CANADA AND THE SIBERIAN EXPEDITION
Gray, Gordon
Canada and the Siberian Expedition Protests Coming From Many Sections of Dominion—Trade Plea Is Not Sufficient By Gordon Gray (Nation, Feb. 1) CANADA'S participation in military expeditions into...
...Western Canada lodges of the International Association of Machinists, at a convention in Winnipeg, passed resolutions "demanding that the allied troops in Russia be withdrawn...
...They applauded J. H. Haw-thornwaite, the uncompromising Labor party member of the British Columbia legislature, well known as a Socialist lecturer, when he declared, The Bolsheviki are the hope of the world and I mean by Bolsheviki not only the proletariat or working class of Russia but of the whole world...
...THAT these county councillors reflected the opinion held by Ontario's farmers is evident if one can believe Peter McArthur, well known as a writer on farm topics, who declared that farmers wanted Canada to keep out of the Russian trouble...
...THE British Columbia Federation of Labor and the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council executives held a joint meeting and cabled a copy of the following resolution to Arthur Henderson, until recently chairman of the British Labor Party: "Labor in this province is opposed to the intervention of the Allies in Russia...
...And referring to the general's suggestion that Canada might gain trade by sending armed men into Russia, the Herald made this unmistakable declaration: "The Minister of Militia uses the familiar formula, 'Trade follows the flag,' his meaning being that Canada will reap commercial advantages from the military seed which she is sowing in Russia...
...The representatives of this prosperous Ontario county passed these resolutions and instructed the clerk to send a copy to Sir Thomas White acting premier of Canada while Sir Robert Borden is at the peace conference: "That this council wishes to express its disapproval of any further drafts of Canadian soldiers being sent to Russia and also states that in its opinion the drafts already sent to Russia should be immediately recalled, believing as it does that it is a very unwise policy now that the war is won that Canada should interfere in the internal affairs of any other country...
...Vancouver Trades and Labor Council, the largest central labor body on Canada's Pacific slope, was the first central labor council to pass these resolutions...
...Farmers in Protest...
...The Globe had the support of other daily newspapers quite as emphatic in their opposition to the Bolsheviki and no less faithful in their support of the Borden Unionist party...
...Considers working class in any country should be left unhampered in its efforts to establish industrial democracy...
...Get Out of Russia...
...McArthur said: "A matter that is in need of light at the present time is the Canadian expedition to Siberia...
...Opposition comes also from farm leagues, farm publications, and influential daily newspapers...
...Commenting on an explanation of the aim of the expedition offered by General Mewburn, the Hamilton Herald remarked: "We trust there was a better reason for dispatching a Canadian expeditionary force to Siberia than that the British Government requested that one be sent...
...4 of the Railway Employees of Canada, long considered one of the most conservative labor organizations, held a convention in Winnipeg and adopted resolutions calling for the withdrawal of all Allied troops from Russia so that that country may work out its own political freedom "without capitalistic intervention...
...It will be expedient for the Government to think of some better reason than that...
...TWO of these newspapers are printed in Hamilton, the city which Hon...
...1) CANADA'S participation in military expeditions into Russia is meeting with criticism in every province of the Dominion...
...The British Columbia labor movement also demanded that Canada's three delegates to the International Socialist-Labor Congress back up Canada labor's protest against intervention in Russia...
...Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council, the central labor council of the most populous and best organized city of the prairie provinces...
...The labor unions in Canada expressing their opposition to Canada's entrance into the struggle against the Bolsheviki are affiliated with the American Federation of Labor...
...The expedition must now be concerned only with the work of restoring law and order in that vast welter of humanity called Russia...
...Division No...
...S. C. Mew-burn, Canada's Minister of Militia, and commander-in-chief of her military forces, represents in Parliament...
...These newspapers publish pathetic letters from mothers and fathers of boys in units serving in Russia...
...Reply...
...Various labor organizations are passing resolutions calling on the Government to withdraw all Canadian troops now in Russia and to demobilize all forces that the Dominion is preparing to send to that country...
...Is that the motive then, for sending our boys to Russia, to fight the Bolsheviki—the extension of Canadian trade...
...Although both of them supported General Mewburn in the last elections the Herald declared that "what is going on in Russia is in the nature of a civil war and outsiders really have no right to interfere," while the Spectator said that "in view of the increasing complexity of the situation the Canadian expedition to Russia becomes more and more unsatisfactory,' The Toronto Weekly Sun, which has the largest circulation of any farm weekly in eastern Canada and which is opposed to conscription and the Borden Government, in availing itself of an opportunity to expose what it considered a plan to bring about closer affiliation of the various commonwealths within the British empire, declared: "Canada sends one military force to Siberia via Vladivostok, and another to the valley of the Dwina, viaArchangel, to wage war against the armies of the Russian Government and people...
...In his weekly article in the farm section of the Toronto Globe, a newspaper which supports the Borden Government, Mr...
...As a matter of fact, the expedition to Siberia can have no possible connection with the war with Germany, since it is now over— or in such condition that it cannot be resumed...
...Surely Canada has not become so great a world power that she must undertake to police other nations -the lesser breeds without the law.'" The Globe itself questioned the wisdom of Canada's entrance into Russian affairs and one of several editorials on Russia that appeared in this influential daily newspaper declared: "The Canadian people are entitled at least to an explanation of the objects which are said to require the presence of Canadian troops in Siberia...
...In Victoria, British Columbia, seven hundred conscripted Canadian soldiers, in their uniforms, attended a mass meeting held under the auspices of the Federated Labor Party...
...They made their wishes known through the county council...
...Desire our position be understood by delegates to International Labor Conference...
...The dispatches from there report a series of squabbles between classes of Russians whom the Allies are supposed to be backing against the Bolsheviki in the name of order and stable administration...
...Are these factions worth fighting for...
...When Wentworth county council protested against Canadian interference in Russia it was, in reality, a farmers' protest...
...and the Montreal and Toronto central bodies, the two most important trades and labor councils in eastern Canada adopted similar resolutions...
...Trade Follows Flag...
...Canadian soldiers occupy Russian territory...
...We are opposed to any form of compulsory military service...
...Of course, some of them objected to a struggle with Russian peasants but their desire to see their own sons back on the farms had something to do with their protest...
...Canada's four largest central labor councils, central labor bodies in other cities, numerous local unions, the only provincial federation of labor to meet during the last two months, and several district conventions of craft unions, all of them affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, are among the protestants...
...Are the Allies under any obligation to prevent them from flying at each other's throats...
...These soldiers set sail for Russia a few days later...
...Canada, is, in fact, at war with Russia, without knowing the causes of the war or the objects to be attained...
...While labor organizations, economic as well as political, might be expected to uphold Bolshevism as a sister movement, the tillers of the soil naturally had other reasons for the withdrawal of Canada's soldiers from Russian They never forgave the Borden Government for passing a conscription law following the general elections in December, 1917...
...Boys from this district volunteered for that work, and now people are beginning to wonder what it is all about and why we should go on with it There is no longer any plan to attack Germany, on the eastern front...
...The Alberta Federation of Labor, meeting in Medicine Hat, endorsed the Vancouver resolutions, only one dissenting vote being recorded...
Vol. 11 • February 1919 • No. 2
