{OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
CANADA}
Ottawa,
April 10, 1946
C. Mortimer Bezeau, Esq.,
12 Ellen Street East,
Kitchener, Ontario.
My dear Bezeau:
I have read with care your letter of the 5th instant and its enclosure.
As you know, I have given much thought to the question of compulsory arbitration as a means of settling industrial disputes. I wish it were possible to believe that Labour and Capital would accept arbitration by the courts of their disputes. I greatly fear, however, that were a Board of Arbitration, with powers similar to those of our courts, established, to other difficulties we would have added that of open defiance of the courts, which might serve to make the last state worst than the first.
You say that you feel sure this would work if, for the courts, "the right personnel” could be obtained. That I agree with, but where will you find the right personnel?
This is only a hasty acknowledgment of your letter. I still hope that the day will come when the rule of law will find its immediate application to industrial and international disputes as well as to ordinary civil disputes. Much, however, in the way of education will be required meanwhile.
[handwritten] I hope you and members of your family all keep well [end handwritten]
With kindest personal regards
Yours very sincerely,
[signed] W.L. Mackenzie King
[handwritten] X I am all for compulsory investigations, before a strike or lockout [?] [?] [?] of an [?] [?] [?] matter. [end handwritten]
