The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 6

By Charles Lynch 'Driving French' Wxt (Bfastttt Founded June 3, 1771 Ffinico and Published by Printing Company limited' 1C00 St. Antoine Srresr, Montreal 101 A Southam Newspaper Charlei H. Peters Publisher Denis Harvey J. Peter Kohl John Meyer Extcutiva Editor General Manager Editor Second doiS moil registrotion number 0619. All rights of republication reserved Wednesday, July 12, 1972 McGovern's convention OTTAWA Among the things that strike the traveller freshly returned from France are the absence of walls in Canada, and the lack of movement.

Walls and fast driving may not seem to have much in common, but the French are very big on both, and occasionally their fast drivers come Into violent contact with their walls. This doesn't disturb the walls in the slightest, but it sure helps keep the population down. First, the walls. Frenchmen have been building them for more centuries than they or anybody else cares to remember, and one gets the feeling they have never been happy with anything, be it home, city or farm, until they have built a wall around it. Our fences are flimsy things, by comparison.

Walls for privacy They build walls of brick, of stone, of earth, of iron, of wood, and one assumes if all else failed they would pile up crusty loaves of bread, or hoary mounds of cheese, or empty wine bottles, which abound in France as empty oil drums nkAimi4 in inA rinilidn nnrth with the losing side, lie threw away whatever hope he may have had for the vice presidency. The old Llncolnesquc image is replaced by Stepin Fetchit. Mr. McGovern can now polish his acceptance speech and look ahead to the larger task in November. Judged by traditional standards at this juncture, his chance of success does not look strong.

It was only a few months ago, however, that Mr. McGovern's Democratic rivals were virtually ignoring him. Mr. McGovern went on to beat them singly and now he has beaten them again in combination. He has succeeded where others failed in tapping and nourishing his candidacy on the ferment working in American social and political life.

He has appeared new when others have appeared worn. His is an offbeat appeal, and it is this quality which has lulled the Republicans, like his Democratic rivals, into regarding him as a weak candidate. He may prove Republicans wrong too. In belatedly but positively bowing out of contention for the Democratic nomination for president, Senator Humphrey has led the convention from its first-night storm into the calm of anti-climax. Senator McGovern should now ride easily to first-ballot nomination and principal interest will now centre on the choice of a vice-presidential running mate.

Mr. Humphrey, Mr. McGovern's strongest opponent, will undoubtedly become, once the tears of defeat have dried, one of his strongest supporters. A loyal party man, Mr. Humphrey can do much to win over reluctant labor and bridge the bitter gulf between the convention delegates and Mayor Daley the new and the old among party powers.

Senator Muskie, for his part, has during the last two days only compounded the ineptitude of his early campaign. Pretending to stay aloof, seeking to compromise from weakness and then, in the California showdown, casting his votes and fortunes aiSvUUU 111 UJC VUllUUlUil IJVlMli Behind these walls, one assumes, Frenchmen and Frenchwomen find the degree of privacy they crave, and they compound the effect by sheathing their windows with the most substantial shutters to be found anywhere, which they keep secured against the heat of the day and the perils oi the night. Oddly, the effect is cosy rather than forbidding, perhaps because of their lavish use of vines and climbing shrubs and all kinds, which convert everything into a riot of color at this season of the year. If all the walls of France were laid end to end, the Great Wall of China would look like a curbstone and if all the Speaker's dilemma Holding up the parade Letters Loyola closing proposal protested and who has dissociated himself from their party. Because of a Speaker's necessarily restricted ability to represent his home riding in the Commons, and because of Mr.

Lamoureux's obvious competence in his job, it was proposed at the last session of Parliament that the Speaker's post be made permanent and that a new MP be elected to represent his riding. An excellent suggestion but, again, one on which, because of its political overtones, it is difficult to get political action. Parliament rose for the summer and left the matter hanging. Now it is suggested that Mr. Trudeau, after consulting his cabinet tomorrow and Friday, will decide the date of the next election, though it may not be officially announced until after the cabinet meeting a month hence.

This leaves Mr. Lamoureux with the absurd prospect of having to run an apolitical political campaign, and he may decide to resolve his dilemma by retirement. In a case where good government required a brief transcendence of politics, the Liberals just aren't up to it. Amid reports that Prime Minister Trudeau is remembering after all to call an election, there are signs that Speaker Lucien Lamoureux may be the forgotten man. It would be Canada's loss; the present Speaker, by common consent, is one of the most competent ever.

Although the Speaker is chosen from the party in power, his job of presiding over the House requires that he be above politics. Paradoxically Mr. Lamoureux's success in achieving this goal with fairness, distinction and independence may now bring his downfall. Mr. Lamoureux was originally selected for his post by the Liberals, but he has since severed his affiliation and won election as an unopposed independent.

To help preserve a Speaker's independance. political parties generally refrain from entering candidates against him. This time, however, the NDP has announced it will contest the riding, and the Conservatives have indicated they may do the same. It will be difficult for Liberals to rally behind a man who politically does nothing for them SIR, The Federation of Engl ish Catholic Parent-Teacher Associations of Quebec (PACE) supports Father Malone, the staff and the students of Loyola College in their protest against the mendations of the Council of Universities that vines were spliced together, they would garland the earth. Their decorative and protective ironwork would suffice to build a million Eiffel Towers, with knobs on.

Some of the newer homes in the French countryside look garish, despite their tasteful design, with thatched roofs still being very much in fashion. I couldn't think what made them so jarring until I realized that they hadn't built the walls yet presumably, a separate mortgage industry exits for the financing of walls. Good drivers As to the fast driving, I maintain after three weeks of French provincial motoring that the French are very good drivers, even when they have had a skinfull, which is most of the time. This is something that they don't even claim for themselves, even though their driving tests are the most stringent in the world. President Pompidou himself has lamented their bad driving, and the papers are full of exhortations to motorists to do better.

The French driver, as I have observed him, is doing the best he can with the facilities at hand, which with one or 1 two exceptions do not include a modern interurban highway system. The western half of France has no high speed motorways, but it has a superb system of secondary roads and country lanes. The Frenchman tries to solve the problem by driving on these byways at superhighway speeds. They do this in a disciplined fashion, so that every Frenchman and Frenchwoman knows what every-other one is likely to do in every circumstance. It is assumed that in every circumstance, he or she will flash his or her lights, and keep his or her accelerator pedal jammed tightly to the floor.

They have good reflexes, and they need them since incidents that happen in our society at 35 miles an hour take place in the French context at 70. Approaching blind country intersections, for instance, or passing through the hearts of the numberless country towns and villages. In the French mind, a car is meant to be used at the outer limits of its capabilities, and while speed limits are posted everywhere, nobody observes them, and nobody enforces them. The Canadian newly behind the wheel in France comes to regard his rear view mirror with more apprehension than he does the road ahead, until finally he stops looking into the thing altogether, confident in the knowledge that traffic is piling up behind him and somebody is climbing up his back. dollar that such projections will prove true.

But no member of the Council stands to lose a dollar if Loyola disappears. Even is there were any short-term truth to the projections, let both McGill and Loyola cut down their numbers and sharpen their competition. Bigness may assure Mc-Gill'3 continuing existence, but I doubt that anyone would argue that McGill has maintained either its reputation outside Quebec, or its educational quality, as it has swollen its numbers. Would anybody now gain if McGill were granted a monopoly? Only a few short-sighted gentlemen who would be happy to weaken English The proposition that one or both of these institutions may or will have a decrease in the number of students during the next 10 years is automatically not a valid proposition due to the above-mentioned merging system which will result in large savings in operation costs. Loyola College has richly earned the right to continue and expand in this bilingual city of over two million population.

It would be almost impossible to calculate its contribution to higher education for more than 50 years, not only to English-speaking students and French-speaking students, but to the sons and daughters of many other ethnic cultures. Is it possible that the proposed future program which these two higher-educational institutions will be able to offer is causing uneasiness or envy on the part of one or more of the other colleges or universities presently located on or near the Island of It begins again Loyola disappear as a university. We recognize the contribution Loyola has made to English Catholic university education and the unique place it has earned for itself in the community in which it is located. his Federation strongly deplores the recommendation of the Council of Universities and urges the minister of education to ensure that Loyola continues to exist and that it be an autonomous and chartered university. If education were primarily a matter of bricks and mortar, floor space and equipment then the Council's advice would bear some validity.

However, education is primarily a matter of people, of students, faculty and community and so the Council's advice should be rejected outright. It is clear that Loyola is offering something that is attractive to students otherwise the advance freshman applications for the coming year would not be up 59 per cent. If our educational system exists for the student, as it should, then Loyola is fully justifying its existence. JOHN MACDONALD President in a predominantly Protestant housing project. The Protestants objected, and when British troops moved to block off the Catholics, the battle broke out.

Each side is blaming the other. William Whitelaw, the British governor, terms the affair a deliberate IRA provocation to provide an excuse for renewed warfare. This is hardly a diplomatic remark for a would-be peacemaker, although he may be right. Mr. Whitelaw disclosed Monday that IRA negotiators whom he met secretly Friday had presented unacceptable demands as the price for peace.

Mr. Whitelaw will naturally continue his efforts, but the outlook is not promising. His support among Ulster moderates may dwindle as disappointment drives more and more of that group to the extremists on one side or the other. Britain will experience a trying time if she is left holding the bag in the middle. What would be her role in an Ulster civil war? If the peacemaker must fight both sides at once, the pressure to withdraw may become irresistible.

But if London exits, Dublin enters. This is the most likely long-run solution in any case, but what a pity and waste to forego the chance for reasonable people, Protestant and Catholic, to work out their own destinies. Despite all the talk of religion, the missing essential ingredient remains good faith. The fragile truce born in Northern Ireland just over two weeks ago has now been gunned down in a flurry of bullets and bombs. The Provisional wing of the IRA, last and most reluctant of the parties to the cease-fire, is not surprisingly the first to denounce With the Ulster Defense Association growing daily stronger and more militant, the country teeters at the edge of civil war.

"We don't want a Protestant backlash to come out," a UDA leader said, "but it's here and only to be unleashed. We are big enough, we are strong enough, and we'll fight like hell." What the UDA wants is a return to the old Stormont government ended earner this year. As this dream has grown more remote and the spectre of union with Eire inched nearer, the UDA has become more frustrated and belligerent until it is now the full counterpart of the IRA, complete with guns, barricades, masks and kangaroo courts. It has grown as a malignant and not unrelated counterpoint to patient British efforts aimed at quieting the IRA and restoring some calm so that constructive talks could begin. Now in a quarrel over Belfast housing the calm has blown away and the patient efforts are lost on the wind.

The Catholics had attempted to move some homeless families into empty quarters cultural presence in this province. Loyola is a healthy institution. Joined with Sir George it will provide Quebec with a centre of English culture equal to McGill. At present, for example, its communications department is the best in Canada. Everyone will benefit if we resolve to keep Loyola alive rather than enjoy a brief banquet on its carcass.

Even the supposedly learned members should be able to see that. PAULA Y. CASEY Loyola wanted SIR, We of the Loyola of Montreal Student's Association wish to express our view of the present issue concerning the future of our college. We express our fundamental disagreement with the recommendations made by the Council of Universities in its report to the Ministry of Education. These recommendations, if enacted, would mean the destruction of Loyola.

Loyola has shown in its steadily increasing enrolment, its recent academic innovation and by its general involvement within the commu- Either you speed up, or you pull over, or you seek out country lanes so winding that even the French are daunted, and pray that nobody is coming the other way. I got the hang of it about the second week, after a turn on the speedway at Le Mans, and learned to press the hired Renault in the native way known in our family henceforth as "the week daddy learned to drive French." We didn't hit a wall, or a tree, or a chateau, or a cathedral, or a deer, or cow, or horse, or cyclist, and I came back with my eyes agleam and my reflexes honed. I've already started to work on my wall, and I can't imagine why everybody here drives so slow. Hurrah for Bobby Fischer Montreal? And, if so, would this be one of the reasons why the Council of Universities is recommending the "phasing-out" of Loyola College by the year 1975? If so, it is quite likely that the Quebec minister of education will not tolerate any further discussion the proposal to obliterate or assassinate such a distinguished institution of higher education as is represented by Loyola College. J.

J. M. HART Night students SIR, In the talk of closing Loyola College, one important segment of the student population seems to have been overlooked the evening students. While it is true that the introduction of junior colleges and consequent cutting of university from four to three years will soon result in a surplus of more than 2,000 places at Sir George, these will be almost entirely in the day school. There are at present 5,000 adults at Loyola evening school.

Where are they to go? Sir George evening school is Language transfers nity that it is a vibrant, dynamic and unique institution. More important in th students' eyes has been the college's willingness to create a flexible and more student-oriented curriculum, only possible within a small institution. If the provincial government accepts the Council's proposal it will be a complete reversal from its stand to date concerning Loyola's future. We deeply resent the high-handed manner in which the Council proposes, the mass deportation of students in no way taking into account the Right to grow SIR, The general public is aware that two local higher-learning institutions have been studying the practicability of merging or exchanging a number of their degree-courses or departments in order to provide a greater and more efficient program to their thousands of English-speaking students. These institutions are: Loyola College and Sir George Williams University.

There is a vast difference between closing one or two colleges and the merging or a co-operative agreement between two colleges to provide greater facilities and an increase in the number of degree-courses which would be made available to their students. One of the many advantages the merging of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University is the important matter of campus facilities. The latter institution, because of its location in a downtown commercial area, has no nearby area available for a campus; the former has ample grounds not only containing a campus but a large area suitable for expansion thanks to the foresight of its Board of Administration. A second very important advantage will be the ultimate saving of large amounts and preparation on the part of both contestants. The chess professional and there are very few in the entire world who can earn a respectable living playing the game is answerable to no one but himself.

He wins or loses not because of some coach's acumen but solely on the basis of his own ability. And in this respect, he is always alone. Long after the transient details of Bobby Hull's $3 million deal have been forgotten, long after the current standings of the baseball teams in the National League have been relegated to limbo, a host of eager young men will be pouring over the works of chess art produced in the lifetimes of a Bobby Fischer or a Boris Spaasky. It is therefore fitting that they be paid accordingly and it is more than right that Bobby Fischer should insist on it. I think now of poor old Steinitz, world champion of chess who died in poverty.

I think of the piddling purses offerad in previous championships from the days of Lacha-pelle and Bourdonnais in the 18th century. And, observing with glee the substantial hunks of cash that will go to both loser and winner in this world championship, I am aware that at long last chess has come of age. Grwd luck to Boris Spaasky and Bobby Fischer. And may the better plaver win! CLIFFORD NATHAN SIR, I find it hard to understand why so many seem to feel that Bobby Fischer has behaved like a chess-playing ogre in the manipulations that preceded the final agreement to get on with the world championship tournament. Chess masters have never been noted for their emotional stability and Fischer is no exception.

Tournament chess is a gruelling and exhausting experience and plainly an arena for the young, the fit and the tough. Fischer and Spaasky qualify on all counts and if they didn't they wouldn't now be meeting for the greatest prize in this greatest of all games. One thing is sure. There has never been such world-wide interest in a world championship match than there is in this one and there, is not again likely to be in the foreseeable future. Fischer's petty detractors seem to feel that he should have concerned himself less about money and more about the glory and prestige of being a candidate for the world championship match.

Horsefeathers! For the first time in chess history there has come forward someone who has elevated chess to the category of a contest where the rewards should be proportionate to the ability of the contestants. Remember the prize money is not merely for this one match. Rather it is for a little lifetime of study already full. McGill offers little but interest courses at night. The introduction of junior colleges will have little effect on this class of student for some time.

There is a great deal of lip-service paid by educationists to the idea of adult retraining avoid the dilemma of trying to restrict this movement by substituting its will for that of individual parents that or tolerating a serious erosion of French cultural vitality. But that fairly large movement is not taking place. Nor could it happen unheralded. There are enough people watching the effects of Bill 63 like hawks to detect any true signs of fundamental change. They have been unable, so far, to demonstrate a weakening, either of numbers or of vitality, in the French sector.

If there must be a debate about Bill 63 at this stage, why not look at the real effects in preference to the theoretical? If any sense of proportion is going to be retained, it has to be 'acknowledged that those effects constitute no problem unless one is determined either to close the English schools or reserve them to those adjudged to be pure anglophones. The effects have simply been too slight in relation to the size and diversity of Quebec society. The drama of Bill 63 was all in the enactment. The latest survey, the results of which were tabled in the National Assembly last week, showed that twice as many pupils moved from French to English schools as from English to French. It also showed that the total number of transfers in either direction has amounted to about one per cent of tiie whole Montreal school The facts, as far as they can be ascertained, are threatening to spoil the debate about Bill 63, the law that permits parents to choose either French or English schools.

The most important fact, which scarcely permits of any doubt after three years of operation under the new law, is that few parents-in either linguistic group have been transferring their children to schools where instruction is given in the other language. The change in the pattern of school registrations has been so slight that the claims that this law is having a significant effect on the future of the French language and culture must be greeted with extreme reservation. There had already been a certain number of cross-overs from one language of instruction to the other in the schools, particularly in Montreal and particularly in homes where both languages were already spoken. The principal consequence of Bill 63 appears to have been to eliminate any doubt of the right of people to do this. This law could pose a serious threat to the survival of French if there were a fairly large movement of pupiis from the French-speaking schools into the English.

A fairly large movement could be defined as something in the neighborhood of 10, 15 or 20 per cent of the French school enrollment. The government would then be unable to needs and aspirations of this 1 J.L. 1 ami uie necessity or cnanging group They fail to recognize witwo Ul uui cvci-Liidiigmg that students specifically world. chose to come to Loyola and not to Sir George or McGill. We intend to keep the Loyola students informed of all future developments and we will be prepared to mobilize the community if such action is deemed necessary.

BARRY SHEEY, Executive Vics-President, PETER FEDELE, President, Loyola of Montreal Students' Association Cutting back on this already "poor relation" aspect of education doesn't quite fit those fine words. H. K. BARRINGTON Act of panic SIR, Quebec's Council of Universities has panicked before the latest statistical projections. I am sure that not one of the learned members of that Council would wager a of public tax funds by avoiding duplication of various degree-courses..