Tramo institucional internacional

The formation of French-Canadian battalions was part of a wider recruiting strategy employed by the Department of Militia and Defence until the implementation of

conscription in 1917. The organization of locally-raised battalions ballooned in late 1915 as growing casualty lists were met with a surge in popular enthusiasm to bolster

recruiting efforts. Hoping to harness this enthusiasm, Sir Sam Hughes’ Ministry of Militia and Defence announced in December 1915 that private citizens and community associations could raise their own battalions and bear the cost of recruiting. In the short term, this approach was a success. In three months, over 70,000 men were put in uniform. In the long term, however, this decentralized approach to recruiting initiated an

unsustainable proliferation of reinforcement battalions, which competed with each other for recruits, as well as with the rising wages of a wartime labour shortage. Many of these reinforcement battalions adopted a distinct identity to appeal to recruits. There were battalions organized for Sportsmen and Frontiersmen, while the Temperance community of Winnipeg even succeeded in recruiting its own unit: the 203rd _{Battalion, CEF. The key} to this community-driven recruiting scheme was attaching a communal identity to a battalion.57

For the Department of Militia, these unique battalions created both problems and solutions. Authorizing these units created competition and discord between these

disparate battalions, but the redeeming quality of this approach was that authorizing a battalion with a unique identity might appeal to recruits who were not attracted to any of the other battalions in the vicinity. In the spring of 1916, Donald Maclean, a local politician from Saskatoon and future leader of the provincial Conservatives, argued that an Irish battalion should be raised in his city. Maclean explained that Irish residents were not enlisting because “there has been authorised a Highland Battalion, Scandinavian Battalion, Methodist Battalion, Orangemens Battalion, Sportsmens Battalion, University Battalion, etc, etc, … No Irish Regiment has been raised in Saskatchewan and

57 _{Robert Craig Brown and Donald Loveridge, “Unrequited Faith: Recruiting the CEF 1914-1918,” Révue}

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the Irish claim that [they are] due as much consideration as the other Battalions

named.”58 John Smyth, president of one of the Irish cultural associations in Saskatoon, wrote to Sir Sam Hughes explaining that the reluctance of Irish enlistments in

Saskatchewan “should not be taken as an act of disloyalty,” but only as a sign of their desire for a distinctly Irish battalion in the province.59 Indeed, Smyth argued that he has been given “every encouragement” to expect the authorization of an Irish battalion, “including your [Hughes’] own promise.”60 As was the case for many battalions that took on an ethnic identity, authorization from the Department of Militia and Defence to raise an Irish battalion in Saskatoon was meant to present an incentive to attract recruits from ethnic minorities that were underrepresented in the CEF. The authorization of such a battalion was meant to draw Irish recruits into the armed forces, but the promise of this battalion also attracted the support of Irish associations of Saskatoon which offered to bear the cost of recruiting a unit that projected their own cultural identity.

The prospect of raising another battalion in Saskatoon, however, raised doubts in Ottawa. Brigadier-General R.J. Gwynne, Director General of Mobilization, cautioned to Lieutenant Colonel Norman Edgar, Officer Commanding of No. 12 Militia District, that he did “not think Saskatoon is big enough to produce all it thinks it can, that is, a

Battalion of Highlanders, and also an Irish Battalion,” going on to remind Edgar that “as you say there are so many battalions already that require men, roughly 2400 altogether that it seems to me it would be a very questionable policy to ask for another battalion in Saskatoon.”61 Demand for an Irish battalion continued into August, when Mclean

reassured defence authorities that an Irish battalion would not compete with the efforts of Lieutenant Colonel Keenleyside’s 249th Battalion which was in the midst of its own recruiting drive. McLean argued that “If another Battalion were authorized with its

58 _{Letter from Donald McLean to LCol N.S. Edgar, 19 May 1916. RG 24. Vol 4679. 18-2-1. Proposed}

Organziation of an Irish Regiment in Overseas Service. LAC.

59

Letter from John P. Smyth to Sam Hughes, October 1916. Ibid.

60

Ibid.

61

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Headquarters at Saskatoon under command of Lieut[enant] Col[onel] Acheson, and labelled ‘Irish’ … recruits would be drawn from a totally different source than that which Lieut[enant] Col[onel] Keenleyside will draw.”62

Maclean conceded that if a sufficient number of men were not raised within two months, Saskatchewan’s Irish recruiting committees would transfer its volunteers to fill vacancies in the existing battalions. This was indeed Lieutenant Colonel Edgar’s

intention. Writing to the Director General of Mobilization, Edgar stated that “the various cities have very good organizations [but] unless they have a battalion at home to recruit for, they apparently cease in their efforts.”63 With the energy and enthusiasm displayed by the Irish recruiting committee Edgar argued that “it would be better to authorize the establishment of [new] battalions in Saskatchewan from which drafts can be sent to fill the battalions training in camp.” In a more succinct telegram, Lieutenant Colonel Edgar implored Sir Sam Hughes to authorize the Irish battalion because it was “desperately needed to stimulate recruiting.”64 The Irish battalion was never meant to go overseas; its purpose was to attract recruits that would be transferred to other understrength battalions in No. 12 Militia District. Accordingly, 250 recruits gathered by Saskatoon’s Irish recruiting committee were transferred to fill the other battalions raised in Saskatchewan. The Irish community in Saskatoon clamoured for its own battalion and Lieutenant Colonel Edgar was eager to allow it the opportunity, as a way to reinvigorate the local recruiting effort.

Captain Hansen, whose recruiting appeal was quoted at the beginning of this chapter, worked to raise a Scandinavian draft in Saskatchewan at the same time as the Irish community was lobbying for its own battalion. At the time that Hansen presented his request to Col Edgar, however, there were two Scandinavian battalions being recruited in Winnipeg: the 197th (Vikings of Canada) Battalion and the 223rd

62

From Donald McLean to F.B. McCurdy, 7 Aug 1917. Ibid.

63

Letter from LCol N.S. Edgar to BGen R.J. Gwynne, 18 June 1916. Ibid.

64

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(Scandinavian) Battalion. Hansen nevertheless believed that the creation of a separate Scandinavian company in Saskatchewan was essential for attracting even more Scandinavian recruits into the ranks of the CEF; such a company “in itself would be a great inducement for the men to enlist.”65 By March 1917, however, Hansen had only gathered twenty-seven volunteers for his company. On the orders of the Militia Council, Lieutenant Colonel Edgar transferred Hansen’s recruits to the recruiting of the 77th

Overseas Depot Battery, while Hansen and his three other recruiting officers were given a month of leave and discharged from the CEF.66

While local recruiters successfully prevented the formation of a French-Canadian battalion in Northern Ontario, the Militia Council endorsed efforts to organize an Irish battalion and a Scandinavian draft in Saskatchewan. The authorization of these drafts demonstrated how senior officers of the Canadian Militia encouraged voluntary

enlistments by appealing to communal identities. Donald MacLean and Captain Hansen believed that the authorization of a distinct unit would attract members of their cultural community to volunteer for service with the CEF. Lieutenant Colonel Edgar likewise assumed that the authorization of these special units would energize the flagging recruiting effort in his district. The Department of Militia and Defence authorized the formation of battalions to project a particular communal identity in order to encourage a community to mobilize their own members into a battalion of reinforcements for the war effort. This arrangement, however, was not symbiotic. As the examples from No. 10 Militia District reveal, defence authorities such as Lieutenant Colonel Edgar encouraged cultural associations in Saskatchewan to raise recruits for an Irish and a Scandinavian draft with the intention of dismantling these to reinforce other battalions that were

struggling to fill their ranks. These disparate battalions, each with their unique communal identity, reinvigorated the recruiting effort and encouraged local communities to produce their own identifiable battalion to underscore their contribution to the war effort. The

65 _{Letter from A.J. Hansen to LCol N.S. Edgar, 13 Nov 16. RG 24. Vol 4679. 18-13-1. Loyal}

Scandinavians - Organization and Inspection. LAC.

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identity of these distinct battalions only served to attract recruits; nearly all of the new battalions formed during this phase of the war were broken up on arrival in England to reinforce existing units in the Canadian Corps. In contrast to the attempts to raise Francophone battalions, the request to form Irish or Scandinavian drafts raised little concern among local recruiters.