Military History
Dispatches: Backgrounders in Canadian Military
History
LES PURS CANAYENS
French Canada and Recruitment during the First World War
Dr. Serge Durflinger
Introduction
During the First World War, the Canadian government used posters as
propaganda devices, for fund raising purposes and as a medium to
encourage voluntary enlistment in the armed forces. Posters were an
important form of mass communication in pre-radio days and hundreds
existed during the war, some with print runs in the tens of
thousands.
Because of Canada's bilingual character, recruiting poster
images and text reflected different cultural traditions, outlooks and
sensibilities. Recruiting posters remain snapshots in time, helping
historians understand the issues and moods of the past.
The French-Canadian recruiting posters on display in the
Les Purs Canayens exhibit reflect Canada's pressing
demand for manpower during the First World War. They also indicate the
underlying social, cultural and political strains which affected
Canada's war effort and influenced military policy. Most
French-speaking Canadians did not support Canada's overseas
military commitments to the same degree as English speakers.
At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Dominion of Canada was
constitutionally a subordinate member of the British Empire. When
Britain was at war, Canada was at war: no other legal option existed.
Nevertheless, Ottawa determined the actual nature of Canada's
contribution to the war effort, not London.
When Canadians learned they were at war, huge flag-waving crowds
expressing loyalty to the British Empire drowned out voices of caution
or dissent. The war would be a moral crusade against militarism,
tyranny, injustice, and barbarism. "There are no longer French
Canadians and English Canadians," claimed the Montreal newspaper,
La Patrie, "Only one race now exists, united...in a common
cause." Even Henri Bourassa, politician, journalist, anti-imperialist,
and guiding spirit of French-Canadian nationalism, at first cautiously
supported the war effort. Few Canadians could have predicted at this
time that their nation soon would become a major participant in the
worst conflict the world had yet seen, or that the war would place
enormous political and social strains on Canada.
Recruitment: Policy versus Reality
The Conservative government of Prime Minister Robert Borden
immediately offered Britain a contingent of troops for overseas service.
Thousands of men enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF),
then assembling at Valcartier, Québec under the personal, if
chaotic, supervision of Sam Hughes, the exuberant Minister of Militia
and Defence. There was a surplus of volunteers and selection standards
remained high; some men, in fact, were turned away. On October 3, a
convoy of ships carrying nearly 33,000 Canadian troops departed for
Britain. In December 1914, Borden announced solemnly that "there
has not been, there will not be, compulsion or conscription". To find
whatever manpower might be necessary, Borden placed his faith in
Canadians' patriotic spirit.
Fully two-thirds of the men of the first contingent had been born in
the British Isles. Most had settled in Canada in the 15-year period of
massive immigration which had preceded the Great War. The same
attachment to the Mother Country was less obvious among the Canadian
born, especially French Canadians, of whom only about 1000 enlisted in
the first contingent. At the time war was declared, only 10 percent of
the population of Canada was British born. Yet, by the Armistice in
1918, nearly half of all Canadians who served during the war had been
born in the British Isles. These statistics indicate that voluntary
enlistments among the Canadian born were never equal to their proportion
of the population.
Following the despatch of this first contingent, the Department of
Militia and Defence delegated the task of recruiting to militia units
across the country. This decentralized and more orderly system raised
a total of 71 battalions each of approximately 1000 men
for service overseas. Posters, which appeared in every conceivable
public space, were an important part of this large recruiting effort.
The poster text and images were usually designed and printed by the
units themselves and tailored to local conditions and interests. Many of
the posters on display are good examples of these.
Recruitment, however, was already tapering off in the fall of 1915.
In October of that year, Ottawa bowed to the pressure of patriotic
groups and allowed any community, civilian organization or leading
citizen able to bear the expense to raise an infantry battalion for the
CEF. Some of the
new battalions were raised on the basis of ethnicity or religion, others
promoted a common occupational or institutional affiliation or a shared
social interest, such as membership in sporting clubs, as the basis of
their organization. For example, Danish Canadians raised a battalion,
two battalions recruited "Bantams," men under 5 feet 2 inches tall, and
one Winnipeg battalion was organized for men abstaining from alcohol. Up
to October 1917 this "patriotic" recruiting yielded a further 124,000
recruits divided among 170 usually understrength infantry
battalions.
In July 1915, with two contingents already overseas and more units
forming, Ottawa set the authorized strength of the
CEF at 150,000
men. Extremely heavy Canadian casualties that spring during the Second
Battle of Ypres indicated that additional manpower would be required on
an unprecedented scale. There would be no quick end to the fighting. In
October, Borden increased Canada's troop commitment to 250,000; by
the new year, this had risen to 500,000. This was an almost
unsustainable number on a voluntary basis from a population base of
less than eight million. Within months, voluntary enlistments for
Canadian infantry battalions slowed to a trickle.
Unemployment had been high in 1914-1915, and this perhaps had
prompted the initially heavy flow of enlistments, especially from
economically-troubled Western Canada. By 1916, the booming wartime
industrial and agricultural economies combined to provide Canadians with
other options and employers competed with recruiting officers for
Canada's available manpower. Those keen to volunteer had already
done so; the rest would have to be convinced or compelled.
By the end of 1916, the
CEF's
front-line units required 75,000 men annually just to replace losses,
which were extremely heavy among the infantry; yet, only 2800 infantry
volunteers enlisted from July 1916 to October 1917 and not a single
infantry battalion raised through voluntary recruitment after July 1916
reached full strength.
French Canada and Recruitment
Following the nation-wide outbursts of patriotism in August 1914,
French-Canadian support for the war began to decline. There existed
among French Canadians a tradition of suspicion and even hostility
towards the British Empire, and, while sympathetic to France,
Britain's ally, few French Canadians were willing to risk their
lives in its defence either. After all, for over a century following
the British conquest of New France in 1760, France showed no interest in
the welfare of French Canadians. In North America,
les Canadiens had survived and grown, remaining culturally
vibrant without French support. By 1914, while an educated
élite in French Canada professed some cultural
affinity, most French Canadians did not identify with anti-clerical and
scandal-ridden France.
When a French government propaganda mission toured Québec in
1918, Bourassa spoke for French Canada when he wrote of the irony of the
French "trying to have us offer the kinds of sacrifices for France which
France never thought of troubling itself with to defend French Canada".
In short, neither France nor Britain was "a mother country" retaining
the allegiance of French Canadians. The "patriotic" call to arms rang
hollow.
French Canadians' language and culture seemed more seriously
threatened within Canada than by the war in Europe. In 1912, Ontario
passed Regulation 17, a bill severely limiting the availability of
French-language schooling to the province's French-speaking
minority. French Canada viewed this gesture as a blatant attempt at
assimilation, which it had resisted for generations. Bourassa, who by
1915 saw the war as serving Britain's imperial interests, insisted
that "the enemies of the French language, of French civilization in
Canada are not the Boches [the Germans]...but the English-Canadian
anglicizers..." Bourassa's acerbic campaign against the
"Prussians of Ontario" had a major impact on recruiting for
"Britain's" war. The Montreal daily, La Presse,
judged Ontario's unyielding Regulation 17 as the main reason for
French-Canadian apathy. To English Canada's calls for greater
French-Canadian enrollment, Armand Lavergne, well-known
nationaliste, replied: "Give us back our schools
first!" Wartime appeals for unity and sacrifice came at an
inopportune time.
French Canada's views were reflected in low enrollment numbers.
Yet, most Canadians of military age, notwithstanding language, did not
volunteer. Those tied to the land, generations removed from European
immigration, or married, volunteered the least. Significantly, these
characteristics applied most often to French Canadians, although many
rural English-Canadians were not enlisting either. If British immigrants
are not counted, the respective contributions of French and English
Canadians are more proportional than the raw data would suggest.
When the first contingent of the
CEF sailed in
October 1914, it contained a single organized French-speaking company
(about 150 men). Sam Hughes at first refused to authorize any
French-language units. The second contingent of over 20,000 men,
despatched to Britain in early 1915, had a single French-speaking
Québec battalion, the 22nd, later nicknamed the "Van Doos."
Besides this battalion, the
CEF was almost
entirely an English-language institution, hardly an inducement for a
French-Canadian to volunteer. A mere 13 of 258 infantry battalions
formed during the course of the war were raised in French Canada, and
all struggled to attract and retain recruits. Those understrength
French-speaking battalions which proceeded overseas after 1915 were
invariably broken up to reinforce the 22nd and other units suffering
severe infantry shortages.
Occasionally in 1915 and 1916, respected and battle-hardened officers
of the 22nd would be assigned to newly-formed French-language battalions
in the hope that a claim to some association with the famed "Van
Doos" might encourage prospective enlistees. It rarely did. In June
1916, the 167th Battalion, recruiting in Québec City, even tried
raffling an automobile to raise interest but only raised 144 men for
service at the front with the 22nd. One interesting unit was the 163rd
Battalion, raised in November 1915 by the noted nationaliste
journalist and adventurer, Olivar Asselin, who insisted on enrolling
only high-calibre men. Criticized by his nationaliste
colleagues for enlisting, Asselin explained in the pamphlet,
Pourquoi je m'enrôle that, far from being a
hypocrite, he was helping to defend France and not the British Empire.
Asselin nicknamed his unit "les poils-aux-pattes" [hairy paws]
and adopted the porcupine as his regimental emblem, explaining that
"qui s'y frotte s'y pique" [stung are those who
come into contact with it]. The unit's recruiting poster, on
display in the exhibit, featured a soldier in French, not Canadian,
uniform. Asselin's considerable efforts to raise a high-quality
French-language battalion were in vain: despite successful recruiting,
the 163rd was despatched to Bermuda for garrison duty, where it
languished. It, too, was eventually dismantled to reinforce the
22nd.
![World War 1 French Canada Recruitment Poster, CWM AN 19820376-821](/web/20061029111044im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/disp/images/CWM_AN_19820376-821.jpg)
French Canada supplied approximately 15,000 volunteers during the
war. Most came from the Montreal area, though Québec City,
Western Québec and Eastern Ontario provided significant numbers.
A precise total is difficult to establish since attestation papers did
not require enlistees to indicate their mother tongue. Though French
Canadians comprised nearly 30 percent of the Canadian population, they
made up only about 4 percent of Canadian volunteers. Less than 5 percent
of Quebec's males of military age were enrolled in infantry
battalions, compared to 14-15 percent in Western Canada and Ontario.
Moreover, half of Quebec's recruits were English Canadian and
nearly half of French-Canadian volunteers came from provinces other than
Québec. The result was an angry national debate concerning French
Canada's, and especially Québec's, manpower
contribution.
Conscription and its Aftermath
When Borden pledged in 1914 that there would be no conscription in
Canada he also maintained that Canada would furnish whatever manpower
was needed to help win the war. By the spring of 1917, these two
policies had become irreconcilable. Voluntary enrollment was no longer
producing the reinforcements necessary to maintain Canada's
commitment in the field where the
CEF
had suffered appalling casualties. Worse was yet to come.
In May 1917, Borden visited Vimy Ridge in the immediate aftermath of
that costly Canadian victory. Moved by the hardships endured by the
troops and proud of their battlefield achievements, on May 18, upon his
return to Canada, Borden announced that "all citizens are liable for the
defence of their country and I conceive that the battle for Canadian
liberty and autonomy is being fought on the plains of France and
Belgium." The government began drafting the Military Service Act.
Many English Canadians hailed the step as a military necessity, but
also as a means of forcing French Canada to augment its low enlistment
rate. Saturday Night magazine insisted that "it is certainly
not the intention of English Canada to stand idly by and see itself bled
white of men in order that the Québec shirker may sidestep his
responsibilities." English Canada hated Bourassa as much as the German
Kaiser. There was little sympathy for French Canadians and little
understanding of the demographic, cultural or historical factors which
might have dissuaded them from enlisting.
The Military Service Act became law on August 28. Former prime
minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier claimed the measure "has in it the
seeds of discord and disunion". He was correct; anti-conscription
demonstrations occurred regularly in Montreal in the summer of 1917.
Angry crowds broke office windows at the pro-conscription Montreal
newspaper, The Gazette. The home of Lord Atholstan, proprietor
of the equally pro-conscription Montreal Daily Star, was
dynamited earlier that month although he escaped unharmed. Recruiting
officers in various parts of Québec made themselves scarce for
fear of their lives. Crowds chanted: "Nous en avons assez de
l'Union Jack!"
The political truce which had prevented a wartime election ended.
Parliament was dissolved in October 1917 and pro-conscription Liberals
joined Borden's Conservatives to form a Union Government,
something of a misnomer since its founding was the result of national
disunity. Some labour groups, most farmers and many Canadians of
non-British origin were also firmly opposed to conscription. J.C.
Watters, the president of the Trades and Labour Congress threatened that
if conscription passed, Canadian workers "would lay down... tools
and refuse to work".
The ensuing December 17 "conscription" election was by far the most
bitterly-contested and linguistically-divisive in Canadian history. In
the end, the Unionists won 153 seats against the Laurier Liberals'
82, including 62 obtained in Québec, but the popular vote was
less than 100,000 in favour of the Unionists. The result was profound
alienation in French Canada. Conscription was considered the result of
the English-language majority imposing its views over a French-language
minority on an issue of life and death. Conceptions of Canada and
definitions of patriotism had never been further apart. Canadian
national unity had never seemed so fragile.
The first group of conscripts were called in January 1918. There were
slightly more than 400,000 Class I registrants; that is, unmarried and
childless males aged 20-34. Nationally, almost 94 percent of these men
applied for various exemptions from service (98 percent in
Québec) and the appeal boards established to review these cases
granted nearly 87 percent of their requests (91 percent in
Québec). Some 28,000 others (18,000 in Québec) simply
defaulted and went into hiding to avoid arrest by military or civilian
police. Conscription was unpopular among those called, regardless of
region, occupation or ethnicity.
The tension in Québec was palpable. At the end of March 1918 a
mob destroyed the offices of the Military Service Registry in
Québec City. Conscript troops were rushed from Toronto and on
April 1 they opened fire with machine guns on a threatening crowd,
killing four demonstrators and wounding dozens of others. The extent of
the violence shocked the country. Religious leaders and civic
authorities successfully appealed for calm. The rioting stopped, but the
bitter memories would linger for decades.
Of the 620,000 men who served in the
CEF, about
108,000 were conscripts. Fewer than 48,000 of these proceeded overseas
and, before the war ended in November 1918, only 24,000 actually served
at the front. Although all of the conscripts would have been urgently
needed at the front if the war had continued into 1919, as expected,
conscription hardly seemed worth the effort given the severity of the
national disunity it caused. In the postwar period, French-Canadian
nationalistes would point to the conscription crisis as
evidence of the impossibility of reconciling the views of French and
English speakers in Canada. The events of 1917-1918 forced the
government of William Lyon Mackenzie King to tread warily over the same
issue during the Second World War.
Further reading:
- Robert Craig Brown; Donald Loveridge, Unrequited Faith:
Recruiting the CEF 1914-1918, Revue Internationale d'Histoire
Militaire, No. 51, 1982.
- Marc H. Choko, Canadian War Posters, Méridien,
Montreal, 1994.
- Gérard Filteau, Le Québec, le Canada et la guerre
1914-1918, L'aurore, Montréal, 1977.
- Jean-Pierre Gagnon, Le 22e Bataillon, Les Presses de
l'Université Laval en collaboration avec le ministère de
la Défense nationale et le Centre d'édition du
gouvernement du Canada, Ottawa et Québec, 1986.
- J.L. Granatstein and J.M. Hitsman, Broken Promises: A History of
Conscription in Canada, Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1977.
- Desmond Morton and J.L. Granatstein, Marching to Armageddon,
Lester and Orpen Dennys, Toronto, 1989.
- Desmond Morton, When Your Number's Up, Random House,
Toronto, 1993.
- G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919,
Ottawa, Queen's Printer, 1964.