Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LOYALTIES IN CONFLICT UKRAINIANS IN CANADA DURING THE GREAT WAR Edited by FRANCES SWYRIPA and JOHN HERD THOMPSON LOYALTIES IN CONFLICT Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War Edited by Frances Swyripa and John Herd Thompson Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies University of Alberta Edmonton 1983 THE ALBERTA LIBRARY IN UKRAINIAN CANADIAN STUDIES A series of original works and reprints relating to Ukrainians in Canada, issued under the editorial supervision of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton. Editorial Board: Bohdan Bociurkiw, Carleton University (Social Sciences) George S. N. Luckyj, University of Toronto (Humanities) Manoly R. Lupul, University of Alberta (Ukrainians in Canada) Ivan L. Rudnytsky, University of Alberta (History) Copyright © 1983 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Loyalties in conflict (The Alberta library in Ukrainian Canadian studies) Essays from a symposium held at the University of Alberta in 1980. ISBN 0-920862-22-5 1. Ukrainians—Canada—Congresses. 2. Ukrainian Canadians—Congresses.* 3. World War, 1914-1918—Canada—History—Congresses. I. Swyripa, Frances, 1951 II. Thompson, John Herd, 1946- III. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. IV. Series. FC106.U5L6 971’. 00491791 C82-091407-X F1035.U5L6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Cover design: Alexander Korenfeld Printed in Canada by Printing Services, University of Alberta Distributed by the University of Toronto Press 5201 Dufferin St. Downsview, Ontario Canada M3H 5T8 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Alberta Libraries https://archive.org/details/loyaltiesinconflOOswyr . Contents Introduction vii 1 The Internment of Ukrainians in Canada Peter Melnycky 1 2. The Enemy Alien and the Canadian General Election of 1917 John Herd Thompson 25 3. The Ukrainian Image: Loyal Citizen or Disloyal Alien Frances Swyripa 47 4. Ukrainian Canadians and the Wartime Economy Andrij Makuch 69 5. Ethnic and Class Tensions in Canada, 1918-20: Anglo-Canadians and the Alien Worker Donald H. Avery 79 6. Aliens in Britain and the Empire During the First World War David Saunders 99 7. Ukrainian Canadian Response to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Nadia O. M. Kazymyra 125 8. Ukrainian Diplomatic Representation in Canada, 1920-3 Oleh W. Gerus 143 Appendices 159 List of Contributors 213 Introduction On the eve of the First World War approximately four-fifths of Ukrainian lands lay within the Russian empire; the remainder belonged to Austria-Hungary of the Central Powers. Although oppressed in both empires, the Ukrainian peasants loyally supported their respective monarchs when war erupted. The next few years, however, helped to crystallize an awakening national consciousness, culminating in a bid for statehood that united all Ukrainian territories. These events in Europe were followed eagerly by Ukrainians in North America, who had left to find the “better life” but remained emotionally attached to the homeland. Had the Russian empire, as Canada’s ally, been a more significant source of Ukrainian immigration to Canada, a painful chapter in the Dominion’s history would have been written differently. As it was, most of the 170,000 Ukrainians in Canada before 1914 came from the western portion of Ukraine under Austrian rule, from the provinces of Galicia and Bukovyna. Discriminated against and disliked by many segments of Anglo-Canadian society, Ukrainians formed the largest minority from the Habsburg empire in Canada, and the war years brought bitter frustration. Half-way in the emotional journey between the Old World and the New, they watched as their former homeland was convulsed by war and revolution. In Canada they desired acceptance as loyal sons and daughters who appreciated and identified with the aspirations of their adopted country. Instead, they were labelled “enemy aliens” and subjected to harsh treatment by an Anglo-Canadian majority which harrassed, interned, threatened and finally disfranchised them. This repression, coupled with independence struggles in Ukraine, heightened the Ukrainian identity of the immigrants in Canada and nurtured a national consciousness that outlasted the war. The wartime experience of the Ukrainian community in Canada embittered Ukrainian Canadians, who considered the subject best forgotten. viii Loyalties in Conflict Canadian historians, too, recognizing that Canada has twice failed the test in its treatment of minorities in wartime, have found the subject sensitive. With a new generation of professionally trained students of Ukrainian Canadian history more willing to probe painful periods in the group’s past, and with the acceptance by mainstream historians of ethnic tensions as a fact of Canadian life, it is now possible to explore such issues in greater depth. In their original form, the essays in Loyalties in Conflict were among the papers presented to the symposium, “World War One and Its Aftermath: The Ukrainians in Canada,” sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta in October 1980. The symposium marked an important stage in the writing of Ukrainian Canadian history and its integration into Canadian historiography. The papers by Peter Melnycky and John Herd Thompson examine the two most invidious government measures to touch Ukrainians in Canada during the Great War—internment and disfranchisement. Melnycky’s study taps Ukrainian-language sources and augments previous studies by exploring the attitudes and actions of the internees as well as the Ukrainian immigrant community outside the internment camps. Thompson demonstrates that the disfranchisement of naturalized “enemy aliens” in 1917 was marginal to the confrontation between English and French Canada over conscription. Frances Swyripa contends that Ukrainian loyalty was never a serious popular issue among Anglo-Canadians and suggests that its sporadic appearance was often manipulated by political factions within the Ukrainian community. Ukrainian grassroots support for the Canadian war effort is evident in the patriotic fund raising and enlistment. Andrij Makuch challenges the claim that Ukrainian workers and farmers were guilty of war profiteering and argues that the war merely accelerated socio-economic changes among the Ukrainian Canadian population. Donald H. Avery examines ethnic and class tensions in postwar Canada when unemployment, veteran hostility and political radicalism affected relations between Anglo-Canadians and the alien worker. By emphasizing the persistence of nativism before, during and after the war, the five articles demonstrate that Anglo-Canadian treatment of Ukrainians during the war had less to do with their status as enemy aliens and more with pre-existing prejudices fed by wartime patriotism. David Saunders looks at the imperial dimension of the aliens question, in particular Britain’s treatment of its own aliens; the Ukrainians form a case study. Finally, the essays by Nadia O. M. Kazymyra and Oleh W. Gerus examine the relationship between Ukrainians in Canada and Ukrainian independence struggles overseas. Kazymyra focuses on Ukrainian Canadian efforts to influence decision-making at the Paris Peace Conference by sending two representatives to assist the cause of the Ukrainian National Republic. Gerus illustrates the opposite—the campaign by Galician Ukrainian Introduction ix political leaders in exile in western Europe to garner financial and public support from their compatriots in Canada. The appendices to the volume contain both public addresses by Ukrainian spokesmen about wartime loyalties and selected government documents that provide an official record of the regulations controlling and monitoring enemy aliens in Canada. The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies wishes to acknowledge the financial assistance to the symposium of the Secretary of State, Multiculturalism Directorate, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The co-operation of the Department of History, University of Alberta, in organizing the conference is also gratefully acknowledged. The editors wish to thank John Sokolowski for his translation of Bishop Budka’s two pastoral letters, which appear in Appendix I. Frances Swyripa John Herd Thompson Chapter 1 The Internment of Ukrainians in Canada* Peter Melnycky Canada’s entry into the First World War precipitated government restrictions that included registration and possible internment of Ukrainians as enemy aliens. During the war approximately 80,000 enemy aliens were registered, and 8,579 were actually interned. Ukrainians formed the largest ethnic element in the camps, constituting the majority of the nearly 6,000 interned as Austro-Hungarian nationals. This essay examines Canadian internment policies during the war, the events which transformed unnaturalized immigrants from the countries of the Central Powers into enemy aliens and the process of internment. Its main purpose, however, is to explore the Ukrainian reaction to internment in Canada through government records, first-person accounts and Ukrainian-language sources. In May 1914, with the passage of the British Nationality, Naturalization and Aliens Act, Ottawa had begun to re-evaluate the naturalization of