Transcript Diplomacy & The Great War

1914-1918:
Canada and
the Great
War
Scott Masters
Crestwood College
Canada and the War…
 In Canada, a detailed plan for
mobilizing 25 000 volunteers for a
Canadian expeditionary force
began. By Sept. 1914 more than
30 000 Canadians had signed up.
 Col. Sam Hughes-controversial
Canadian Minister of the Militia
who did not trust professional
soldiers
 he set up Valcartier Camp in
Quebec - training for 32 000
volunteer and inexperienced
soldiers (cold, disorganized...)
 he showed old training films and
taught old battle techniques, which
would not equip the men for trench
warfare
 Ross Rifle - Colonial Sam
Hughes favourite gun,
which was issued to
Canadian soldiers
 it was not any good for
modern trench warfare: it
jammed in the mud, seized
up during rapid fire, and
was not compatible with
British bullets
 Hughes would not change
the gun, but the British
supplied the Canadian
soldiers with the LeeEnfield gun when they
went to the Front
 Canadian forces, once in Europe, spent the winter of 1914
in tents on the Salisbury Plain in southern England.
(Conditions were rough but "better" than in Quebec.)
 Canadian officers were not ready to command a full
division and troops were placed under the command of
Sir Edward Alderson. Called “Rawnecks”, they were
re-trained.
 A government press censor
banned all news stories that
were considered harmful to
the war effort. Propaganda
posters appeared all over
Canada, glorifying the
"Great War"...this was
indicative of the Total War
effort to come, which would
soon be promoted by the
War Measures Act
 Across the nation,
Canadians rallied for the
war effort. Hundreds of
church groups, women's
organizations, charities
sprang into action.
 The Canadian Patriotic Fund: created by an act of
Parliament and run by volunteers. It collected money
for soldier's families, surviving on $1.10 a day of
soldier's pay. In 3 months the fund raised $6 million,
providing needy families with $50 a month.
 also set up small co-operative stores, where families
could buy food and fuel.
 Soldiers of the Soil: 12,000
boys helped out on Canadian
farms. Many farmers had
gone to war. These boys
helped prevent crop failures
and food shortages.
 Families practised rationing
and voluntarily changed
eating/consumption habits so
that butter, meat, sugar,
wheat, and fuel could be sent
to troops overseas.
 Even young children helped by
buying 25 cent thrift stamps to
help gov't pay for war. When
they had $4 of stamps they
received a war savings stamp
worth $5 after the war.
 Other than soldiers,
Canada's main
contributions were food
and munitions
 After war was declared,
Russian wheat exports to
Europe stopped
 Much of France's rich
farmland was taken over
by Germany
 1915 had a perfect
growing season for prairie
wheat, and western
farmers harvested the
biggest cash crop in their
history.
 "Greater Production Farms" were established on
Native reserves by W.M. Graham using native funds and
land in order to produce food for the war effort.
 But intensive wheat farming began to ruin the fertile
prairie soils during this time period creating the disastrous
conditions of the 1930s "dust bowl".
 By 1917, Canada had shipped millions
of dollars' worth of shells and
explosives from over 600 munitions
factories - over 250 000 employed
 Canadian industrialists saw the
opportunity to make large profits
 Corruption and profiteering was a
problem: Sam Hughes' Shell
Committee was disbanded by Borden
and replaced by the Imperial
Munitions Board, which answered to
GB. The IMB was headed by
Cdn.businessman Joseph W. Flavelle.
 By 1918, Canada had expanded to
manufacturing airplanes and airplane
engines, guns, cargo ships, chemicals
and other weapons of war. 1500
factories employed 1/3 of a million
people.
Profiteering and Scandal in the War
 The government relied on private enterprise to
direct the wartime economy and industrial
scandals and charges of profiteering ran rampant.
 People saw millionaire industrialists growing
richer from dishonest dealings in war contracts,
while they made sacrifices like cutting back on
food consumption and fuel use.
 There was public outcry to "conscript wealth for
war". Some wanted the government to
nationalize (take over) the nation's banks and
industries until the war's end.
 Borden promised not to interfere with business in
1914 and was reluctant to change this policy.
 In 1916, Borden appointed a fuel controller to
prevent industrialists from hoarding coal and
food, and from rising food prices
 Instead of rolling back food price increases, as
many Canadians expected, he food controller
asked citizens to stop eating so much and to
change their tastes.
 No serious attempt was made to curb the corrupt
practices of private enterprise during the war
 Paying for War
 Plagued by corruption and
inefficiencies and a long war,
the cost of war skyrocketed.
 By 1918, it had reached a
staggering $ 1 million a day Borden's gov't hurried to find
new ways to pay for war.
 Borden's gov't implemented
new income taxes intended as
temporary measures.
 A business tax was announced
in 1916 and the tax on
personal income in 1917. But
the two only brought in $ 50
million.
 Finance minister
Thomas White
announced that gov't
bonds would be offered
for sale. Victory
Bonds: bonds offered
for sale. at 5 interest
rate. In 1915 more than
$ 100 million worth
were sold.
 In 1917, a special issue
of Victory Bonds was
issued and over $ 500
million was raised.