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Loring C. Christie and the Imperial idea: 1919-1926 :t:f ALEX. I. INGLIS The life and work of Loring Cheney Christie have long been veiled in the traditional anonymity of Canada's Department of External Affairs and those who practise the historian's trade have done little to penetrate that veil. He has been mentioned in passing in various works dealing with other persons and events of the first half of the twentieth century. A. R. M. Lower1 has examined his role in the summoning of the Washington Conference of 1921-22 and C. P. Stacey2 has provided us with a summary of Christie's career and thought as an example of those who, during the early 1920's, were "disturbed and uncertain" about the country 's future. Finally, Robert Bothwell has chosen him as the subject of a doctoral dissertation. Christie, however, is likely to remain an enigma in Canadian history until his life has been made the subject of a fullscale historical study. Only then will it be possible to assess the effect of this man's penetrating mind on Canada's first timid steps onto the stage of foreign policy and his contribution to the development of the Dominion's position in the British Empire and in the world. This paper has a much less ambitious scope and purpose. On March· 1, 1915, Christie wrote to Charles Magrath3 urging the necessity for the members of the British Commonwealth to ... make some conscious effort to come more closely together and deliberately join their destinies, [otherwise ] the thing that is the British Commonwealth is, like all aspirations that are merely of the lip and not of a heart convinced to the point of effort and sacrifice, destined ulti- • a paper presented to the annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association at Winnipeg, June 3, 1970. Journal of Canadian Studies mately to "fade slowly out into the pale irony of the void" .... Some of us believe that even if we are to look at it from our own viewpoint - as of course we shall such union yet holds out to Canada a destiny finer than any of our narrower dreams....Some of us believe that the challenge of these times, if we will but accept it, offers to us a new birth to manhood....in short, a chance at least to save our soul of Canada. With this conviction intact Christie turned in 1919 to face the challenges of the post-war era. Seven years later, at the time of Locarno, he reversed this position and became, in J. W. Dafoe's words, "the ·foremost Nationalist of us al1!"4 It is the nature and depth of Christie's commitment to the "Imperial Idea" in the years following World War I and the decision to reject it in 1926 that is the subject of this paper. II Loring Christie was 28 years old when, in 1913, at the invitation of Robert Borden he resigned from the United States Department of Justice and returned to his native Canada to become Legal Adviser to the Department of External Affairs. The Department which he joined was small; so small that his recruitment increased its complement of officers by fifty per cent. In this setting Christie's considerable intellectual and expository talents emerged brilliantly, and Borden, if he had entertained any doubts, was soon convinced that he had indeed made a wise choice. As the war imposed increasing burdens upon the Prime Minister, Christie became Borden's confidential private secretary. In that capacity, and as Legal Adviser, he accompanied Sir Robert to the 1917 and 1918 meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet and Conference and, with the cessation of hostilities, to the Paris Peace Conference. Borden's resignation in 1920 did not ad19 versely affect Christie's pos1t1on. The new Prime Minister and Secretary of State for External Affairs found, as Borden had, that Christie was a valuable man whose voice should be heard. When Arthur Meighen attended the 1921 Imperial Conference he was accompanied by Christie and when Meighen advocated the abandonment of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the holding of a conference of Pacific powers, he based his position on a...

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