19141918: Canada and the Great War Scott Masters Crestwood College

1
1914-1918Canada and the Great WarScott
MastersCrestwood College
2
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

3

• 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
  Lee-Enfield gun when they went to the Front

4

• 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.

5

• 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.

6

• 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.

7

• 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.

8

• 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.

9

• "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".

10

• 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.

11
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.

12

• 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

13

• 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.

14

• 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.