VAIL, N. ROBERT (Fi.1852-1867)
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VALDMANIS, ALFRED ARTHUR ALEXANDER 471 VAIL, N. ROBERT (fi.1852-1867). Businessman. In 1932 Valdmanis graduated in law from the Uni Born New Jersey, U.S.A. Married Anna Walker. Vail versity of Latvia. Joining the Ministry of Finance, he came to St. John's in the early 1850s, opening a bakery rose rapidly to become Minister. As Minister (June on Water Street. Finding a poor market for soft 1938 to October 1939) Valdmanis followed the fascist "baker's" bread, he began to experiment with the government agenda of increased state intervention in making of ships' biscuit (or hard bread), which at the the operation of private firms, restrictions ofthe rights time was largely supplied through Hamburg, Germany. of Latvia's ethnic minorities and of foreign owner By 1857 he had learned the "secret" of making Ham ship, establishment of state-owned "national" enter burg bread and erected a mill and "Steam Bakery" in prises, mandatory cartelization and centralized the west end. Within five years his cheaper product had supervision of trades and crafts. captured 70-90% of the considerable Newfoundland Following the Soviet-German occupation of Poland market for this commodity. In 1863 he sold his recipe, and a Soviet ultimatum of September 1939 demanding bakery and mill to a syndicate formed by St. John's a pact of Latvian-Soviet cooperation, Valdmanis re merchants John Bowring, Edwin Duder, Stephen signed from the cabinet. However, in his capacity as Rendell and Robert Thorburn qqv. In 1867 Vail retired Director General of the Latvian Electric Trust Corpo to New York, a wealthy man. Vail's Joint Stock Co. ration Kegums ( 1940) he continued to participate in operated the business until 1873, when it was pur policy-making until the Soviet takeover of Latvia in chased by Gilbert Browning qv. The business contin 1940. Under Latvia's Soviet regime ( 1940-41) he be ued to be known as Vail's Mill until it was burnt in came Chief of the Planning Section of the Silk and 1879. In 1989 a millstone from Vail's was unearthed, Knitting Trust. In German-occupied Latvia, near the former site of the Mill Bridge over the Water Valdmanis emerged as a contender for leadership be ford River, and it has since been displayed on the cause he advocated collaboration as the best defense Rennie's River walking trail in St. John's, marking the of Latvia's interests. Not surprisingly, he acquired site of Rennie's Mill. See BREAD AND BREAD reputations as both a traitor and ardent patriot. He MANUFACTURE. P.K. Devine (1936), John L. Joy assumed the positions of acting chief public prosecu (1977). RHC tor (Sept. 1941 to Nov. 1941) and director general of justice (Nov. 1941 to Apr. 1943). But in April 1943, VALDMANIS, ALFRED ARTHUR ALEXANDER the Germans had him removed from Latvia. He had (1908-1970). Politician. Civil servant. Born Ziemupe, refused to sanction the recruitment of Latvian Waffen son of Ansis and Lavize (Saldnieks) Valdmanis. Edu SS legions without a German promise of Latvian au cated Liepaja; University of Latvia. Married Anna tonomy. He was first sent to Berlin and then to western Irma Elvira Slessers. A citizen of Russia, Latvia and Germany where he remain~d until the end of the War. Canada, Valdmanis also held a German passport. For In exile his efforts were directed at ensuring the two decades he not only survived a sequence of fas survival of 25,000 Latvians (former Waffen-SS le cist, communist, German-occupation, Allied military gionnaires) in West German and Belgian camps by government and western democratic regimes, but also preventing their repatriation to the Soviet Union and became a key player in each of them. His name is arranging for their overseas resettlement. To this end closely connected with some of the most controversial he worked as a refugee consultant with British and issues in Latvia's economic and political fortunes be American Headquarters ( 1945-4 7) and as a senior tween 1934 and 1945, in post-World War II Baltic staff officer with the U.N. refugee organizations refugee politics and migrations to Canada, and in the UNRRA and IRO. He emigrated to Canada in 1948. unsuccessful drive for industrialization in Newfound While a visiting professor of economics at McGill and land from 1950 to 1954. Carleton universities, he advised the government on displaced persons, immigration and economic devel opment. He was asked to prepare a plan for the estab lishment of gypsum and cement industries in Nova Scotia. The day his proposal fell through C.D. Howe qv recommended him to the Government of New foundland as director of industrial development. Valdmanis was appointed Director General of Eco nomic Development (1950-53) and chairman of the Newfoundland and Labrador Corporation (1951-54). Pressured by Premier Smallwood, he rushed negotia tions to launch some 40 industries with the help of Latvian friends, German business connections and Newfoundland government funds. By 1954, 16 Euro pean industries had been established. But as early as 1952 Valdmanis realized that the industrialization drive was headed for failure. In 1954 his career came to a sensational end with his Alfred Valdmanis arrest, trial and conviction on charges of fraud and ·472 VALLEY POND extortion. Evidence at his trial revealed that as early as Throughout its history the vast majority of the resi 1950 he had demanded from the builders of the gov dents of Valley Pond have been Rideouts. ernment-owned cement and gypsum plants a 10% Valley Pond does not appear separately in the Cen commission, allegedly for the Liberal party, but pay sus from 1845 to 1884, being enumerated as a part of able in instalments to Valdmanis. Sentenced to four nearby Western Head qv. By 1884 the population was years imprisonment, he was paroled after 27 months 102, the Rideouts having been joined by families and spent the rest of his life in mainland Canada in named Fudge and Jennings, while Charles White set short-term positions with firms in Montreal, Calgary tled southeast of The Pond, at Hayward Cove. (In 1994 and Edmonton. He died in a highway accident in Al topographic maps of the Province identified Hayward berta. See also NEW INDUSTRIES. Balabakins and Cove as a separate community, and incorrectly placed Aizsilnieks (1975), G.P. Bassler (1986), Haralds it at Morton Cove, well to the southeast.) In 1901 the Biezais (1992), Alfred Bilmanis (1943), David various parts of the community were listed separately: Cesarani (1992), Misiunas and Taagepera (1993), 82 at Salt Pond, 63 at Whales Gulch Cove (presumably Seppo Myllyniemi (1973), Alti Rodal (1986), Aivars including both The Cove and Hayward's Cove) and Stranga (1992), Boriss Zemgals (1949), Bundesarchiv four people at Morton Cove. This is the only time Koblenz, Political Archive of the German Foreign Of Morton Cove is noted as having been occupied, while fice (Bonn), Joseph R. Smallwood collection (CNS the total population of 149 was the largest recorded for Archive, Memorial University), State Historical Ar some years. The 1901 Census also notes that the ma chive (Riga), Valdmanis papers (in family possession, jority of the people of Valley Pond were members of Montreal). GERHARD P. BASSLER the Salvation Army, which had established a corps and school on the path between Valley Pond and VALLEY POND (pop. 1991, 191). A fishing commu Moreton's Harbour. Thereafter, Valley Pond was nity on the western side of New World Island, Notre known as a bastion of the Salvation Army. (Clarence Dame Bay, Valley Pond has in the past been known as D. Wiseman qv was born there in 1907, while his both Whales Gulch and Salt Pond. The variations on parents were in charge of the Moreton's Harbour the community's name refer to a narrow cove around corps. From 1974 to 1977 General Wiseman was which the community is built. The head of this cove is worldwide commander of the denomination.) known as Saltwater Pond (or "The Pond"), and be In addition to the shore fishery, men from Valley cause it is not navigable fishing premises are located Pond became involved in the fishery on the Labrador, on either side of the entrance. the French Shore or the Horse Islands, but the commu Offering a favourable location to fish for cod around nity was hampered by its harbour, which was not the headlands of western New World Island, as well as suited for the larger schooners sailing out of harbours close access to herring and salmon stocks in the Bay such as Twillingate or Moreton's Harbour. Catches of Exploits, Valley Pond was fished from the late were sold in the early years to Twillingate, and later to 1700s by English migratory fishermen supplied out of the Moreton's Harbour firm of Osmond Brothers. Twillingate. One such fishing servant, Richard From about 1910 men from Valley Pond also found Rideout, settled there and by 1818 had a considerable seasonal work in the lumberwoods of central premises. When the first Census was taken in 1836 the Newfoundland. population of Whales Gulch was 18 : the families of In 1962 a gravel road was built to connect Valley Richard, David, James and Henry Rideout. Henry had Pond to Moreton's Harbour. The world beyond was settled at a cove to the northwest of The Pond ("The drawn closer in 1965, with the completion of the Cur Cove"). Although Henry may well have been a rela tis Causeway, connecting New World Island with the tive of Richard's, Rideouts at The Cove were later Province's highway network. The next year three fam considered as a different "crowd" altogether.