view is that one of the most important developments that we, as individual Canadians, must strive for, is to bring to fruition a greater realization of the role we must be prepared to play in world affairs, and an acceptance on the individual level of national responsibility.

I should like to give one example of what I mean, taken from my last visit to Rome. I have twice been back to Rome since I spoke to you three years ago, and my report to you then about conditions in Italy has been fully justified by events. The progress and development and political stability of this country continues. The return to power of the Christian Democrats in the elections of just ten days ago demonstrates that Italians are determined to remain firmly within NATO on the side of the free world. Italians have obviously decided that they cannot afford the political gymnastics which have brought France to the brink of civil war and almost to the abyss of ruin.

But, while I had been in Rome on several occasions stretching back to the War year of 1943, I had never been there on Easter Day as I was this time. The square of St. Peter's on Easter Sunday morning is, of course, one of the most impressive sights in the world, and last Easter under a cloudless sky it presented a vista that was a mixture of such colour and solemnity that anyone who beheld it could not possibly forget the sight. The Pope, at 83, spoke from the great balcony of St. Peter's in seven different languages, with the strength and vigour of a man of 60. It was a most remarkable performance and his speech was full of political wisdom and sound advice.

You may ask what this has to do with Canadian adulthood. Well, gentlemen, it has this to do with it. Surely the time has come when this nation can put aside old and outworn religious prejudices so that we can now have diplomatic representation at the Vatican.

This tiny temporal State is one of the best listening posts of Europe. With the exception of Canada and the United States, all the major and most of the minor countries of the world have ministers or ambassadors at the Papal Court. This has nothing to do with religion at all.

At this stage of Canada's growth and importance it just does not make sense that we are dependent on backstairs gossip or some side door channel for the information which we gather from this centre, when we could boldly be welcomed at the front door and gain all the advantages to be had from representation at Vatican City which, of course, has connections all over the world, even behind the Iron Curtain. I believe that the political moment in Canada has now arrived when we have an English-speaking, protestant Prime Minister from western Canada, who could in no way be accused of favouring his own coreligionists, to make this appointment now, to make it before the United States does, because by such a move we would demonstrate clearly our own independence and a further important step in our national process of growing up.

Conditions in Italy are generally good, and when I was there just three and a half weeks ago, the shadow of North America's recession had not lengthened to be discernible in Italy. The post-war building boom continues, and in my view democracy is becoming more firmly anchored every day.

Leaving Rome, we flew direct to Tel Aviv where the next eleven days were to be among the most exciting and rewarding of my life. Every facility in Israel to learn about that country was put at our disposal, not only were we shown everything we asked to see, and not only were we received by the Prime Minister, Ben-Gurion, and the Foreign Minister, Mrs. Golda Meir, but we were introduced to educators, industrialists, soldiers and civilians of every walk of life, and we were taken from the northern border at Lebanon, south to the Red Sea.

It has now become a cliché to describe Israel as a land of contrasts, but, as in most clichés, there is considerable truth in this description. Along the fertile valley of the Sharon, which runs Just south of Tel Aviv up to Haifa bordering the Mediterranean Sea, are some of the most fertile fields that one could see anywhere in the world. Along this Mediterranean strip also are luxury hotels as comfortable as any on the Cote d'Azur, and indeed at the Dolphin house owned by the Lourie family and managed by the brother of our guest, His Excellency, who is here today, is comfort and gaiety that reminds one of the British West Indies or the Riviera. Yet, within a few miles of this hotel in the hills of Galilee, Arab shepherds are tending their flocks as they have been doing for more than two thousand years. Again, in contrast to the rich orange groves, the green hills of the north and the lush fields of the Sharon valley, are the bleak desert acres of the Negev, stretching south to Beersheba and on to Eilat, Israel's Red Sea port and window to the East. The Israelis will tell you that they have plenty of land and plenty of water, but unfortunately the water is in the north and the land is in the south. But beyond the physical aspects of the country, Israel, of course, is a land of contrast in its people. There are 2,000,000 inhabitants in an area about twice the size of Lake Ontario, and these people come from 70 different backgrounds and cultures and countries. They are as different in intelligence and education as a Jewish professor from North America, a skilled surgeon from Europe is from a Yemenite Jewish immigrant who has never seen running water, never used a knife or fork, and has probably never slept under any roof except a straw one. The million immigrants taken into Israel in the past ten years have come from the United States, Canada, Europe, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, South Africa and, indeed, the complete list would cover an atlas of the world. There is a great lesson to gain in what this tiny country has done in building Israeli citizens out of new arrivals from so many different countries, of such vastly different backgrounds, because, gentlemen, they have made citizens out of these new arrivals in a way which warms the heart and excites the mind.

During the time I spent in Israel, I was continually reminded of England during the war years. There was the same dedication of purpose and single-mindedness of effort. There was the same determination on the part of individuals to sacrifice their personal wishes and desires for the national good that was so well known to many of us here during those years of 1939 on in the United Kingdom. Combined with this purpose, was a laughing, gay and friendly humour that again reminded me of the warm and friendly good humour of the English during that great time of their crisis.

The task of making Israeli citizens out of all these new arrivals has, as I have said, been carried out in a most remarkable way. First, religion has played its part because no matter how widely the Jews have been scattered over the past two thousand years, the ancient laws and the ancient prophets have been the one thing that they have held in common. Through the teaching of religion at least some hebrew has been maintained through all the years of wandering. This, then, is a beginning, and from this comes the next step of citizenship, which can best be summed up in the word `service'.

You will remember that when I spoke to you three years ago, I strongly urged the necessity of compulsory military service in Canada. I did so, not out of any desire to see us develop a military state, although I believed then, as I do now, that preparedness is the first responsibility of citizenship. But I have advocated compulsory military service for most of my adult life because I have always believed that this is the best possible way in a country like Canada to build in our young people a sense of responsibility combined with the idea that they must give something to their country as well as take. I believed also that by mixing young Canadians from varied backgrounds and different geographical parts of the country in a common life of service under discipline, we could build a nation and a national consciousness more quickly than in any other way.

If any proof were needed of the rightness of this view, it is to be found in Israel. In this country every man must serve two and a half years in the army, navy or air force, and every unmarried girl must spend two years. Upon completion of this service, there is a month each year of refresher training, and I have no doubt that soldier for soldier there is no finer army in the world than the Israel army. Its morale is high, its troops are well trained and tough, and in the event of an emergency this country can mobilize 250,000 armed and trained men in 36 hours, which is a remarkable feat by any standard. The Israeli army, of course, has never been defeated in battle, and they believe themselves to be good, even to the point of cockiness. Observers, with more military experience than I, agree with this opinion they hold of themselves, as, of course, do I. But more than this, the army plays a very key role in Israeli life as it is the chief educational force in the country and is, what Prime Minister Ben-Gurion has called, the fire which heats the cauldron in which the nation is being welded. In case after case, the new arrival in Israel is given his first lessons in reading and writing of hebrew in the army. I saw classes of only two or three being instructed in elementary alphabetical hebrew, and then larger classes being instructed in geography and history.

Without the army, there would, of course, be no Israel because after the state was founded ten years ago by the United Nations the Arab countries would have engulfed it during the war of liberation if the army, men and women, side by side, had not fought to give their country birth. But, more than this, modern Israel, which has made greater strides of development in every field of human endeavour in the past ten years than any other free nation, could not have done so without the army to teach its citizens that no matter from whence they came they were united in a common bond of national service and national development. It is not necessary to have spent the few years I did in the army to be inspired by the dedication and the singleness of purpose of these men and women, who carry the main burden of defense in the Middle East for the whole free world, to the high ideal of building a nation united and strong which will embrace within its borders a conception of freedom and western democracy such as we know it here and which exists nowhere else in the whole Middle East. I have not meant to give the impression that Israel is an armed camp. It most certainly is not. Israel passionately desires peace to carry on its great task of providing a state and homeland for all who wish to come.

The material development and growth of the country is impressive. Among other places, we visited Eilat on the Red Sea, which is perhaps the best example of the Israelis' determination to fulfill their Prime Minister's pledge to conquer the Negev, the country's large desert area. Two years ago, There was little more than 500 people in this town which stretches between the borders of Jordan and Egypt for only six miles, and where a few hundred of yards across the sea can be seen the hills of Saudi Arabia. Today, it is a growing city of over 4,000 who are fighting soil and climate to build a new port, a new city, and a new life. The day we were there, the temperature was 104" but, happily, the sea water is cool and refreshing. The people are confident and strong, and the average age of the whole community is under 35. Building goes on everywhere, from new small industries to the spreading town site to the new hospital, new schools and a fine new modern hotel. The building and development is not limited, of course, to the desert areas but continues in the big cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and in the development of new farms in the more settled areas. The whole watchword of the country seems to be `build and grow'.

I do not intend to go into detail about the structure of Israeli society or the make-up of its political parties, but I feel sure you would want me to say something about that country's Prime Miniser and national hero, David Ben-Gurion, who plays such an important part on the world scene. Ben-Gurion is not only one of the most astute politicians alive, but he is a man of great intellectual ability and compelling personality, blending with a deep well of good humour. Only 5'5", his tremendous brow and out-thrust chin combined with the spectacular tufts of white hair not only make one quite unaware of his lack of height but combined with his personality, he dominates any group he is in. I described him in an article which I wrote for my newspaper as a combination of Churchill and Einstein in appearance, and a combination of the human qualities so well known in the late Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. This may seem like extravagant praise, but the impression is borne out by the facts. I shall give you two examples. At the age of about 65, he was determined to read the Greek classics in the original, so he set about learning the language so that today he fluently speaks and reads Greek, and is regarded as a Greek scholar. Secondly, as Prime Minister of Israel some half dozen years ago, he was concerned that the emphasis of agriculture was not being sufficiently stressed and, further, that the influx of new immigrants must never be allowed to overlook the fact that development of the lard was a first objective of the nation. Instead of making a speech or passing a law, he determined by personal example to make his point. There could be no clearer indication of the character of the man than the fact that he resigned his post as Prime Minister and went into one of the most remote communal farms in the country in the heart of the desert, where he lived as a simple farmer for two years. Needless to say, his example fired the imagination of the country and, indeed, the world. This is the man who leads Israel and the spirit which flows from him is matched by the spirit and inspiration which he derives from his people. It may be taken as a political fact that this nation will survive and grow, or all of its inhabitants will be driven into the sea or put to the sword. There will be no compromise.

Mrs. Golda Meir, the Foreign Minister, is a woman in her early sixties, large of stature, an incessant smoker and a former Milwaukee school teacher. She is representative of all the government leaders, both political and in the civil service, whom I met in Israel in her dedication to her job and in the long hours spent at her desk. Although she still has a sister living in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1 felt from conversations with her that her life before coming to Israel no longer held much meaning and was, indeed, somewhat unreal to her. She has immense patience and great capabilities in carrying out what is a most difficult and frustrating task in trying to steer a course between the maintenance of peace and the development of the natural aspirations of her country. All of us are fortunate that a woman of her capacity and intelligence is filling this important role in such an explosive area.

The differences between Arab and Israeli are well known but there is perhaps one fact which is not sufficiently understood. Israel is working to survive as a free democratic nation surrounded by countries whose systems of government range from the complete medieval tyranny of Yemen and Saudi Arabia to the dictatorship of Egypt. Only in Lebanon is there even a pretence of freedom or, democracy in the Arab world. Most Canadians regard Egypt, for instance, as a modern progressive state, but the fact is that 80% of the Egyptians are illiterate. In all Arab countries, poverty and disease is the rule, not the exception. In Saudi Arabia, rich in oil beyond the dreams of avarice, the national budget and private purse of the King are one and the same thing. As a result, Arab leaders fear Israel not only because of its unity and its prowess in arms, but because of the development of this country, through the freedom of all its citizens, whereby the poorest and the lowliest have the opportunity to lead a full life with political and religious freedom. This is a threat to existing Arab regimes far beyond the force of tanks or guns.

The Arab leaders know that when the day comes when the Arab peasant realizes that by diversion of the tremendous financial resources of Arab-controlled oil into schools, hospitals and agricultural development, he can throw off the yoke of poverty, ignorance and disease, then the day of the Nassers and the Ibn Sauds is over. The threat of Israel is the age old threat that freedom and progress has always been to ignorance and tyranny. For this reason, the Arab leaders use the same weapon that has been used through the ages and as recently as pre-war Germany, the weapon of passion and `hate the Jew'.

When we left Israel, we flew direct to London and had eight days there before going on to see the Brussels fair and coming home. While in England, I was received by the Prime Minister, Mr. Macmillan, and had an opportunity also to talk to Sir David Eccles and discuss the possibility of expanding Canadian and British trade. Since my last visit to the Old Country a year ago, I had read that the long struggle of the post-war years had finally brought Britain to the brink of despair and as one American columnist, Mr. Alsop, said, 'He could smell in England the stink of defeat'. I can report that the spirit and assurance of Britain is high and firm. Not only could I find no signs of defeat but I found the same certainty in England that I have always found, that this nation believes it has a most important role to play in world affairs. Mr. Macmillan is calm and unruffled, and obviously believes that he and his party are equipped to lead in these uncertain times. His mandate still has almost two years to run, and in spite of political defeats in municipal and county elections, there is certainly no sign of his giving up or resigning before the normal life of his government has ended.

Of particular importance to Canada, I believe is the fact that in England today there is an opportunity for developing Commonwealth relations, both on the political and industrial side, such as has not existed for some years. I believe that if Canadians seize and develop this opportunity, the Commonwealth can emerge as a stronger force for peace and for freedom than at any time since the war. It is my conviction that the United Kingdom is determined, through the exercise of its qualities of steadfastness and responsible leadership, to continue to play a role which so far no other country of the free world has so ably been able to fill.

And now, finally, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, there are just one or two impressions which I wish to leave with you which, I think, are applicable to Canada at this time. First of all, we know that the Middle East is one of the most serious trouble spots of the world. Nasser has just recently returned from Moscow, and we know Russia is making every effort to extend her influence throughout the Middle East and to stir up trouble there for the West.

What role then should Canada play? I believe that our part should be one of unabashed and full support for the State of Israel. I believe it because I am convinced that in helping Israel and its development we are helping ourselves. If war should come to the Middle East, the only effective fighting forces immediately available are the United States Sixth Fleet and the Israeli army. For this alone, this small country deserves all our help. But from the long term point of view Israeli can mean much more than just an immediate, effective fighting force to the free world. If, through its example, Israel finally can show to the other peoples of that area that freedom and democracy offer a fuller life than dictatorship and autocracy, then peace can come to the whole Middle East. I believe that Israel is giving this example and can achieve this objective provided the western nations are prepared to play their part.

Canada, never having been a colonial power and having no international ambitions except to try and help in keeping the peace of the world, can give a lead in supporting the objectives of Israel. I believe we should do so at every opportunity, both at the government level and through a greater effort on the part of individuals to understand and appreciate what this nation is trying to do.

THANKS OF THE MEETING were expressed by Mr. B. T. Richardson, President of the Canadian Club.