Borden 's successor as prime minister , Arthur Meighen , was not so lucky . There could be no disguising the differences that divided Australia and Canada over the question of renewing the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902 . In Australian eyes , this mutual defence pact remained the best , and perhaps the only effective , guarantee against Japanese aggression . However , Washington strongly opposed the treaty , which effectively excluded it from a major role in policing the Pacific . Although Meighen was a staunch imperialist , he could not ignore the fact that renewing the Anglo-Japanese alliance would almost certainly strain Anglo-American relations and force Canada into the untenable position of having to choose between its two major allies . Given the issues at stake , Meighen and Hughes arrived in London for the 1921 Imperial Conference , each resolved to have his own way . Hughes opened the conference by defiantly insisting on the treaty 's immediate renewal . Over the course of the next few days , the Australian cause was championed by an array of British imperial talent that included Lord Curzon , the Foreign Secretary , and Arthur Balfour , the Lord President of the Council . Undaunted , Meighen charged dramatically ahead . Canada , he declared , had " a special right to be heard , " for , in the event of war between the United States and the Empire , Canada " would be the Belgium . " No possible form of this treaty , he continued , would satisfy the United States . The Empire had no choice but to scrap the offending treaty
1921 Imperial Conference
1921 Imperial Conference
Australia–Canada relations