The Military Services Act 1917
• Called all fit males 18-45 to register
• Exceptions:
– those for whom service would cause great
family hardship
– those who were performing vital wartime
functions in Canada
– Conscientious objectors – those whose moral
code forbad violence of any kind
Election of 1917
• Borden called the
election with Conscription
for overseas service as
the primary issue
• Wartime elections Act
and Military Voters Act
affected the vote
• Borden and the
Conservatives formed a
coalition (Union
government) with proConscription Liberals
The Conscription Crisis
Which of the following
a) supports the argument for
Conscription in 1917
b) did NOT support the
argument for Conscription
C) is (or was) irrelevant to the
issue
• ENLISTMENT/CASUALTY RATE FOR 1917
•
Month
Enlistments Casualties
•
January
9,194
4,396
•
February
6,809
1,250
•
March
6,640
6,161
•
April
5,530
13,177
•
May
6,407
13,457
June
6,348
7,931
July
3,882
7,906
August
3,117
13,232
•
September
3,588
10,990
October
4,884
5,929
November
4,019
30,741
December
3,921
7,476
On October 3, 1914 a
convoy of ships carrying
nearly 33,000 Canadian
troops departed for
Britain. In December
1914, Canadian P.M. Sir
Robert Borden
announced solemnly that
"there has not been,
there will not be,
compulsion or
conscription".
In the first two years of
the war, over 350,000
Canadians had enlisted.
•
Canada’s population was just
over 8,000,000 in 1914.
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.
By the end of 1916, the Canadian Expeditionary
Force’s front-line units required 75,000 men annually
just to replace losses, which were extremely heavy
among the infantry.
• In April, 1917, the United States
entered the war on the side of
Britain and France (and Canada,
of course)
There was a revolution in
Russia in 1917. The
Russians would soon
quit the war and
Germany would be able
to bring her full force to
bear in the west.
Conscription Crisis
The Background
• "When Prime Minister Robert Borden returned from a series of meetings with
the Imperial Staff in the spring of 1917, he was convinced that conscription
(compulsory military enlistment) was needed in order to maintain the strength
of the Canadian Corps in France.
• Voluntary enlistment had dropped off sharply. At the beginning of 1916, the
average rate of enlistment was 30,000 a month, but this figure had declined to
6,000 a month by the end of the year. Borden felt that compulsory service was
necessary for Canada to maintain its commitment to the war in Europe.
• Conscription was a politically divisive issue. Resistance was strongest in
Quebec, where a majority had opposed Canada's involvement in a "European"
war, but such reservations were not limited to the French-Canadian population.
• Organized labour bitterly opposed compulsory enlistment, fearing that it would
lead to the conscription of workers for war industries.
• Many farmers were concerned that compulsory enlistment would create a
shortage of agricultural labour at a time when they were hard pressed to meet
the demands of wartime consumption. Consequently, conscription-which the
Borden government had introduced with the passage of the Military Service Act
in August 1917-became the dominant issue in the December 1917 federal
election.
• Prior to the election, the Borden government
passed the Military Voters Act and the Wartime
Elections Act. The Military Voters Act gave the
right to vote to all military personnel regardless
of gender and contained provisions that would
allow them to assign their vote to any
constituency in Canada. The Wartime Elections
Act extended the franchise (vote) to all wives,
mothers, sisters, and daughters of servicemen
and, at the same time, disenfranchised many
voters of enemy-alien birth who had immigrated
to Canada after 1902. These two pieces of
legislation increased the number of voters most
likely to support conscription and eliminated
ones unlikely to support compulsory service.
• French Canadian perspective was led by
Henri Bourassa
• The Pro-imperialist perspective was led by
Robert Borden
• In the middle, who else but Wilfrid
Laurier.
Henri Bourassa
• The following statements were made
by Henri Bourassa during the 1917
conscription debate:
• 1. “It is useless to disguise the truth:
two million French-Canadians are
united against conscription…”
• 2. “All Canadians who want to fight
conscription…must have the courage
to say….Canada has done enough.”
• 3. “with regard to our allies: How many
soldiers would France, and even
England, send to America if Canada
were attacked by the United States?”
• 4. “What England needs most are not
soldiers, but bread, meat, and
potatoes.
Robert Borden
• 1. “We are in a crisis situation. We face
one of the greatest emergencies in world
history. We need more men to stop the
Germans. The number of men required
will not be less than 5,000 and will
probably be 100,000."
• 2. “Hitherto we have depended upon
voluntary enlistment…But I return to
Canada impressed at once with the
extreme gravity of the situation and with
a sense of responsibility for our further
effort at the most critical period of the
War. It is apparent to me that the
voluntary system will not yield further
substantial results.”
• 3. “ All citizens in this country benefit
from Canadian laws and freedom. All
citizens in this country have an equal
obligation to support the defence of this
country.”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. “As to the present Military Service Act my policy will be not to
proceed further under its provisions until the people have an
opportunity to pronounce upon it by way of a referendum.”
2. “It is a fact that cannot be denied that the voluntary system,
especially in Quebec, did not get a fair trial…it is no answer to
say as is now often said, that we must have Conscription or
“quit”…Australia rejected Conscription and Australia did not “quit”.
Australia is still in the fight under the voluntary system.”
3. "Is it not true that the main reason advocated for conscription not so much publicly as privately, not shouted but whispered - is
that Quebec must be made to do her part, and French-Canadians
forced to enlist compulsorily since they did not enlist voluntarily?"
4. “Now in this year of 1917, the Prime Minister and his party wish
to pass a law that will introduce conscription to Canada. If this law
is passed, young men between the ages of 18 and 21 and who
are unmarried, will receive a notice in the mail that will require
them to report for army duty. If this bill is passed, the government
will have broken its promise to the Canadian people."
5. "I, Wilfrid Laurier, and my Liberal Party are opposed to
conscription. Canada is not in danger of attack from Germany,
and therefore, we do not need to force young men into the army."
6. "Some people have accused the French Canadian race, of
which I am a member, of being cowards and disloyal to Canada.
That is not true. Over 16,000 French Canadians have already
enlisted in the armed forces and have gone over to Europe to
fight. French Canadians do not have a large amount of loyalty to
France, one of the countries fighting on our side in the war.”
7. “…they have little enthusiasm for helping France today. The
loyalty of French Canadians is to Canada - a country in which
they have lived for over 300 years. French Canadians will
approve conscription to defend Canada, but not to defend a
country 3,000 kilometres away."
8. “…many English Canadians…have an emotional attachment to
their mother country. Therefore, it is not surprising that over
300,000 English Canadians have volunteered for the Canadian
armed forces and have gone over to Europe to help out England.
I applaud the many volunteers who have willingly made sacrifices
to help win this war.
Wilfrid Laurier
Result
• Ultimately, the bill passed and support for the act
was confirmed by the late 1917 federal election, in
which Borden’s Union government (made up of
members of his Conservative party and members of
the Liberal party who supported conscription) was
elected. The Union Government won nearly 2/3 of
the seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals
found electoral success in Quebec only, where they
won 62 out of 65 seats. In stark contrast, in Ontario,
the Union Government held 74 of 82 seats.
•
Some Interesting Results
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.
Sound and Fury – What effect did
Conscription really have
on the Canadian war effort?
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.
• Click link to see Prezze
• http://www.tvdsb.ca/webpages/evendent/chc2d.
cfm?subpage=178858
• Link to 8 min election video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX85Afumru
8
• CHC2D read page 69-70 answer #5
• CHC2P read 46-49 #1,4