Pro-German sentiment undoubtedly lurked in these German Canadian

communities, but it was quiescent and therefore harmless. Hence

anti-German sentiment, which became demonstrative and dangerous upon

the declaration of war by Great Britain, did not direct its attention

to the German settlements, but to the consulates. Those at Vancouver

and Winnipeg were stoned by mobs, and the German and Austrian consuls

were requested to leave the country. There was a fear of spies, and a

number of unaffiliated Germans were arrested and interned.

Then the popular imagination became scared by the remote possibility

of an invasion of Canada by German and Austrian Americans. A feeling

of nervousness over the supposed danger was reported along the

Canadian frontier, though the fears of the border communities were

accounted as groundless. The Government was fully cognizant of

conditions along the border and military activities kept at least

40,000 men either mobilized or under arms in various parts of the

country, composed of 10,000 as guards for home defense and 30,000 in

training for oversea service. The danger, fanciful or not, caused

extra precautions to be taken against any invasion across the Niagara

River. Guards were stationed at Fort Erie, directly opposite Buffalo,

and the whole river front from there to Niagara Falls and Queenstown

was patrolled day and night by between 500 and 600 members of the

newly organized home guards--in automobiles or on motorcycles. The

guard on the Welland Canal was doubled.

There had been occasional trouble with alien workmen at munition

factories, some of which, incidentally, were hemmed in by three

successive fences of barbed wire, outside of which marched armed

sentries. A railroad bridge in the Northwest had been blown up. Later

a sentry on guard at a lock in the Soulanges Canal, near Montreal, had

been shot.

Then followed an attempt to blow up the international bridge between

Maine and New Brunswick. Here were sporadic manifestations which

called for the services of the new home guards to protect railroads

and canals, not only to safeguard Canadian commerce, but because any

destruction of canals and bridges might seriously hamper the work of

forwarding supplies to England. Much of England's food passed through

the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the wreck of one lock by

explosion during the navigation season would be a serious disaster.

After navigation closed the means of forwarding supplies and troops

became even more limited. The Intercolonial Railroad, which is owned

by the Government, was the only line extending to the Atlantic

seaboard without crossing American territory, and for that reason was

the sole artery available for the transport of troops. The entire 700

miles of its main line therefore had to be patrolled.

When found, however, alien enemies were well treated in Canada. They

were but little molested, and unless under actual suspicion were

allowed comparative freedom, being only required to register and

report at certain intervals. Detention camps were subsequently

established for those suspected of plotting and spying and for those

in want. Some Germans and Austrians succeeded in fleeing the country

when the war broke out. A ticket agent at Montreal was tried for

treason--an offense punishable by death--on a charge that he had

assisted them to leave Canada. German and Austrian workmen who did not

leave were not permitted to depart, even to the United States, lest

they should find means of returning to their own countries to join

their armies. Most of them were unemployed; and as alien enemies were

not supposed to be provided for by charitable organizations, they were

assembled in camps to protect them from starvation.

Germany's attitude toward Canada was indicated in a statement credited

to Count von Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington,

regarding the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. The curious contention was

therein made that Canada, by sending troops to fight against Germany,

had violated that doctrine. The alleged violation was not very clear,

unless, from the German viewpoint, it consisted in giving Germany

cause for attacking Canada, which would at once test the effectiveness

of the Monroe Doctrine. But this, the statement said, Germany had no

intention of doing, nor of attempting to colonize Canada after the war

if she were victorious.

Canada refused to take seriously this promise of Germany not to annex

her. Most of the Canadian press waxed sarcastic, and those who dealt

seriously with the German statement seized upon it as an excuse to

beat the recruiting drum for the British army, especially the

implication that, because Canada had sided against Germany, there was

nothing in the Monroe Doctrine to prevent her landing an armed force

in Canada. "Possibly he" (Count von Bernstorff), commented the

Montreal "Herald," "expects the United States will now go out of its

way and tell him how cordially they would welcome such delightful

neighbors on the Canadian side of 3,000 miles of unfortified

territory."

The unexampled conditions created by the war with Canada, of which the

foregoing is a survey--her activities, turmoil, welding of political

cleavages, industrial sacrifices, benevolences, and needless

precautions against unsubstantial dangers--merely featured her real

achievement. This was the creation of an army in being for the

European battle field.

PART IV--CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES

CHAPTER XXII

BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME

When the war broke out in 1914, Great Britain looked to Canada for a

supply of munitions as well as men. Not a shell, cartridge, nor fuse

had ever before been made by a Canadian manufacturer. A new industry

immediately sprang into being, assuming quite large proportions by the

middle of 1915, by which time there were approximately over 400

establishments in full blast. From a modest output in 1914

representing a value of $28,164, the Canadian munitions factories

piled up a record of production which stood at over $1,000,000,000 in

value with the war's close in November, 1918.

The Imperial Ministry of Munitions, which threw out its lines from

London to obtain munitions whence it could, asked much of Canada and

got much. "Who would have dreamed," said a member of the British

Government in 1915, "that Canada would have produced more munitions

than any country in the world except Germany prior to the war?" Of the

projectiles used by all the British armies in the third year of the

war, Canada was producing 55 per cent of the shrapnel shells; 42 per

cent of the 4.5-inch shells; 27 per cent of the 6-inch; 15 per cent of

the 8-inch; and 16 per cent of the 9.2-inch. In fact, when the Germans

complained that the Allied armies were being munitioned by the United

States, they lost sight--or did not know--of the fact that many of the

shells they objected to as American really came from Canada. In

addition to shells and fuses and related products, there were vast

exports of explosives and chemicals, metals, and spruce and fir for

airships and other purposes. The war contracts which started all this

activity were spread over a thousand contractors and called for the

employment of from 200,000 to 300,000 workers.

The table of achievement, as it stands in the Government records, was

as under

VALUE OF MUNITIONS AND MATERIALS EXPORTED FROM CANADA

1914 to December 31 $ 28,164

1915 " 57,213,688

1916 " 296,505,257

1917 " 388,213,553

1918 " 260,711,751

--------------

$1,002,672,413

QUANTITIES EXPORTED

Shells 65,343,647

Fuses 29,638,126

Fuse parts 16,174,073

Cartridge cases 48,627,673

Percussion primers 35,386,488

Exploder containers 13,285,000

Shell and adapter forgings 6,412,115

Explosives and Chemicals-- Lbs.

T. N. T. 14,754,950

Cordite 28,542,157

Other (more than) 41,000,000

Metals and Compounds--

Steel bars 43,077,923

Zinc 35,412,413

Nickel 1,792,000

Other (more than) 27,000,000

Lumber for Aeroplanes-- Feet

Spruce 16,289,227

Fir 6,801,324

Other Lumber--

Douglas fir 11,530,315

Pine--various kinds and qualities 10,360,566

Spruce 8,345,675

This table bears a little amplification, more especially as to the

disposition of the huge volume of lumber logged. Much of it, as will

be seen, went into the manufacture of aeroplanes. A plant at Toronto,

financed with British capital, but organized and operated by

Canadians, manufactured 2,050 complete machines, turning out 350 a

month. The airships represented a value of $6,700,000, and required

over 2,000 workers in their construction. The plant also provided a

number of flying boats for the United States Navy.

Canada's shipbuilding record was no less notable. Her yards turned out

103 vessels (45 steel, 58 wooden) with an approximate dead-weight

carrying capacity of 367,367 tons. In addition, the Department of

Naval Service undertook to build a number of small warcraft for

various Allied governments. These little vessels were produced at

various points on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. For the

British Government Canadian yards supplied 12 submarines, 60 armed

trawlers, 100 armed drifters, 550 coastal patrol motor boats, and 24

steel lighters for use in Mesopotamia; for the French Government, 6

armed trawlers and 36 coastal patrol motor boats; for the Italian

Government, 6 submarines; and for the Russian Government one large

armed ice breaker and some submarines.

The outstanding feature of all the munition making was, as the table

shows, the production of shells. It needed nimble feminine fingers to

turn out the very nub of a shell, namely, the fuse. Consider the

record of a huge factory near Montreal, which engaged in loading and

assembling time and percussion fuses, completing in all 8,400,000. The

work involved the blending of fast and slow burning powders; forcing

the powder into the time rings under a pressure of 68,000 pounds per

square inch; assembling the fifty-two component parts which made up

the complete fuse; the packing, checking, and shipping the completed

product. Women became expert in the work of fuse making, which meant

being careful even to the 1-1000th of an inch.

"A shell with a defective fuse," wrote one observer of their work, "is

worse than no shell at all. It may fail to explode, it may explode in

the wrong place, at the wrong time, or in the wrong way." Canadian

women made fuses that made the perfect shell. Not only in fuse making

did they excel; heavy work became easy when machines, at the

suggestion of the women themselves, were changed in position. Finally

there was no difference in the work done by men and women. Within five

weeks of the time they first heard of a 9.2-inch shell 400 women in

one factory were successfully turning them out, performing every

operation from that subsequent to the fabrication of the metal to and

including that of shipping.

Before October, 1916, no women had ever worked in Canada as producers

in a metal plant. There was a prejudice against employment of women.

The need of shells and the need of shell makers dissipated prejudice

and put women into Canadian munitions plants. At first they were given

the light work to do and were set to tending a machine; work that

required little intelligence on the part of the operator, but was

extremely trying on the nerves. It soon became apparent that women

excelled in work that required accuracy and delicate handling.

Women worked cheerfully and long. In the time of greatest need there

were 35,000 women at work in the munitions factories of Canada; after

the first call there was no shortage of women help. For various good

reasons it was decided to give a badge without charge to any woman who

worked for thirty days continuously. For each additional six months'

service a bar was added. In all, 18,999 badges and 8,032 service bars

were used in Canada. They were earned as follows: One bar, 4,003; two

bars, 1,135; three bars, 447; four bars, 84; five bars, 16; six bars,

2.

In addition a commemorative badge was awarded to all workmen in the

various plants who served continuously for a year or more. Far from

disturbing labor conditions the entry of women into munitions plants

aroused the most wonderful cooperation and enthusiasm and actually

dispelled what might have been a serious drawback in "serving the man

who serves the gun."

It began with a Shell Committee, composed of honorary members, which

was formed when the British Government decided that Canada was a good

field for producing shrapnel shells, especially as basic steel--the

only steel Canada turned out--proved serviceable for shell making.

The Shell Committee placed contracts on behalf of the British War

Office, but the volume of business expanded to such a degree that the

committee only gave place to a board directly responsible to the

Imperial Ministry of Munitions. The work of this Munitions Board

developed a number of auxiliary departments, directed by business men

located in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, who handled

enormous purchases of materials for use in munition making, supervised

construction, conducted logging operations, and checked and rectified

all engineering gauges. The forging of steel had to be arranged and

the forgings and components distributed to the machining plants

situated in the various Provinces. Shipbuilding required the

acquisition of much timber and supplies for the hulls and the

construction of engines and boilers.

These national plants were erected at Trenton, Renfrew, and Nobel for

producing nitrocellulose, cordite, and T. N. T., with acid plants, and

a factory for turning out acetone and methyl-ethyl-ketone. In the

forging operations steel turnings had to be melted in electric

furnaces, the steel thus subsequently produced being converted into

forgings. The manufacture of aeroplanes for the Royal Air Force

included a constructional section which built all aerodromes, machine

shops, barracks, and officers' quarters at the various camps. The

logging operations, which were conducted in British Columbia, produced

spruce and fir for aeroplanes, and called for fleets of tugs which

delivered the logs to cutting mills. Every kind of material that could

be made available for war purposes was explored for by the Munitions

Board in areas of natural resources hitherto undeveloped, with the

result that industries new to Canada were established. One development

was an extensive production of alloys used in the manufacture of

high-speed cutting tools. Another achievement was the creation of the

explosive and propellent industry.

The manufacture of munitions spread over the whole of Canada, with the

exception of Prince Edward Island--which is exclusively

agricultural--and even invaded the island of Newfoundland. From the

first factory in the east to the last factory on the Pacific coast was

a journey of 4,500 miles.

"Steel," it was recorded, "was purchased wherever it could be

obtained. It was shipped 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 miles to have it

forged. From the forging plant it was shipped back again 500 or 600

miles or forwarded 2,000 miles to machining plants. Other component

parts were purchased from manufacturers as far south as Florida. They

were sent to remote points in order that every Canadian manufacturer

engaged in munitions contract might sustain delivery of finished

shells."

The policy pursued in all the complex operations thus briefly outlined

aimed at the elimination of the middleman and dealing direct with

those who performed the work. Raw materials of every description were

purchased and passed on from one contractor to another, saving the

contractor large investments of capital otherwise necessary to produce

complete shells, and enabling a proper distribution of the materials

available to insure maximum production. Subsequently the war munitions

business was placed on a competitive basis.

All the work accomplished was due to the initiative of the Imperial

Munitions Board, which was presided over by Sir Joseph Flavelle. There

was, of course, a governing stimulus in all it did, namely, the needs

of the war, which evolved the board's creation on broad lines when, in

November, 1915, the British Government placed munition contracts in

Canada amounting to $300,000,000. Manufacturers adapted their plants

to munition making; thousands of men and women toiled at the lathe and

in places of great responsibility and danger; patriotic Canadians

freely gave their services when called upon with no other reward than

the satisfaction of serving the state. The board's administrative

staff numbered close to a thousand men and women, and of them Sir

Joseph Flavelle declared that no body of men charged with serious duty

ever received more loyal and efficient support. The same tribute was

bestowed on the great home army of eager participants in munition

making of all ranks, though, like the good workers they all were, they

found duty its own reward.

An important factor in the manufacture of munitions was the work of

the Canadian War Trade Board. Its functions braced the supervision

and control of the Dominion's industries, and the direction of all

essential trades, occupations, and materials to the conduct of the

war. It was especially valuable in reaching outside of Canada for

needed materials for munitions, particularly from the United States.

The War Trade Board was born of a crisis. Until the United States

entered the war Canada had been able to obtain raw materials and

half-finished products necessary in the munitions industry without

difficulty from her southern neighbor. The situation changed when the

United States began to conserve every raw material and product which

could be used in the war. To present her case effectively Canada had

to organize on national lines. The two countries were not independent,

American industries needing nickel matter, asbestos, pulp, and power

from Canada, and Canadians requiring pig iron, iron ore, steel sheets,

coal, cotton, etc., from the United States. By both countries

appointing a War Trade Board composed of outstanding business men in

both countries, and by means of a Canadian War Mission established in

Washington, the two countries were able to present a solid industrial

front to the enemy and still preserve their respective national

interests intact.

Drastic elimination of nonessentials was the first essential so that

the railroads of the continent and the shipping of the world could

devote their energies to carrying necessaries for sustaining the

Allied war effort. The Canadian Board saw that no company imported any

material when stocks in Canada could be utilized for its needs. This

was not only to fulfill its obligations to the United States War Trade

Board, but to keep down imports to the lowest possible figure so that

Canada's trade balance with the United States should be as little

adverse as possible. For the same reason a number of imports were

placed on the restricted list.

Every day from all over Canada came anxious men and constant streams

of letters and telegrams informing the board as to stocks of raw

materials on hand, and explaining the needs. The War Trade Board

undertook to see that the materials were forthcoming, if possible, and

to secure them from within Canada or from the United States or

elsewhere. It purchased and distributed tin plate in Canada,

negotiated for the reopening of dormant blast furnaces and the

construction of new undertakings for the production of pig iron, and

obtained huge supplies required from the United States. It controlled

the sale, purchase, and use of platinum. It financed the purchase and

allotment through the Wool Commission of 46,208 bales of Australian

wool weighing 15,573,542 pounds and valued at ten and a half million

dollars, as well as five and a half million dollars' worth of tops and

noils from the United Kingdom. It had power to pay bounties on the

production of linen yarns in Canada. It also controlled the production

and distribution of iron and steel and their products in Canada, and

was empowered to take over and carry on the management of chrome

ore-producing properties for a period of five years.

The Board also served as a clearing house for industrial information

to manufacturers, keeping in constant touch with the various

industries, either individually or through such bodies as the Imperial

Munitions Board, the Canadian Wool Commission, the War Purchasing

Commission, the Canadian Tanners' Council, the Canadian Pulp and Paper

Association, and the Canadian Wool Growers' Association.

Had it not been for the existence of such a body, there were many raw

materials and products which Canadians could not have secured at all,

as the British, United States, and Australian Governments would not

have permitted their shipment but for assurances as to the use to

which they would be put or of a substantial cash advance. The shortage

of shipping made it necessary in some cases to secure a vessel to go

to South America or some other country to get materials urgently

needed in Canada, and only a government body could have induced the

admiralty to permit it.

The securing of steel plates for Canadian shipbuilding industries was

one of the board's most arduous and continuous tasks. Profiteering in

steel-plate and boiler-tube stocks was sternly checked in the cases

where complaints were well founded. Canadian steel companies were

induced to make all the car plates necessary for the Government's car

program. The pyrites exports were increased to meet the needs of the

sulphuric acid makers in the United States. Nitroglycerine was

conserved by restricting the content in commercial explosives.

The commandeering powers of the board were not often exercised, its

authority to do so alone being amply sufficient to obtain the ends for

which it was created. Most of the money made by the board was in

connection with its wool purchases. The money obtained for the tops

and noils from the United Kingdom it sent to the British Treasury.

With the proclamation of peace the board passed out of existence.

CHAPTER XXIII

FROM TRENCHES TO FARMS

The war left Canada, as it did other countries, with an army of

demobilized men, able and disabled, who needed Government help to

reestablish themselves in civilian life. For soldier citizens who were

attracted by farming, an extensive land settlement policy was devised,

and to a large extent its application solved one of the Government's

problems in affording thousands of ex-soldiers the means of settling

on the land, of which Canada had more to offer than anything else.

"The corner stone of Canada's industrial fabric is and must continue

to be the land," said Arthur Meighen, M. P., the Minister of the

Interior, "and to utilize this heritage to the best advantage--to

build into it and upon it as large a proportion as possible of the

best blood and spirit of our country, thus solving a problem of

reconstruction than which none is more vital in its bearing on

national well-being--is what is sought to be achieved."

The war, in effect, had created an opportunity for land development by

producing a colony of soldier settlers who readily turned to farming

after their open-air life in the battle areas. But the Government was

careful not to subject them to the hazards and isolation which the

ordinary, prewar settler had to face. Only land of good value, well

located, and of such fertility as to insure profitable returns, was

allocated among them. A search was made through the prairie Provinces

for areas suitable for soldier settlement contained in forest reserves

or held under grazing leases. The Government held a number of these

reserves so that men whose demobilization was deferred could have an

equal opportunity with those who were discharged first. Inadequate

means of communication affected the disposition of immense areas of

arable land, which would otherwise have been available for soldiers.

But it was decided to develop and close in settlement only those areas

that were contiguous to existing or promoted railroad lines. The

Government considered it inadvisable to encourage the veterans of the

Great War to settle on free homesteads at a greater distance than

fifteen miles from market facilities. This policy was especially

designed for soldiers who labored under some physical disability and

who were in receipt of pensions, and for such settlers small holdings,

close to large centers of population, were selected.

Canada had early anticipated the problem of rehabilitating her

returned soldiers. The Soldier Settlement Board was created long

before the Armistice, and was in good working order when the time for

demobilization arrived. Hence, when the stream of returned soldiers

began to flow toward the fertile farm lands which the Dominion

Government opened to them for ownership and development, the machinery

for so settling the incomers was ready for operation.

The Government not only settled soldiers on homesteads, but lent them

money to stock and equip their farms and afforded them training

knowledge. They could borrow up to $4,500 on the purchase of land; up

to $2,000 on the purchase of live stock, implements, and other

equipment; and up to $1,000 on the erection of buildings and other

permanent improvements. This made a total of $7,500, all of which,

except the $2,000 for equipment, was repayable in twenty-five years on

the amortization plan. The acquisition of farm equipment was rendered

easier by an arrangement with agricultural implement firms, who

undertook to charge specially low prices to soldier settlers. The

Government also employed experts to purchase horses, cattle, sheep,

and swine at the best prices obtainable, and resold them to settlers

at the price paid for them. Lumber dealers in the western Provinces

undertook, by arrangement with the Government, to provide lumber at

prices considerably below those charged the public. A soldier settler

had similar facilities for erecting a home on his land, the Government

providing plans for standard houses of four types, ranging from a

modest dwelling suitable for a bachelor settler to more commodious and

convenient six-roomed houses.

Before the stage of actual occupation was reached in the case of

settlers lacking sufficient farming experience, they were placed in

agricultural training centers, especially equipped, where they

obtained a practical knowledge of farm work, or else with selected

farmers throughout the Dominion, who regarded them as students eager

to know how to run a farm rather than as mere farm hands. The

prospective farmer's womankind, if likewise unversed in farm work and

house management, received the needful instruction from the home

branch of the Soldier's Settlement Board. In order to enable him to

tide over his non-productive period of training, the Government made

allowances to a returned soldier both for himself and for the support

of any dependents he might have. He likewise received free board as

well as free tuition, and if engaged with a farmer was entitled to

retain any remuneration his services yielded. While on a farm,

representatives of the board visited him to ascertain his progress, so

that they could determine when he was qualified to take over a farm of

his own.

The railroads, like the farmers and agricultural firms, cooperated

with the Government in assisting returned soldiers to settle upon the

land. A special low transportation rate of one cent per mile, applying

to the whole of Canada except northern Alberta, was fixed, but the

prospective farmer was not entitled to the reduction for ordinary

journeys. The rate only applied to the soldier's first trip to work

with a farmer, or to attend an agricultural school or to look for

land, or for a return journey home to transport his family and

chattels to his homestead. Choice of land and location lay wholly with

the soldier, but was subject to the judgment of the board's land

inspectors, who passed upon its value, and determined whether it was

suitable for the purchaser and was worth the price. When an inspector

approved the soldier's selection, the land was purchased by the board

and sold to the applicant.

Once established in his new environment, the ex-soldier was not left

to his own devices. The board's inspectors and supervisors regularly

visited him--to give any practical guidance he might require, while

local agricultural bodies and individual farmers volunteered their aid

to assist him and smooth his path to success. But a condition

precedent to his establishing himself on the land with Government aid

was that he must first prove his military eligibility and also reveal

a capacity, during his tenure at a training college or with a farmer,

for owning and operating a farm of his own. That done, the Government

lost no time in smoothing the way for him.

As to his army qualifications, an applicant must either have been a

discharged member of the expeditionary forces of Canada, Great

Britain, or of any of the self-governing Dominions, or a resident of

Canada--who had joined the Allied forces at the time of enlistment. In

either case he must have served outside the country in which he

enlisted or in a theater of actual war; but he was also eligible as a

discharged member of the Canadian expeditionary forces who had not

served overseas, but who had become incapacitated from military

service and entitled to a pension. Widows of members of both forces

who had died in actual service were entitled to the same facilities to

settle on the land.

The Government's land scheme for soldiers proved a great success. By

November 1, 1919, over 40,000 men had applied for the benefits of the

Government's offer, and over 30,000 had obtained qualification

certificates after receiving tuition at training centers or with

farmers. The scheme as a whole involved an expenditure of upward of

$100,000,000.

Canada has regarded her returned soldiers as her wards, especially

the disabled. Governmental guardianship could go no further. Her

scale of pensions, for example, is more than one-third higher than

that paid by any other nation. Any soldier or sailor disabled in the

service of the Empire became entitled to a pension if medical

attention failed to restore his normal capacities for earning a

livelihood. The pension was neither a gift, a gratuity, nor a reward

for service. The Government called it "compensation for disability

suffered through the war," and its amount bore no relation to the

calling previously followed by the recipient. A man totally disabled

received $720; if married, the amount was $900, with $144 for the

first child and $96 for subsequent children. Men totally helpless

could also receive a special allowance of $450. The disabled received

most of the pension fund, fully three-fourths going to them, while the

remaining fourth went to the dependents of deceased service men.

There were twenty classes of disability pensions, according to the

degree of the disability, which was the decisive factor in each case.

No reduction was made because of the recipient's earning powers or

because of his actual earnings. His physical disability, whatever it

was--not his ability to support himself--determined the amount. He

became a pensioner because of the loss or the lessening of a natural

function of the body, and the pension lasted as long as the disability

did. When the disability ceased, the pension also ceased. Medical

reexaminations were made periodically so that pensions could be

adjusted in accordance with the developments in a soldier's condition.

The payment of pensions, which was undertaken by the Board of Pension

Commissioners, involved an annual expenditure of $30,000,000. It

developed a largely and highly complex business machine; which had its

beginnings early in the war period, growing from a small staff of 34

members, handling 2,700 pensions, to a clerical force of 1,300 and a

pension roll of 80,000. District offices were established in the large

centers of the Dominion to afford discharged men convenient bureaus of

information. Medical officers were attached to each office, also

Government visitors, who were detailed to call on a pensioner at least

once annually. A pensioner's fitness to remain a pensioner was thus

ascertained, in order to prevent any improper expenditure of pension

money.

Then there was the war-service gratuity to which members of all ranks

in the Canadian army were entitled upon discharge, after being in

active service outside the Dominion. The payment covered six months

and served as a send-off to each demobilized man to enable him to live

in comfort pending his settling down to a civil occupation by his own

efforts or through Government aid. The gratuities were based on a

sliding scale, dependent on length of service; but a minimum payment

was also determined on. It was fixed at $70 a month for the service

men without dependents and $100 a month for those who had any. Thus,

sergeants, corporals, lance corporals and privates without dependents

received $420 for six months, or $70 monthly, and those with families,

$600 for six months, or $100 monthly. Where the scale of pay was

higher than this minimum it was based on the rate of pay of rank and

the length of service. The war gratuity was really a continuation of

army pay for six months after discharge.

CHAPTER XXIV

KEEPING THEIR HOME FIRES BURNING

Among the various voluntary war organizations working in Canada, or

among the Canadian troops overseas, the most extensive in its scope

was the Canadian Patriotic Fund. It was a form of war relief peculiar

to Canada, a product of public initiative, entirely unrelated to the

Government, being inspired by individual sympathy with the individual

needs of service men and by the intimate and old-fashioned neighborly

spirit that made all men brothers in an emergency. As a Canadian

innovation, arising from the Dominion's own particular problems, and

reflecting in a tangible form her characteristics as a nation, the

fund was nation-wide in its workings, both in the source of its

contributions and their distribution. It represented a voluntary

"drive" for money which continued throughout the war period, and its

administration was no less notable than its collection. Throughout the

Dominion there was a coordination of effort and sympathies on the part

of the fund's dispensers, with a complete elimination of overlapping

and its attendant waste of time, money, and energy.

The Fund in every respect was a national organization covering all the

Provinces except Manitoba (which created a fund of its own), and its

object was to assist, wherever necessary, the dependent relatives

resident in Canada of Allied soldiers and sailors serving in the war.

It was administered locally through committees serving gratuitously,

who, while they acted on general instructions from headquarters, also

had discretionary powers in approving applications and naming the

amount to be granted. As to the service of the Fund, from June, 1916,

to November, 1918, it yielded an average amount of $900,000 a month

for relief work and provided assistance to between 50,000 and 60,000

families. The Fund represented voluntary contributions from everybody

in the Dominion and reached the impressive figure of nearly

$43,000,000.

The dispensers of the Fund had one thought in mind. It was the _home_

the service man had left behind him, with special recognition of the

size of a man's family and local conditions affecting the cost of

living, both being determining factors in the budget making necessary

for the right and equitable distribution of such a fund. It was an

additional prop for the support of soldiers' families in the absence

of the breadwinner, in that it provided a supplementary income to that

allowed by the Government.

On enlistment the wife of every soldier received from the War Ministry

a separation allowance, originally of $20, later increased to $25. She

also received a part of her husband's assigned pay, which differed

according to rank. The two payments averaged $35 a month, a sum

inadequate for the upkeep of a home, and hence the beneficence of the

work of the Fund in augmenting the income of a soldier's wife or other

home folks to the level of the cost of living became apparent. It

supplemented the home income at the point of deficiency, adding to the

Government allowance a sufficient sum to overcome difficulties of

living due to local conditions and to the size of the families.

Instead of $35 a month, a typical Canadian soldier's family,

consisting of a wife and two children, received about $51.25 a month

from all sources with the help of the Patriotic Fund's disbursements.

One of its prime objects lay in inspiring the sympathetic atmosphere

and attitude so necessary in war times. This object was achieved by

reason of the character of the Fund's personnel, especially in local

branches, where much, if not all, of the executive work was in the

hands of warm-hearted, patriotic women, who did not spare themselves,

but gave of their best to the cause they had made their own.

"Keeping the home fires burning" had an appealing sound. The

neighborly spirit which animated the giving of contributions kept the

home fires burning in that the giving was not spasmodic but sustained,

enabling a continuous expansion of the Fund. It was this "touch of

nature that makes the whole world kin"--that made all Canada

kin--which endeared the Fund to every Canadian, rich and poor alike,

and alone accounted for the great response made to every appeal for

contributions. Every Canadian regarded his participation in the fund

as a personal promissory note; he felt that he was "backing" the

service man in a very near and individual sense.

Once the monthly output exceeded the income. In 1915 the monthly

output increased from $175,000 to $325,000, which showed how Canadians

regarded the Fund. These were anxious times for the Fund executive,

and it was at this time that the value of making the appeal

Dominion-wide became apparent. Reviewing the difficulties of this

period in handling the Fund, Sir Herbert Ames wrote:

"As a rule recruiting was greatest in Provinces least favorably

situated financially. Common service, common sacrifice, the principle

of giving money or men saved the day. By 1916 the needs of the fund

were placed at $8,000,000. 'Give till it hurts,' became the slogan. A

systematic allotment of each Province's share of the total

contribution was made. Ontario was asked for $4,500,000; Quebec,

$1,500,000; Maritime Provinces, $700,000; and Saskatchewan, Alberta,

and British Columbia, $500,000. Every Province was subdivided; each

city or town was asked to assume its share. Publicity was given the

campaign through newspapers, posters, leaflets, buttons, the Speakers'

Patriotic League, and skilled organizers of campaigns. The close of

the year showed an increase of 20 per cent in demands on the Fund and

an increase of 50 per cent in the amount contributed over the amount

asked in the campaign. On New Year's Day the Governor General, the

Duke of Connaught, asked for $8,000,000; Canada's answer was

$11,375,345. Since June, 1916, the fund has expended an average of

$900,000, which is quite timely help to 165,000 individuals."

Following the campaign of 1916 the responses became more and more

generous. The Provinces and the larger cities reached great heights in

giving. But while individuals contributed checks for princely amounts,

the bulk of the Fund was provided by the small wage earners. "This

showed," said Sir Herbert Ames, "how thoroughly the Fund represented

Canada's war spirit."

British Columbia led all other Provinces in recruiting according to

population. It was essentially a Province of wage earners; yet its

contributions to the Fund, sustained year after year, were remarkable.

In the mountain districts it was the established practice among miners

and smelters to contribute "a shift a month" to the fund. The town of

Trail, with a population of 4,000, contributed $50,000 a year, or

$12.50 per capita. Rossland, with a similar population, gave $36,000 a

year. Headly, with a population of 400, gave $9,000 a year or $22.50

per head. Greenwood, numbering 600, donated $15,000, or $25 per head;

Phoenix, with 1,200, yielded $18,000, while Silverton, with 800,

produced $16,000 a year. In some districts the workmen instructed the

superintendents to deduct 3-1/2 per cent, or one day's pay, per month,

from their wages.

The response from sparsely settled districts was no less generous;

but there was a difficulty in gathering collections over scattered

rural communities. They did not, however, allow this obstacle to

deprive them from sharing in the good work, and accordingly requested

their councils to levy assessments for the fund, whereby rural

contributions could be gathered and equalized. The contribution of

such rural council, thus obtained, represented the various individual

contributions of the constituents and was voluntary. In this way the

rural communities contributed in 1917 the sum of $3,000,000.

Besides these collective efforts, there was scarcely a community that

did not furnish examples of self-denying generosity by individuals or

groups, some of whom could not afford the sacrifice. The shareholders

of an Ontario fire insurance company voted its entire dividend of

$50,000 to the Patriotic Fund. Near Vancouver an old lighthouse keeper

raised flowers and sold them to tourists, raising therefrom nearly

$1,000, which he presented to the Fund. Among contributors who found

their highest gratification in denying themselves in order to help the

Fund were the Gaspe fishermen, lumberjacks from the Quebec bush,

cheese makers, road makers, Indians, and an Eskimo. Nearly $12,500 was

sent in by Indians on the reserves. From Herschell's Island, within

the Arctic Circle came a gift of $20 from the Eskimo Chikchagalook.

Canadianized people of German birth and descent were equally liberal.

The "million a month" which the Fund organizers aimed at was

approached by voluntary individual generosity like the instances cited

and countless others. The nation-wide support given to the Fund

constituted a free-will offering of the whole people standing behind

its soldiers. It was a people's own movement, close to their hearts,

and was successfully conducted without Government control or

participation, an achievement in which the Fund's executives took

pride, as efforts had been made to bring it under federal supervision.

CHAPTER XXV

REMAKING MEN

By the close of 1919, Canada had 20,000 ex-soldiers--blind or maimed

or otherwise disabled--under training in the arts of peace. They were

mostly men who labored under such handicaps from the effects of wounds

and other ordeals of war that they could not resume their former

occupations. The Department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment took

them in hand after their discharge from hospital treatment and fitted

them, by vocational training, for new callings that made them

economically independent. Meantime, the men drew pay and allowances

from the Government ranging from $60 to $150, according to the number

of their dependents. The expenditure on this work of rehabilitating

damaged men was regarded as a national investment, as it encouraged

the disabled soldier to become a worker and producer.

Every ex-soldier, burdened with a disability to follow the calling he

pursued before he joined the colors, became entitled to vocational

training, free of charge, in any trade or profession of his own choice

in which his disability would not be a handicap. Universities,

technical and agricultural schools, and plants of leading

manufacturers--where industrial training could be acquired under

actual shop conditions--became centers of instruction. Provision was

then made for both theoretical and practical knowledge, which was

imparted in conjunction. Similar training was also carried on in

hospitals and convalescent homes where the condition of the patients

permitted.

Vocational training was a new field of Government work, a sort of

uncharted sea, and until disabled men began to flow back from the

battle front the Canadian Government had little information upon which

to build a working policy. But the situation suggested its own

solution. The first obvious need was convalescent hospitals, and a

chain of such institutions duly appeared from coast to coast. Then the

employment bureaus came into being, and the recovering patients,

equipped with the vocational reeducation which the Government

instituted, made the hospitals sources of supply for the labor market.

What was the status of a disabled man during the stage of

convalescence and rehabilitation? He was taken in hand to be refitted

for civil life. The Canadian Government therefore decided that he was

no longer a soldier, to be supported with his dependents during his

period of training on military pay and allowance. He became a

discharged man and his maintenance was provided for as a civilian. The

Government recognized that the duty of replacing a man in civil life

as a useful member of the community was not a military function. To

succeed as a civilian he had to be demilitarized, for the reason that

while in service a soldier or sailor sank his individuality and lived

under orders; his return to civil life required his restoration as an

individual subject to the obligation, like other civilians, of making

his way by his own initiative. The demilitarization of a disabled

ex-service man, who, anyway, had only belonged to the army during the

war period, was therefore regarded as an important duty of Government.

In undertaking his reeducation, it "staked" him for resuming a

civilian pursuit, and in doing so placed him on a footing very

different from his previous army status. The course of reeducation

given to a disabled man nevertheless remained a reward of valor, but

it was also a recognition of the needs of a nation at peace, which

required that discharged men should be restored as far as possible to

the fullest usefulness as civilians.

Another element in vocational retraining was its formative purpose. A

man was not "made over" in the sense of giving him a new occupation.

His tuition was not complete enough for that. It rather directed him

toward a new field of industry by equipping him with the groundwork,

and he had to have the will to succeed and to overcome his handicap if

his actual reeducation and replacement in a suitable civilian position

was to be accomplished. The way was smoothed for his doing so by the

avoidance of any compulsory scheme of reeducation. A man himself

"elected" his course, though many disabled men needed guidance to

protect them from choosing some line of work by caprice or impulse. In

such cases a disabled man's vocational advisers endeavored to direct

his choice in the light of all the information that could be drawn

from his educational and industrial history. The essential thing kept

in mind was that a man's previous education and experience should not

be "scrapped" but rather made to form a foundation or background for

his new occupation. Hence, a disabled man was trained when practicable

for some new branch of his former occupation or for some allied or

related occupation.

The problem was not confined to rehabilitating a man lacking a limb or

eyesight. The blind, in fact, were few, compared with men suffering

from other injuries, while the war cripple for the most part was a

sound man in other respects. His physique survived his deficiency of

limb; hence he was not broken in health and his condition revealed

nothing of the invalid. More than that, only a small proportion of the

disabled men invalided home were suffering from the loss of a limb.

Out of nearly 30,000 who returned to Canada up to June, 1918, less

than 1,500 had undergone a major amputation.

A survey of the first groups of returned disabled men, moreover,

revealed that most of them were able to return to their former

occupations.

The difficulty was not one of numbers; it related to the individual.

From the point of view of its complexity, the success of the project

of providing vocational reeducation for new occupations was dependent

on the disabled men's response to the service proffered. Their

immediate need was interesting occupation, as far as medical

requirements allowed, while undergoing convalescent treatment in a

hospital. A wide range of opportunities for occupational work

developed during this hospital period, and its value to the patient

was manifold. From the therapeutic standpoint alone, any kind of

occupation was serviceable to the mind and body. It was also

disciplinary in that it protected disabled men from moral and social

deterioration--a danger always present during long periods of

idleness--and it was of additional value to the institution itself as

a check on the tendency to spoil returned men by overattention, active

and interesting pursuits having been found to be the best antidote to

such an inclination.

The field of diversions was wide; a patient could easily absorb

himself in some task to the extent of his energies. The hospitals

provided classrooms for general educational work; commercial training

workshops for arts and crafts; a variety of mechanical and other

occupations, outdoor work in gardening and poultry-keeping.

A number of men who started training courses in new callings did not

continue them. Some were ambitious men whom the new training had

readily stabilized for civil life and who had found positions before

completing their courses. Others were released during the summer

months for intensive farming to meet the urgent demand for greater

food production. The clerical work of the military department also

absorbed a large number, interrupting the pursuit of their commercial

studies. A recurrence of their malady invalidated others and

necessitated hospital attention, and beyond these were a proportion of

unstable men of restless temperament who could not readily resume

civilian occupation.

Over and above these were disabled men here and there who displayed an

unwillingness to study for new callings, fearing that overcoming their

handicap would mean a curtailment of pension by increasing their

earning power. Injured French and German soldiers had revealed a

similar indisposition to undergo vocational retraining lest their

pensions be withdrawn. The Canadian Government took an indulgent view

of this feeling and adopted a new army regulation providing that no

deductions should be made from the amount of pension awarded owing to

a pensioner undertaking work or qualifying himself in a new industry.

As already indicated, a man was pensioned because of his disability in

the open labor market, and was not determined by his earning capacity.

As it worked out, his earning power in many cases was greatly improved

by his vocational reeducation--to his own advantage, but even more so

to the advantage of his country.

The Canadian Government was early in the field in taking steps for the

rehabilitation of the disabled, having provided working solutions to

the problem long before the Interallied Conference considered the

subject in 1918. The task grew beyond the scope of the Military

Hospitals Commission, and a permanent ministry was found necessary.

Especially as the work, following demobilization, also embraced caring

for the undisabled discharged soldier in search of opportunity for

reemployment. Free employment offices were opened in every center from

the Atlantic to the Pacific and thither thousands of requests came

from ex-soldiers for information as to channels open for obtaining

positions. The result was some 200,000 or more interviews, and the

reinstating of nearly 35,000 men up to September, 1919, out of 53,000

applicants. This scheme of reestablishing uninjured men in civil

occupation following their demobilization had its beginning in a

questionnaire sent to all Canadian troops abroad, asking them to state

their intentions regarding employment on their return to Canada. The

questionnaires were distributed from Ypres to the Vosges Mountains,

from the Rhine to the English Channel, and throughout England and

Scotland. Within two weeks of the signing of the Armistice a complete

survey of the employment situation was obtained and transmitted to

Government agencies in charge of the dispersal areas in Canada.

It was all part of a publicity campaign for enlightening the troops as

to what the Government was prepared to do for them to facilitate their

reinstatement in civil life. Lectures were delivered to them in camp,

thousands of specially prepared pamphlets were distributed among them,

while the Government's plans were otherwise made known through

advertisements in newspapers and periodicals which circulated among

the troops, as well as by means of moving pictures. Government

representatives also accompanied men on homeward transports and

dispensed information regarding the outlook for employment in the

field that appealed to them.

With the help of the Labor Department the free employment offices

were established in eighty-nine cities and towns. Each office had a

special representative of the Information and Service Branch of the

Department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment, who was at the service

of all demobilized soldiers seeking employment. He "connected the

wires," opening up communications with employers of labor and inducing

them to favor ex-soldiers in filling vacancies on their staffs. Once

in employment, the demobilized soldier was not lost sight of. The

department kept in touch with him, in order to be assured that every

man had been satisfactorily reestablished in civil life. The governing

element behind these endeavors to restore every ex-soldier to the

place where he belonged as a civilian was to make him again a

producing power in the national life of the Dominion. Success could

not have been achieved without public cooperation.

Another function of the department was the tendering of free medical

service. All ex-soldiers who fell ill from any cause, within a year

after their discharge from the army, received free treatment. Any

recurrence of illness arising from war injuries entitled ex-soldiers

to the same aid. Maimed men needed artificial limbs; they got them

free. The disabled, returning from the front, required further

treatment; the Government hospitals gave it. There were tubercular and

insane patients; many medical and surgical cases of other categories;

while other patient were treated in clinics. Patients under treatment

in hospitals for disabilities due to war service always received

adequate pay and allowances for their dependents.

The postwar calls on the medical service of the department were very

great. In June, 1918, the number of military patients numbered only

1,200. By September it had reached over 10,000.

As to the provision of artificial limbs, the Government undertook

their manufacture, in order to forestall the temptation to profiteer

by private firms at the expense of men who had lost limbs in war

service. The Government also made orthopedic boots and surgical

appliances.

Perhaps the most notable feature of the educational work was the

establishment of the Khaki University. This project differed from the

vocational training of disabled men for new pursuits. It aimed at

reaching all Canadian troops overseas who had interrupted their

studies at school or college to join the colors. It gave them an

opportunity to employ their spare hours in continuing the course of

study for a professional or business career which had been broken by

the war. Otherwise the time that would elapse, dependent on the war's

duration, before they could resume training for their various

callings, would make such a gap in their lives that with the war's

close they would be completely severed from their former plans for

intellectual careers. They would have to begin all over again.

The foresight of the Canadian Y. M. C. A. brought the Khaki University

into being. But it had its real inspiration in the officers and men

themselves. The "Y" officers were always receiving requests from them

for books and reading material of the kind required by students. There

were also many inquiries from the men as to what life they should

adopt on their return home. The Canadian Y. M. C. A. thereupon

perceived a need. Men who had mapped careers for themselves,

especially in the teaching and other cultured professions, not to

mention those whose future lay in technical and commercial fields,

must be saved for Canada. The men were keenly anxious to resume

contact with the problems of civilian life. They had their spare

moments, and there was much lost time to be made up. They had lived

down the early excitements of army life, and their social and civic

instincts dominated them when they were not fighting. So the Canadian

"Y" personnel took occasion by the hand, and, with the cooperation of

the military authorities, brought the Khaki University of Canada into

being. It obtained official recognition by becoming a branch of the

General Staff, and started out on its novel educational scheme under

the guidance of President H. H. Torry, head of the University of

Alberta, who acted as Director of Educational Services of the Canadian

oversea forces.

It was a simple scheme, though its operation called for much

preparation, especially in securing the assistance of Canadian and

English universities. In brief, it continued a soldier's schooling,

where he had left off, by class work and lectures. Apart from its

service in providing practical education to enable him to resume his

life's work, it greatly contributed as a sustaining factor to military

efficiency and the general morale. In many cases the Khaki University

determined the future plans of men who had no fixed and satisfactory

occupation, for by offering tuition it enabled them to choose and

secure a definite calling in life. It so worked out that the

educational work conducted in war time--there was a Khaki college on

the fighting front and local classes known by the same name in

England--created an interest which during the demobilization period

that duly came intensified and enabled the men's readjustment to civil

life in Canada an easier matter to control.

The Canadian universities formed an advisory board which supervised

the entire work, besides providing teaching facilities and personnel,

while the Canadian Y. M. C. A., having started the Khaki University

movement on its way, undertook to finance it to the utmost after

transferring its control to the Universities. The scheme came before

the Canadian Government in October, 1917, and at once received the

hearty support of the Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet. It

obtained a support as valuable from the Canadian people, who, when

asked by the Y. M. C. A. to subscribe a million dollars to finance the

work, promptly responded by giving a great deal more.

In France what became known as the Khaki University of Vimy Ridge was

established, but at the beginning of 1918 the spring offensive stopped

further progress in the fighting areas until after the Armistice was

signed. The main educational work was conducted in England, where

campaign exigencies did not interfere with the movement. In fact, the

demand for instruction was so great among the Canadian troops there

that the work could not be discontinued. In 1918 fourteen Khaki

colleges came into existence, established at various points, with a

central college at Ripon for advanced instruction, while battalion

schools taught educational rudiments, including elementary agriculture

and commercial subjects. The college courses covered the higher

branches of agriculture, applied science, commerce, art, and

theology. Students of advanced grade also had the advantage of

completing their courses after demobilization at the chief British

universities.

The work in France was successfully continued during demobilization,

though with difficulty. The number of students who registered during

December, 1918, will serve as a criterion of its popularity, the four

Canadian divisions mustering 8,352 registrants. For the benefit of men

who could not attend class courses, a correspondence department was

organized which reached Canadians in hospitals, forestry and railroad

camps, and other places where local organizations were not

practicable.

As to general results, the grand total of registration for the final

six months of 1918, during which the Khaki colleges got into their

working stride, was 34,768, while over 100,000 books and 750,000

educational brochures and pamphlets were circulated among Canadian

oversea forces. The teaching was almost entirely performed by

voluntary instructors, chaplains, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, and by army

officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates, who had previously

belonged to the teaching profession.

CHAPTER XXVI

SERVICE TO THE TROOPS

The Canadian Y. M. C. A. early made its presence felt as an auxiliary

in the war. It penetrated Valcartier camp at the first call to arms in

Canada in August, 1914, and with the first contingent that went

overseas, sent six officers with the honorary rank of captain. Thus

began the "service to the troops"--the motto of the Canadian Military

Y. M. C. A.--which extended from Valcartier to the Rhine, and from

Archangel to Palestine. In Canada it had thirty-eight centers of

operation, including camps, barracks, red triangle clubs, hospitals,

naval stations, and troop trains. In England it had seventy-six

centers--regular camps and units, base camps, convalescent camps, and

hospitals.

The "Y" officers had some difficulty in becoming affiliated with the

British military establishment, where, being concerned with the

Canadian contingent, their work lay. The British system did not

provide for "Y" officers as army units. They acquired some sort of

military status by their activities in the Canadian training camps in

England; but there were army obstacles to their following Dominion

troops to France. The British War office at length recognized them,

but declined to admit them in the military organization. Nevertheless

they got there. Each Canadian division was allowed a number of "Y"

officers and aides, and the services they rendered duly drew an

admission of their value from the British military authorities, the

effect whereof was to endow them with all the privileges of the army

establishment. The British were chary of "outsiders" in the army, but

the Canadian "Y" officers soon proved that they were indispensable

"insiders," and were recognized accordingly.

In the field the Canadian "Y" service became an enterprise on wheels.

Consider its main purpose at the battle front. It was to feed, amuse,

comfort, and succor the Canadian soldier. The Y. M. C. A. had ever to

be at his heels. It served, among other things as a dispenser of

morale. It was concerned about keeping the Canadian trooper braced up

by supplying him with physical comforts and luxuries, and, when

acceptable, with spiritual help. The "Y" contingents, therefore, had

to keep on the track of the Canadian divisions, and were as much a

mobile organization as the army it served.

"Everything," said a government report on their work, "turned toward

the fighting machine facing the Germans. Over there, in France, was

the real struggle to keep the advantages offered by the organization

at the elbow of the soldier. Growing weekly with the increase of

funds, the opportunities afforded, and the knowledge of the work

required, the organization might easily have become too unwieldy for

the rapid moves which have taken the Canadian Corps from Ypres to the

Rhine in the course of its career.

"It was the solution of that problem, added to the lack of transport

consequent on the requirements of immense armies, which taxed the

ingenuity and resources of the 'Y'. It was a simple enough matter in

general to provide for the needs of a corps at rest. That was merely a

question of huts, marquees, tents, and determination. But when the

Canadian corps moved--as it did from Ypres to the Somme, from the

Somme to Lens, from Lens to Passchendaele, from Passchendaele back to

Arras, from Arras to Amiens, from Amiens to Arras again, and

thereafter advanced, guns, horse, and foot, miles a day at times--it

tested the personnel, equipment, endurance, and ingenuity of the 'Y'

to the utmost. It was not merely the closing in one place and the

opening in another. There were always immovable huts in the old place,

and nothing but ruins in the new. The huts had to be left--for some

other organization to make use of for the incoming troops--but the

provision left by the predecessors of the Canadians in the new area

was naturally insufficient to the needs of the Canadian 'Y'."

Every army unit of sufficient size was reached in some way despite

obstacles. The "Y" organization adopted a regular scheme of service by

providing huts, entertainments, and reading and writing facilities,

except in the few cases where detached units were constantly on the

move. In running its canteens it conducted an immense retail business

under all the disadvantages of instability. Stock had to be moved; new

housing found, and fresh supplies were always subject to uncertain and

irregular delivery. In 1918 this vast enterprise on wheels, pitching

its moving tent, everywhere where Canadian troops (it might almost be

said), stayed longer than five minutes, did $5,000,000 worth of

business in its canteens; but to do so the "Y" headquarters' stores--a

huge quantity of goods with corresponding equipment--had to be moved

seventeen times. It had to keep pace with an army equipped with

everything requisite to secure mobility.

Imagine, for example, a "Y" officer with his stock of comforts and

luxuries trying to keep pace with a Canadian cavalry brigade. Yet the

service was so successful and appreciated that the cavalry canteens

were handed over to "Y" management. An outstanding incident turned on

a "Y" officer's lack of a conveyance to transport his stock so as to

keep in touch with the moving brigade. The commanding officer came to

his rescue by finding him a horse, an old buggy, and a man, and with

this outfit he trundled along with a case of tea, two cases of milk,

two bags of sugar, a tea urn, and some cigarettes. He would set out

well ahead in order to be in at the finish, but could not choose his

routes, the cavalry having to move at night to conceal its operations,

and smooth going was accordingly not easy.

The success of the "Y" men, in fact, was largely due to the facilities

willingly afforded by the army authorities to enable them to keep pace

with the troops, and the army's cooperation, it must be added, was a

recognition of the value of the "Y" service in sustaining morale. Both

the British and Canadian military establishments perceived that the

"Y" was needed.

The men themselves took an occasional hand in an emergency to assist

the movement of the "Y" service, an example of which occurred at Arras

in August, 1918. The "Y" officer at the base was warned only a few

hours ahead of the impending German attack, but had no supplies on

hand for the free distribution of food and comforts to the wounded a

"Y" service rendered after every battle. The supplies needed were at

Boulogne. The drivers of the only two army lorries available had been

on duty for twenty-four hours without rest, and the commanding officer

refused to order them out to get the supplies in from that port,

though he was willing for the drivers to go if the "Y" officer could

prevail on them to go as a voluntary task. The exhausted men were

undressing, apart, to retire, when the "Y" officer told them of the

approaching battle.

"We've neither cigarettes, chocolate, hot coffee, nor biscuits for the

boys," he said, "but there's any amount at Boulogne."

It was enough; to Boulogne, instead of to bed, went the tired drivers

and their assistants, leaving the port at midnight with the needful

supplies, and they were back in Arras at 4 a. m., a few minutes before

the attack began. So that the "Y" could have the stores for which the

fighting troops would be in urgent need, they sacrificed their rest

and toiled forty-eight hours at one stretch.

The Arras operations were typical of the steady fighting of 1918, when

the Canadian "Y," like the troops it cared for, had little rest. They

kept right up to the front lines, always on hand with free comforts at

those points where the troops could be best served, the "Y" officers

at times even going over with the attack bearing chocolate and

cigarettes. Some were officially rewarded by the bestowal of medals

and orders; but their real reward lay in the unofficial thanks

tendered them by the men themselves.

The "Y's" activities on the western front, both in the fighting and

rear zones, were far-flung, but they extended farther--everywhere, in

fact, where there were Canadians. Its brotherly hand reached Dominion

railway troops in Palestine. Isolated Canadians with the mixed Allied

forces operating at Archangel and on the Murman Coast in northern

Russia also found "Y" officers at hand, the latter carrying on their

Samaritan mission under the most trying conditions of climate and

distance.

In the rear areas, away from the excitement of battle, the scope for

the Canadian "Y" service was as great as on the fighting front and as

equally needed. At base camps the "Y's" presence was conspicuous and

its social-religious activities widespread. The familiar huts were

there, with their canteens, entertainments, and reading and writing

facilities. At the base camp of Aubin St.-Vaast was a Canadian "Y"

athletic ground--one not to be equaled in Canada--an ambitious

enterprise built with the invaluable cooperation of the Canadian

engineers. It contained, in one area, a football field, an outdoor

baseball diamond, a running track of a quarter of a mile, three

quoiting pitches, five tennis courts, a tug-of-war ground, a boxing

and wrestling ring, a jumping pit, and fields for lacrosse, cricket,

badminton, and gymkhana or mounted horse events.

Behind the lines, too, were the railway troops and the forestry corps

units--the latter being scattered over France from Bordeaux on the

southwest to the Jura Mountains in Switzerland--who were not

overlooked by the Canadian "Y" in the bestowal of its many-sided

services. Units of the forestry corps were also scattered over Great

Britain, from the south of England to the north of Scotland. Many were

isolated from the entertainments and social diversions afforded by

towns, and their situation accordingly gave the Canadian "Y" great

scope for rendering the brotherly service to which its personnel were

devoted. Their enterprise in installing rooms and canteens in

thirty-eight scattered locations compensated for many of the

deprivations incidental to such lone camps.

Perhaps the most concentrated work performed by the "Y" behind the

lines was not in France at all, but in England. It gave itself the

task of keeping in close touch with the Canadian soldier during the

months of his stay there. He might be in training or wounded or

convalescent or on leave, or in stationary units such as the London

permanent force and the forestry corps. Whatever his status, he was

looked after.

In the training camps, where the "Y" work grew rapidly, more than

keeping pace with the extension of enlistments and arrivals, and where

recruits, fresh from Canada, were isolated in segregation for several

weeks, the Canadian "Y" provided the only facilities available for

amusement to the immured men, as well as enabling them to buy things

they needed. Their morale and spirits were braced by entertainments.

The camps were located at Witley and Bramshott. At the former three

concerts a week were given by professional entertainers in eight

different huts.

Similar provision was made for the wounded in the Canadian hospitals

throughout England. Concerts were given in wards, while at one

establishment--the Canadian military hospital at Orpington--the

authorities placed a theater seating 550 at the service of the "Y".

The Canadians on leave made London their Mecca. Into London they

poured, and they needed a rendezvous, a club, a home-from-home, and

wholesome diversions. The Canadian "Y" personnel undertook the task;

that was what they were there for. The Beaver Hut, situated in the

Strand, in the heart of the metropolis, and the most famous hut

overseas, was the outward and visible expression of their activities.

It became the center of Canadians. There the soldier's every want

could be gratified; there he left his kit in safety; there he dined,

slept, played billiards, bought his Canadian titbits or his theater

tickets (at about half the regular prices), read the papers and

current periodicals, listened to an orchestra, or saw a play or moving

picture, exchanged his French money for English without loss, obtained

information about a multitude of things of which he was ignorant as a

newcomer, and obtained facilities for sightseeing trips about London

or in the provinces. Most important of all, there he ate. The Beaver

Hut had a spacious dining room, which provided as many as 4,800 meals

in a day, served in relays, at a price well below that charged by the

most moderate of London restaurants. The meals were cooked and served

by over 800 well-known Canadian and English women, who gave their

services. More than that, the Canadian soldier could sleep there,

though the space was limited to 180; but when the Hut lacked a bed for

him the Canadian "Y" got him quartered elsewhere. Then if he was in

want he was cared for.

With the Armistice and the demobilization period that followed the "Y"

work was rather amplified than lessened. The troops had less to do;

the "Y" officials had more. The American movement up the Rhine called

for the provision of entertainments on an extensive scale, the troops

having more time on their hands. There were theaters, and light and

heat, and German orchestras to be requisitioned. Three large units

were entertained in Germany--two divisions and the corps troops.

Twelve theaters and fifteen canteens were provided for one division

alone. For one brigade four moving pictures were nightly in operation,

the men being entertained in relays of 2,500. Suppers and vaudeville

were also among the diversions provided, while the canteens were so

well patronized that in thirteen days the takings amounted to over

$50,000. In Belgium a striking feature of the Armistice period was the

free entertainment by the Canadian "Y" of an entire division at Liege,

extending over two days.

[Illustration: At the left is Major General Hon. Sydney Chilton

Mewburn, who became Canadian Minister of Militia and Defense in 1917;

at the right is Major General Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison, G.

O. C., Canadian Corps Artillery from 1917 to 1919.]

Amusements were also furnished on an extensive scale for the

Canadians in process of demobilization in England. New camps were

taken over in Rhyl, Liverpool, and Ripon, and a wider organization for

entertainments was developed in sections not hitherto touched.

The funds that provided such a colossal service came from two

sources--Canadian contributions and canteen profits. Canadians at home

gave liberally; but the scope of the work, even with the great help

afforded by their generosity, would have been restricted but for the

aid derived from canteen sales profits. It was decided that no better

way of applying the "Y's" profits could be found than in employing it

to procure additional necessities, comforts, and entertainments for

the Canadian soldier, and in providing him with physical, mental, and

spiritual help which no other organization was able to give.

CHAPTER XXVII

SUCCOR AND SOLACE

Primarily the Canadian Red Cross Society set out to augment the work

of the military establishment in caring for the sick and wounded. It

acted as a voluntary auxiliary organization to the Canadian Army

Medical Corps, and as such furnished all manner of comforts, over and

above the supplies issued by the Government, to military hospitals and

other units. It also held itself in readiness to assist the Medical

Service in times of emergency by providing at a moment's notice any

supplies which might be needed.

But its help was not confined to Canadians only. British and French

institutions were assisted. The needs of the civil population whom the

enemy had driven from French and Belgian areas were not overlooked.

Old and feeble men and women, suffering mothers and emaciated

children, whom the Germans had deprived of the necessities of life,

were among the afflicted who were comforted by its timely succor and

sympathy. It took care not only of the wounded and sick, but of the

tired and weary. The Canadian prisoners of war were among its

beneficiaries, as well as the refugees in the devastated areas of

Europe, who needed assistance, especially clothing, in becoming

repatriated after being freed of the German oppressor. Thus were many

lives saved, breakdowns averted, much discomfort removed, and much

suffering relieved by the aid of the Canadian Red Cross.

The society had eight Provincial centers in Canada, and about 1,200

local branches, and these formed its home organization. It collected

$7,771,083 in money, and gifts to the value of more than $13,500,000.

Its overseas organization at first was of modest dimensions. One

warehouse with unpretentious headquarters in France sufficed in

November, 1916, and there was only one Canadian hospital to supply in

the early months of August, 1915. Then the organization, like

everything else produced by the war, rapidly developed and became

far-reaching in its scope.

The French were early recipients of Canadian bounty through the Red

Cross. Money and hospital supplies went from the Dominion to the

French sick and wounded, and a depot was opened in Paris for receiving

and distributing Canadian supplies to French hospitals. This was

merely a beginning of the practical sympathy Canada was eager to show

to France. The Red Cross subscribed upward of $100,000 for various

French war charities. It presented a hospital to France located at

Joinville-le-Pont, Vincennes, at a cost of $370,000, equipped with

medical supplies and staffed by Canadian surgeons and nurses, and

provided a service of motor lorries and motor ambulances for the

benefit of other French hospitals.

Money and supplies were bestowed on other Allied countries. The total

grants made to the various Allies, including France, amounted to more

than $500,000. Substantial help, embracing 21,000 cases of supplies,

was also furnished to the Belgian, Italian, Russian, Serbian, and

Rumanian Red Cross societies and to the Wounded Allies Relief Fund.

A glimpse of the activities of the Canadian Red Cross is afforded by

these extracts from the record of its principal work overseas during

the war period:

1914--Canadian Red Cross supplies given to the following hospitals in

France: Two casualty clearing stations with 200 beds each; four

stationary hospitals with 200 beds each; four general hospitals with

1,040 beds each; six field ambulances with 50 beds each; and in

England, the opening of the Duchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital

with 1,000 beds, besides the sending of comforts to Canadians in other

hospitals.

1915-16--Assistance given to the Canadian Army Medical Corps in

England on behalf of 16,000 to 18,000 sick and wounded Canadians

monthly.

Aid given in the erection and equipping of huts and other buildings

for five Canadian hospitals in England and five in France.

Recreation huts erected, equipped, and maintained in the Canadian hut

hospitals.

1916-17--Assistance given in France to five general and three

stationary hospitals, four casualty clearing stations, thirteen field

ambulances, and fourteen small hospitals attached to forestry,

tunneling and other companies.

Comforts distributed to 20,000 sick and wounded Canadians throughout

Great Britain and to 21 Canadian and 130 British hospitals.

The transfer to the military authorities of four hospitals in England

opened by the Canadian Red Cross Society.

1918--Opening of Canadian Rest Homes for nurses and officers'

hospitals in England.

The society had its fount and inspiration in Canada and its supply

clearing houses, stores, and hospitals in England. In France it

maintained an advance supply store at the Canadian Corps headquarters,

whence its special transports carried what was needed to the fighting

front, and, to facilitate the distribution, stores were also attached

to every Canadian hospital. It built large recreation huts as annexes

to the Canadian general and stationary hospitals, as well as special

wards for pulmonary cases. It supplied Christmas gifts to all Canadian

soldiers in every hospital in France. It furnished musical

instruments for hospital orchestras, provided special furniture and

fittings where required, and opened a Canadian Rest House at Boulogne

for nursing sisters passing through, which afforded repose and shelter

to 6,859 nurses.

As a source of field supplies, the Canadian Red Cross was a dependable

dispenser which the military hospitals, dressing stations, and

regimental aid posts always turned to for their requirements, knowing

that what they needed was not only waiting to be forwarded at the

first call for help, but would frequently be sent in anticipation of

the need. When a severe action was in progress the Red Cross always

had on hand the articles for which there was a constant demand by

field ambulances and aid posts, such as dressings, special foods,

instruments, socks, scissors, chocolate, pajamas, and even comfort

bags into which wounded men put their small personal comforts. Even

before troops entered the trenches their needs were considered, the

battalion medical officers receiving a parcel of comforts from the Red

Cross advance store.

A notable feature of the hospital work was in gratifying the desires

of Canadian patients who asked for various articles they needed.

Nearly half a million parcels were sent to every hospital which cared

for wounded Canadians in the course of the war. The parcels contained,

among other articles, toilet requisites, cigarettes, stationery,

games, books, sweets, fruit, and materials for work. It needed

wholesale purchasing to supply this demand. Cigarettes in millions

were bought, not to speak of eight tons of tobacco, 40,000 shaving

brushes, five tons of fruit drops, and ten tons of eating chocolate.

Those in hospital who were homesick were cheered by the arrival

monthly of seventy-nine sacks of Canadian newspapers.

Thus the Canadian soldier received tangible evidence that the people

at home were ever giving and working in order that he might not be

denied comforts in his need. Whether he was in action, or in a

hospital at the base, or in England, or returning to his reserve unit,

or taking his discharge on his native soil, he was the recipient of

benefits from the Canadian Red Cross, though he might not always be

aware of the tireless role it undertook as his good angel.

1. AWARDS OF THE VICTORIA CROSS (V.C.) FOR CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY

INSTITUTED JANUARY 29, 1856

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NAME | NUMBER | RANK | UNIT | WON | WHERE WON

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Algie, Wallace Lloyd | |Lieutenant |20th Battalion |Oct. 11, 1918 |Cambrai

Barker, William George | |Major |R. A. F. |Oct. 27, 1918 |Foret de Morma

Barren, Colin | 404017 |Corporal |3d Battalion |Nov. 6, 1917 |Passchendaele

Bellow, Edward Donald | |Captain |7th Battalion |April 24, 1915 |Ypres

Bishop, William Avery | |Lieut. Colonel |R. A. F. | |Near Cambrai

Brereton, Alexander | 830651 |Acting Corp. |8th Battalion |Aug. 9, 1918 |East of Amiens (Warvillers)

Brillant, John | |Lieutenant |22d Battalion |Aug. 8,9, 1918 |East Meharicourt

Brown, Harry | 226352 |Private |10th Battalion |Aug. 16, 1917 |Hill 70 near Loos

Cairns, Hugh | 472168 |Sergeant |46th Battalion |Nov, 1, 1918 |Valenciennes

Campbell, Frederick William | |Lieutenant |1st Battalion |June 15, 1915 |Givenchy

Clark, Leonard | 73182 |Acting Corp. |2d Battalion |Sept. 10, 1916 |Pozieres

Clarke-Kennedy, William H. | |Lieut. Colonel |24th Battalion |Aug. 27, 1918 |Arras

Combe, Robert Grierson | |Lieutenant |27th Battalion |May 3, 1917 |South of Acheville

Coppins, Frederick George | 1987 |Corporal |8th Battalion |Aug. 9, 1918 |Near Beaufort

Croak, John Bernard | 445312 |Private |13th Battalion |Aug. 8, 1918 |Amiens

Dinesen, Thomas |2075467 |Private |42d Battalion |Aug. 12, 1918 |Parvillers

Fisher, Frederick | 24066 |Lance Corp. |13th Battalion |April 23, 1915 |St. Julien

Flowerdew, Gordon M. | |Lieutenant |L. S. H. |March 30, 1918 |Northeast of Bois de Mereuil

Good, Herman James | 445120 |Corporal |13th Battalion |Aug. 8, 1918 |Hangard Wood

Gregg, Milton Fowler | |Lieutenant |R. C. R. |Oct. 1, 1918 |Cambrai

Hall, Frederick William | 1539 |Color Sergt. |8th Battalion |April 24, 1915 |Ypres

Hanna, Robert | 75361 |Co. Sgt. Maj. |29th Battalion |April 21, 1917 |Lens

Harvey, Frederick N. W. | |Lieutenant |L. S. H. |March 27, 1917 |Guyencourt

Hobson, Frederick | 57113 |Sergeant |20th Battalion |Aug. 15, 1917 |Northwest of Lens

Holmes, Thomas William | 838301 |Private |4th C. M. R. |Oct. 26, 1917 |Near Passchendaele

Honey, Samuel Lewis | |Lieutenant |78th Battalion |Sept. 29, 1918 |Bourlon Wood

Hutcheson, Bellenden Seymour | |Captain |75th Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Queant-Drecourt Line

Kaeble, Joseph | 889958 |Corporal |22d Battalion |June 8, 1919 |Neuville-Vitasse

Kerr, George Fraser | |Lieutenant |3d Battalion |Sept. 27, 1918 |Bourlon Wood

Kerr, John Chipman | 101465 |Private |49th Battalion |Sept. 16, 1916 |Courcelette

Kinross, Cecil John | 437793 |Private |49th Battalion |Nov. 10, 1917 |Passchendaele Ridge

Knight, Arthur George | 426402 |Acting Sgt. |10th Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Villers Les-Cagnicour

Konowal, Filip | 144039 |Acting Corp. |47th Battalion |Aug. 22, 1917 |Lens

Learmonth, O'Kill Massey | |Acting Capt. |2d Battalion |Aug. 18, 1917 |East of Loos

Lyall, Graham Thompson | |Lieutenant |102d Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Bourlon Wood

MacDowell, Thain Wendell | |Capt. Act. Maj. |38th Battalion |April 9, 1917 |Vimy Ridge

MacGregor, John | |Captain |2d C. M. R. |Oct. 3, 1918 |Cambrai

McKean, George Burdon | |Lieutenant |14th Battalion |April 28, 1918 |Cavrelle Sector

McKenzie, Hugh | |Lieutenant |7th M. G. C. |Oct. 30, 1917 |Meetcheele Spur

| | | | | near Passchendaele

McLeod, Allan Arnett | |Second Lieut. |R. A. F. | |

Merrifield, William | 8000 |Sergeant |4th Battalion |Oct. 1, 1918 |Abancourt

Metcalf, William Henry | 22614 |Lance Corp. |16th Battalion |Sept. 4, 1918 |Arras

Milne, William Johnstone | 427586 |Private |16th Battalion |April 9, 1917 |Near Thelus

Miner, Harry G. B. | 823028 |Corporal |58th Battalion |Aug. 8, 1918 |Demuin

Mitchell, Coulson Norman | |Captain |4th Battalion |Oct. 9, 1918 |Canal de L'Escaut

Mullin, George Harry | 51339 |Sergeant |P. P. C. L. I. |Oct. 30, 1917 |Passchendaele

Nunney, Claud J. P. | 410935 |Private |38th Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Queant-Drecourt

O'Kelly, Christopher Patrick | |Acting Capt. |52d Battalion |Oct. 26, 1917 |Southwest Passchendaele

O'Rourke, Michael James | 428545 |Private |7th Battalion |Aug. 15, 1917 |Hill 60 near Lens

Pattison, John George | 808887 |Private |50th Battalion |April 10, 1917 |Vimy Ridge

Pearkes, George R. | |Major |5th C. M. R. |Oct. 30, 1917 |Near Passchendaele

Peck, Cyrus Wesley | |Lieut. Colonel |16th Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Cagnicourt

Rayfield, Walter Leigh |2204279 |Private |7th Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Arras

Richardson, James | 28930 |Piper |16th Battalion |Oct. 8, 1916 |Regina Trench

Robertson, James Peter | 552665 |Private |27th Battalion |Nov. 6, 1917 |Passchendaele

Rutherford, Charles Smith | |Lieutenant |5th C. M. |Aug. 26, 1918 |Monchy-le-Preux

Scrimger, Francis Alexander | |Captain |14th Battalion |March 25, 1915 |Near Ypres

Shankland, Robert | |Lieutenant |43rd Battalion |Oct. 26, 1917 |Passchendaele

Sifton, Ellie Wellwood | 531730 |Lance Sergt. |18th Battalion |April 9, 1917 |Neuville St. Vaast

Spall, Robert L. | 475212 |Sergeant |P. P. C. L. I. |Aug. 12, 1918 |Parvillers

Strachan, Marcus | |Lieutenant |F. G. H. |Nov. 20, 1917 |Masnieres

Tait, James Edward | |Lieutenant |78th Battalion |Aug. 8, 1918 |Amiens

Young, John Francis | 177239 |Private |87th Battalion |Sept. 2, 1918 |Arras

Zengel, Raphael Louis | 424252 |Sergeant |5th Battalion |Aug. 9, 1918 |East Warvillers

CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD WAR

1914

June 28. Archduke Francis Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo, Bosnia.

July 23. Austria presented an ultimatum to Serbia.

July 28. Austria declared war on Serbia.

July 30. Austrians bombarded Belgrade, and Russia began mobilization.

July 30. Germany made demand for the cessation of Russian

mobilization.

August 1. Germany declared war upon Russia, and France declared

mobilization. Italy notified Germany that she would remain neutral.

August 2. German troops entered the duchy of Luxemburg, and German

forces appeared before Liege, Belgium. Belgium refused the passage of

German troops through its territory.

August 3. The German Ambassador to Paris demanded his passports and

the French Ambassador to Berlin was recalled. War was declared between

France and Germany. German troops invaded Belgium.

August 4. Great Britain declared war on Germany, and the House of

Commons voted a war credit of $525,000,000. Germany notified Belgium

of the existence of a state of war between the two countries. The

United States proclaimed its neutrality.

August 5. The Germans attacked Liege. Earl Kitchener was appointed

British Secretary of State for War.

August 6. Austria-Hungary declared war upon Russia, and the English

Parliament voted an additional $500,000,000.

August 8. British troops landed in Belgium. Portugal declared herself

an ally of Great Britain. French troops entered Alsace-Lorraine.

French and German troops met in their first clash in the Vosges.

August 10. France declared war on Austria-Hungary.

August 12. Great Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary. The Germans

were temporarily repulsed at Haelen.

August 13. Japan sent an ultimatum to Germany.

August 16. German cavalry appeared before Brussels.

August 18. The Belgian Government left Brussels for Antwerp.

August 20. The Germans, unopposed, entered Brussels.

August 22. Namur was besieged by the Germans.

August 23. The Emperor of China declared war upon Germany.

August 23. The Great Retreat of the English and French armies from

Mons began.

August 27. Namur was captured by the Germans. The _Kaiser Wilhelm der

Grosse_, formerly North German Lloyd liner, was sunk off the west

African coast by the British cruiser _Highflyer_.

August 30. The Allied forces continued to retire in the direction of

Paris.

September 3. The French Government moved from Paris to Bordeaux.

September 6. The Germans reached the high tide of invasion in France.

September 12. The Germans continued their retreat from the Marne.

September 14. Germans reached the Aisne and the Allied armies

attempted to cross, in the face of bitter resistance.

September 14. The Allies crossed the Aisne near Soissons.

September 16. The Russian northern army was forced behind the Niemen.

September 22. The Germans retired to Noyon. British cruisers

_Aboukir_, _Cressy_, and _Hogue_ were sunk in the North Sea by

submarines.

September 24. The Russian forces passed the fortress of Przemsyl.

September 28. Japanese and British forces attacked the fortress of

Tsingtau.

September 29. German forces invested Antwerp.

October 8. Germans entered Antwerp. The garrison escaped.

October 15. The British cruiser _Hawke_ was sunk by a German submarine

in the North Sea.

October 17. Russian armies resumed offensive operations in the east.

October 20. The bloody battle of the Yser followed the attempt of

German forces to reach the Channel ports.

October 22. The German forces bombarded Lille, France.

October 25. Germans crossed the Yser River near the coast.

October 26. Gavrilo Prinzep and twenty-three accomplices were found

guilty of the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his

wife.

October 28. The German cruiser _Emden_ sank the Russian cruiser

_Zhemtchug_ in the harbor of Penang. Germans were forced to evacuate

the southern branch of the Yser.

November 1. Five German cruisers defeated the British fleet under

Admiral Cradock off the Chilean coast.

November 2. Great Britain declared the North Sea closed to commerce.

November 5. Great Britain and France declared war on Turkey.

November 7. The Japanese forces captured Tsingtau.

November 9. The German cruiser _Emden_ was destroyed by the Australian

cruiser _Sydney_.

November 10. The struggle along the Yser River continued. Serbians

defeated the Austrian army, capturing 2,000 prisoners. Russian forces

resumed the offensive around Warsaw.

November 15. The Serbians were defeated by the Austrian army.

November 16. Belgians flooded the coast lands in order to prevent the

advance of the German forces.

November 19. German forces advancing into Poland were driven back.

November 29. The Russians continued success against Germans in Poland.

December 1. General De Wet, leader of the rebellion in South Africa,

was captured, practically ending the rebellion.

December 2. Belgrade was captured by the Austrians.

December 6. Battle of Lodz in Russian Poland, which began on November

19, was ended with an inconclusive German victory.

December 8. The British fleet near the Falkland Islands met and

destroyed the German squadron which sank two British warships on

November 1, off the coast of Chile.

December 10. A German submarine raided the harbor of Dover, England.

December 13. British submarine _B-11_ entered the Dardanelles under

the mine fields and torpedoes and sunk the Turkish battleship

_Messudiah_.

December 14. Russians defeated the German forces at Mlawa. Belgrade

was recaptured by the Serbians.

December 18. The German army approached Warsaw.

December 19. The Germans were forced to evacuate Dixmude.

December 23. The Turkish army began an advance on the Suez Canal.

December 24. The Germans defeated the Russian army at Mlawa in

northern Poland. The entire Russian army began a retreat.

December 29. Russian forces were forced to retire in Galicia.

1915

January 1. British battleship _Formidable_ was sunk by a German

submarine in the English Channel.

January 3. The Russian army defeated the Turkish forces in the

Caucasus.

January 6. The Germany army continued to advance in Poland.

January 16. The Russian army of invasion captured one of the passes

over the Carpathian Mountains.

January 21. Austrian forces in northeastern Hungary were shattered by

attacks. General von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff,

resigned the office of minister of war, and was succeeded by General

von Hohenborn.

January 24. A naval engagement between British and German fleets.

German armored cruiser _Bluecher_ was sunk. Other German vessels fled.

January 29. The Germans assumed the offensive in the forest of the

Argonne.

January 31. German submarines made a second raid in the British

Channel and destroyed several British merchant ships.

February 2. Wiener von Horn, a German-American, unsuccessfully

attempted to dynamite the bridge across the St. Croix River.

February 3. The Turkish forces attempted to force a passage over the

Suez Canal and were repulsed by the British troops.

February 4. Germany declared a war zone of the waters around Great

Britain and Ireland, to go into effect on February 18.

February 8. Russian forces were obliged to evacuate a large part of

the territory held in the province of Bukowina.

February 10. Russian army suffered a disastrous defeat in East

Prussia.

February 18. German decree creating a war zone in the waters around

Great Britain and Ireland went into effect.

February 24. Germans captured Przasnysz, in Russian Poland.

February 27. The _William P. Fry_, an American sailing vessel, was

sunk by a German cruiser.

March 1. Great Britain and France announced their intention to prevent

commodities of any kind from reaching or leaving Germany.

March 2. Germany offered to modify her submarine warfare if Great

Britain would also make concessions.

March 6. Premier Venizelos resigned his office on account of the

decision of King Constantine to the entrance of Greece on the side of

the Allies.

March 14. The German cruiser _Dresden_ was sunk off the Chilean coast.

March 19. The French battleship _Bouvet_ and two British battleships

were sunk by floating mines in the Dardanelles.

March 21. Major General Sir William Robert Robertson was appointed

Chief of the General Staff of the British army.

March 22. Austrian fortress of Przemsyl surrendered to the Russian

army.

March 25. French achieved success in upper Alsace.

April 4. German forces in Russia prepared for a great offensive.

April 22. The second battle of Ypres began.

April 25. The battle of Ypres continued.

April 26. The German cruiser _Kronprinz Wilhelm_ was interned at

Newport News.

April 27. The battle of Ypres continued with heavy losses on both

sides.

May 1. Fierce fighting went on in the Gallipoli peninsula. The

American tank ship _Gulflight_ was sunk by a German submarine.

May 6. The Russian forces on the eastern front were routed by Germans

under General Mackensen.

May 7. The transatlantic liner _Lusitania_ was sunk by a German

submarine, with a loss of 1,150 persons, including over 100 Americans.

May 13. The Bryce Commission on Belgian atrocities made public its

report. The American Government protested to Germany over the sinking

of the _Lusitania_.

May 14. Fierce fighting continued in the Ypres sector. The Russian

armies retreated before the Germans, barely escaping a rout.

May 23. Italy declared war against Austria-Hungary.

May 28. Germany replied to the American note on the _Lusitania_.

June 1. Przemsyl was recaptured by the Austro-German forces.

June 9. Italian troops defeated Austrians on the Isonzo River.

June 20. Mackensen defeated Russians at Rawa-Russka.

July 9. The German forces in German Southwest Africa surrendered to

General Botha.

July 12. The German cruiser _Koenigsberg_ was destroyed by British war

vessels off East Africa.

August 5. Warsaw was captured by Austro-German forces.

August 10. The training of reserve officers was begun at Plattsburg.

August 17. London was raided by a Zeppelin, killing ten persons.

August 19. The liner _Arabic_ was sunk by a German submarine.

August 21. Italy declared war against Turkey.

September 1. The German Ambassador declared that no more passenger

ships would be sunk without warning.

September 2. President Wilson received a message from the Pope in

relation to peace.

September 9. United States Government asked Austria-Hungary to recall

Ambassador Dumba.

September 25. The French and British began offensive in Champagne.

September 29. British forces defeated the Turks in Mesopotamia.

October 4. British and French troops landed at Saloniki aid Serbia.

October 5. Premier Venizelos of Greece resigned after King Constantine

refused to support the Allies.

October 6. The French launched a successful attack in Champagne.

October 9. Belgrade was captured by the Austro-German forces.

October 13. Edith Cavell was shot by the Germans as a spy.

October 14. Bulgaria declared war on Serbia.

October 19. Major General Monro succeeded Sir Ian Hamilton in command

of operations in the Dardanelles.

October 22. The Germans inflicted a severe defeat on the Russian

armies.

October 25. The French made gains in Champagne.

November 18. The British resumed advance at Gallipoli.

November 25. The British retired to Kut-el-Amara.

December 3. The American Government demanded the recall of Captains

Boy-Ed and Von Papen, German diplomats.

December 15. Sir Douglas Haig was appointed Commander in Chief of the

British forces in France.

December 19. The British evacuated Anzac and Suvla Bay, Gallipoli.

December 29. Austria met American demands in regard to the _Anoona_.

1916

January 1. Fighting was renewed at the Dardanelles.

January 7. German Ambassador notified the American Government that

submarine operations in the Mediterranean would be conducted according

to international law.

January 8. Germany notified the United States that vessels would be

sunk only when carrying contraband of war and that the safety of crews

would be provided for.

January 9. British forces successfully evacuated Gallipoli.

January 25. The French carried on successful operations around

Nieuport.

January 29. Paris was attacked by Zeppelins.

February 6. Field Marshal von Mackensen assumed command of the

Austro-German army opposing the Allies at Saloniki.

February 9. The Russians began a new offensive in Galicia.

February 16. The city of Erzerum was captured by the Russians. The

British declared that they had completed the conquest of Kamerun, a

German colony in Africa.

February 24. The great German drive at Verdun was repulsed.

February 26. The Germans captured important points about Verdun.

February 28. Turks evacuated Trebizond and other Black Sea ports.

March 8. The German Government presented a memorandum stating its

attitude on the submarine boat controversy.

March 16. Terrific fighting went on around Verdun.

March 18. Germans occupied part of the town of Vaux.

March 24. The English steamship _Sussex_ was sunk by a German

submarine; many passengers killed.

April 18. Secretary Lansing declared to Germany that relations would

be severed if submarine attacks on steamships continued.

April 19. President Wilson addressed Congress on the submarine issue.

April 22. Sir Roger Casement was captured on the Irish coast.

April 24. A revolt broke out in Dublin.

April 25. A squadron of German cruisers raided the English coast.

April 27. Martial law was declared throughout Ireland.

April 29. Surrender of British at Kut-el-Amara was announced.

May 3. Several leaders of the Irish rebellion were executed for

treason.

May 5. Activity was renewed along the entire Eastern front.

May 10. Germany admitted that the _Sussex_ was sunk by a German

submarine.

May 31. The British and German fleets met at Jutland; after a fierce

engagement the German fleet fled.

June 5. Earl Kitchener and many others were lost when the British

cruiser _Hampshire_ went down off the Orkney Islands.

June 17. The Russian army entered Czernowitz.

July 6. David Lloyd George was appointed Secretary of War for Great

Britain.

July 7. The British resumed the offensive on the Somme.

July 11. The Germans advanced east of the Meuse at Verdun.

July 22. Russian forces achieved successes in the Riga district.

July 27. Captain Charles Fryatt was executed by the Germans for

attempting to ram a submarine.

August 4. The French gained successes at Verdun.

August 9. Italian forces occupied the Austrian city of Goritz.

August 27. Rumania declared war on Austria-Hungary.

August 30. Field Marshal von Hindenburg succeeded General von

Falkenhayn as Chief of Staff of the German armies.

September 3. Allies renewed their offensive north of the Somme River.

Bulgarian and German troops invaded Rumania in Dobrudja.

September 14. The Fourth Greek Army Corps, with headquarters at the

port of Kavala, was placed in the hands of the Germans.

October 7. British and French troops in the Somme district advanced on

a front of ten miles.

October 23. Constanza, Rumania, was captured by the

Bulgar-Turco-German army.

October 24. At Verdun, French penetrated German lines to a depth of

two miles, winning back the fort and village of Douaumont, the

Thiaumont field work, Haudromont Quarries, and Caillette Wood.

November 2. The Germans at Verdun evacuated Fort Vaux.

November 6. British steamer _Arabia_ torpedoed and sunk in the

Mediterranean; passengers rescued.

November 13. British launched a new offensive against German line in

France on both sides of the Ancre Brook.

November 21. The German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gottlieb von

Jagow, resigned. Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of

Hungary, died at Schoenbrunn Castle, near Vienna, at the age of

eighty-six. His nephew, Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, succeeded.

November 29. Admiral Sir David Beatty was appointed to command the

British grand fleet, succeeding Sir Jellicoe.

December 5. Herbert H. Asquith resigned as Prime Minister of England.

December 7. David Lloyd George accepted the British post of Prime

Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.

1917

January 10. The Allied Governments stated their terms of peace; a

separate note from Belgium included.

January 22. President Wilson addressed the Senate, giving his ideas of

steps necessary for world peace.

January 31. Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in

specified zones.

February 3. United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany;

German Ambassador von Bernstorff was dismissed.

February 24. Kut-el-Amara taken by British, under General Maude

(campaign begun December 13).

March 4. Announced that the British had taken over from the French the

entire Somme front.

March 11. Bagdad captured by British under General Maude.

March 11-15. Revolution in Russia, leading to abdication of Czar

Nicholas II.

March 15. Russian Provisional Government formed by Constitutional

Democrats under Prince Lvoff and M. Milyukoff.

March 17-19. Retirement of Germans to "Hindenburg Line"; evacuation of

1,300 square miles of French territory on front of 100 miles from

Arras to Soissons.

March 27. United States Minister Brand Whitlock and American Relief

Commission were withdrawn from Belgium.

April 2. President Wilson asked Congress to declare the existence of a

state of war with Germany.

April 6. United States declared war on Germany.

April 8. Austria-Hungary severed diplomatic relations with the United

States.

April 9-May 14. British successes in Battle of Arras (Vimy Ridge taken

April 9).

April 16-May 6. French successes in Battle of the Aisne between

Soissons and Rheims.

April 20. Turkey severed relations with United States.

May 15-September 15. Great Italian offensive on Isonzo front (Carso

Plateau); capture of Gorizia, August 9; Monte Santo taken August 24;

Monte Gabriele, September 14.

May 15. General Petain succeeded General Nivelle as commander in chief

of the French armies.

May 17. Russian Provisional Government reconstructed. Kerensky (former

Minister of Justice) became Minister of War. Milyukoff resigned.

May 18. President Wilson signed Selective Service Act.

June 7. British blew up Messines Ridge, south of Ypres, and captured

7,500 German prisoners.

June 12. King Constantine of Greece forced to abdicate.

June 26. First American troops reached France.

June 29. Greece entered war against Germany and her allies.

July 4. Resignation of Bethmann-Hollweg as German Chancellor. Dr.

George Michaelis, Chancellor (July 14).

July 20. Drawing at Washington of names for first army under selective

service.

July 20. Kerensky became Russian Premier on resignation of Prince

Lvoff.

July 31-November. Battle of Flanders (Passchendaele Ridge); British

successes.

August 15. Peace proposals of Pope Benedict revealed (dated August 1);

United States replies, August 27; Germany and Austria, September 21;

supplementary German reply, September 26.

August 20-24. French at Verdun recaptured high ground lost in 1916.

September 8. Luxburg dispatches ("spurlos versenkt") revealed.

October 24-December. Great German-Austrian counterdrive into Italy;

Italian line shifted to Piave River, Asiago Plateau, and Brenta River.

October 26. Brazil declared war on Germany.

October 27. Second Liberty Loan closed ($3,000,000,000 offered;

$4,617,532,300 subscribed).

November 7. Overthrow of Kerensky and Provisional Government of Russia

by the Bolsheviki.

November 13. Clemenceau succeeds Ribot as French Premier.

November 18. British forces in Palestine take Jaffa.

November 22-December 13. Battle of Cambrai; successful surprise attack

near Cambrai by British under General Byng on November 22 (employs

"tanks" to break down wire entanglements in place of the usual

artillery preparations); Bourlon Wood, dominating Cambrai, taken

November 26; surprise counterattack by Germans, December 2, compels

British to give up fourth of ground gained.

November 29. First plenary session of the Inter-Allied Conference in

Paris; sixteen nations represented; Colonel E. M. House, Chairman of

American delegation.

December 5. President Wilson, in message to Congress, advised war with

Austria.

December 6. United States destroyer _Jacob Jones_ sunk by submarine.

December 6-9. Armed revolt overthrew Administration in Portugal.

December 7. United States declared war on Austria-Hungary.

December 9. Jerusalem captured by British advancing from Egypt.

December 13. Berlin announced armistice negotiations with Russia;

began December 16. German aerial bombs kill several United States

railway engineers, and two engineers died from gunshot wounds.

December 15. Inter-Allied Economic Council, Great Britain, France, and

Italy represented, organizes in London, elects Assistant Secretary of

United States Treasury, Oscar T. Crosby, president. Armistice

agreement between Bolshevik Government and Central Powers signed at

Brest-Litovsk.

December 18. Sixteen to twenty large German Gothas raid London, kill

ten, injure seventy; two of the raiders are brought down.

December 23. General Guillaumat succeeded Sarrail as commander in

chief of Allied forces at Saloniki.

December 27. Turkish army defeated by British in attempt to retake

Jerusalem.

1918

January 5. Between Lens and St. Quentin, German raids on British lines

were repulsed with heavy enemy losses.

January 7. In mutiny at Kiel, German naval base, submarine crews

killed thirty-eight of their officers.

January 14. Attempt was made to shoot Russian Premier Lenine.

January 28. In Italian offensive east of Asiago Plateau, Italian

forces captured Col del Rosso and Col d'Echele, and 1,500 prisoners.

Rumanians captured Kishineff, capital of Bessarabia. Allied aviators

attacked Zeebrugge. German airplanes raided London, killed 47, injured

169. Germans made air raid on Paris, killed 36, injured 190.

January 31. It was for the first time announced that the United States

troops were occupying first-line trenches. Germans raided American

line, killed two, wounded four, one missing.

February 1. Major General Peyton C. March made Chief of General Staff.

Italians advanced to head of Melago Valley. Rumanians occupied

Kishineff. Bolsheviki seized Rumanian ships in Black Sea; captured

Odessa and Orenburg.

February 5. United States transport _Tuscania_ torpedoed off Irish

coast; loss, 101.

February 21. British troops occupied Jericho, fourteen miles from

Jerusalem.

February 22. United States troops were in the Chemin-des-Dames sector,

the Aisne, France.

February 27. Japan proposed joint military operation with Allies in

Siberia to save military and other supplies.

March 1. Generals Kaledine and Korniloff defeated by Bolsheviki near

Rostof-on-Don.

March 2. Kieff, held by Bolsheviki since February 8, was occupied by

German and Ukrainian troops.

March 3. By treaty of peace with four Central Powers signed at

Brest-Litovsk, Bolsheviki agreed to evacuate Ukrainia, Esthonia, and

Livonia, Finland, the Aland Islands, and Transcaucasian districts of

Erivan, Kars, and Batum.

March 4. Germany and Finland signed treaty.

March 8. In the Ypres-Dixmude sector Germans attacked on mile front;

English counterattacked. Leon Trotzky resigned as Russian Foreign

Minister.

March 9. Russian capital moved from Petrograd to Moscow.

March 10. British occupied Hit, in Mesopotamia.

March 12. In Toul sector United States artillery discovered and blew

to pieces German gas projectors, upsetting plans for gas attack.

March 13. German troops entered Odessa and gained control of Black

Sea, with fifteen Russian warships.

March 18. Great Britain and United States took over Dutch shipping in

United States and British ports.

March 21. Beginning of "Big Drive" on 50-mile front, from Arras to La

Fere. On Luneville sector United States artillery fire destroyed

first-and second-line positions. Canadians made gas attack between

Lens and Hill 70. British monitors bombard Ostend. German long-range

gun bombarded Paris.

March 26. Battle continued on whole front south of Somme.

March 27. General Pershing offered all United States forces for

service wherever needed.

March 28. Heavy fighting along 55-mile front, from the southeast of

Somme to northeast of Arras. Entire Turkish force in area of Hit, in

Mesopotamia, was captured or destroyed; 3,000 prisoners taken

(including German officers), 10 guns, 2,000 rifles, many machine guns,

600 animals. British forces crossed the River Jordan.

March 29. The French General, Ferdinand Foch, chosen commander in

chief of all Allied forces in France (British, French, American,

Italian, Belgian, and Portuguese). The German long-range gun killed

seventy-five worshipers at Good Friday services in a Paris church, and

wounded ninety.

April 1. Long-distance bombardment of Paris continued; four were

killed, nine injured.

April 3. War Council at Washington, D. C., announced that all

available shipping would be used to rush troops to France.

April 5. United States army at end of the first year of the war

totaled more than 1,500,000 men.

April 7. United States troops in Toul sector repelled two German

raids. Turks took Ardahan from Armenians; Constantinople reported

Turkish troops advancing over wide area in the Caucasus.

April 10. British and Portuguese, on line from La Bassee Canal to

Armentieres, were forced back six miles; at Messines Ridge, south of

Ypres, British retired two miles. In a counterattack on Givenchy,

British took 750 prisoners.

April 12. Field Marshal Haig issued a special order of the day: "All

positions must be held to the last man."

April 13. Germans captured Rossignol, advanced to border of Nieppe

Wood; took 400 prisoners. French held Hangard against repeated

counterattacks and repulsed German raids between the Ailette and the

Aisne. The British and French Governments agreed to confer on General

Foch title of Commander in Chief of Allied armies in France.

April 15. Count Czernin, Austro-Hungarian Minister, resigned.

April 22. Baron von Richthofen, the leader of the German flyers, with

eighty victories, was brought down behind the British lines.

April 24. Germans attacked the whole front south of the Somme, but

were repulsed; in later attacks gained Villers-Bretonneux, east of

Robec.