more
acceptable to Japan's pride than direct Canadian restrictions would
have been, and proved equally effective, as the number of Japanese
entering Canada averaged only six hundred in the following years. The
Dominion Government's course was open to criticism in some points, but
its earnest endeavour to safeguard imperial as well as national
interests, and the success of Mr Lemieux's diplomacy, were indications
that the Dominion was rising to the demands of its new international
position. Incidentally it was the Government's unwillingness to agree
to complete Japanese exclusion that in 1908 brought the loss of every
seat, save one, in British Columbia.

{256}

After the Alaskan boundary had been settled, no critical issue arose
between the two North American democracies for several years. There
were still questions outstanding which in earlier days would have given
opportunity for tail-twisting or eagle-plucking politicians to make
trouble, but in the new era of neighbourliness which now dawned they
were settled amicably or allowed to fall into blessed oblivion.

A remarkable change in the spirit in which the two peoples regarded
each other came about in this period. The abandonment by the United
States of its traditional policy of isolation, its occupation of the
Philippines, its policy of the open door for China, its participation
in the Morocco dispute, effected a wonderful transformation in the
American attitude towards questions of foreign policy and compelled a
diplomacy more responsible and with more of give and take. This led to
incidents--such as that in Manila Bay, when a British admiral lined up
alongside the American fleet against a threatening German
squadron--which made it clear that Great Britain was the one
trustworthy friend the United States possessed. The steady growth of
democratic feeling in Britain, her daring {257} experiments in social
betterment, her sympathetic treatment of the Irish and South African
questions, increased the friendliness and the interest which the
majority of Americans felt at bottom for what was their motherland.
Canada's prosperity awakened respectful interest. A country which
fifty or a hundred thousand good Americans every year preferred to
their own must be more than the negligible northern fringe it once was
thought to be.

Canada reciprocated this more friendly feeling. Prosperity mended her
querulous mood and made her too busy to remember the grievances