First and Second

World War I had a great impact on the world, including Vancouver.

It had been a century, since the wars of Napoleon, since the world had seen a conflict of such magnitude. The American Civil War may have been bitter and destructive but it couldn't compare to this.

War had become a gallant, occasionally fatal game to the British. These clashes were directed by professionals in an atmosphere of pageantry and hero-worship. The threat was never more than the possible collapse of a single nation. The episodes weren't as drastic as the threat of ending an entire civilization and way of life.

For the next five years, 1914-1915, this threat was real to every citizen of the Western World.

This was an immensely personal conflict to the people of Vancouver, even more so than World War II. Canada's casualties in 1914-18 were greater than those in the entire United States forces.

There were streets in Vancouver where every house had a man overseas and every block mourned two or three dead. The First World War was sheer grinding, continuous, merciless slaughter - something the second war never approached.

It wasn't a matter of if a loved one would be killed or maimed but rather when. Battalions were made up of approximately 1,100 officers and men and could be "used up" in two battles.

The 7th Battalion spent 3 years on the front and 9,000 humans went through its ranks. 1400 were killed, 7000 wounded.

The last original officer of the 16th Battalion was killed two years after the battalion arrived in France. In two years, the 47th Battalion lost 22 officers and 639 men killed, 2000 wounded. These were local units made up of local men.

Reading the paper was a horrifying experience after a battle. Casualty lists filled long columns in the papers day after day.

World War I was a war that struck home struck hard. Whereas the Second World War was a war of anxiety and frustration, had been anticipated and was never quite as bad as expected; the First World War was a war of sorrow and hatred, an unparalleled nightmare. People were unprepared for it and it struck a new terror almost daily into the hearts and minds of the people.

 Thank you to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

The Standoff

On May 26 and June 9, 1914, examiners allowed 34 "return men" - previous immigrants returning from visits home - to come ashore from the anchored Komotaga Maru. The Board of Trade asked for assurance on May 28 that the remaining Sikhs aboard the ship would be excluded. Ottawa had given assurances that these British subjects would not be discriminated against and an examination of a single applicant took three days. Perhaps the examiners were torn between the orders from above and the displeasures of the locals.

The examinations continued. All applicants were rejected. The Sikhs of Vancouver raised $70,000 to fight each case in court by June 1. On June 3, immigration officers were removed from the ship from protection. The passengers were held incommunicado.

That same day, Gurdit Singh refused to pay 8,000 yen due the owners of the Komotago Maru until he and his men were landed. On June 4, the Sikhs appealed to King George V personally. They refused to allow Immigration Superintendent Malcom J. Bird aboard, and the patrol launches arrested two Vancouver Japanese and two local Sikhs trying to board the ship.

For three weeks this standoff continued. The immigrants were starving, yet they refused to allow immigration patrol launches to put stores aboard. On June 25, a test case was brought before Mr. Justice Murphy, who upheld the ban. So the case taken before the full Court of Appeal and the decision was upheld in a ruling delivered on July 5. The city's East Indians then withdrew their support of the immigrants.

The following day, the immigrants attempted to kidnap an immigration officer and hold him captive in exchange for food and water. This attempt failed. On July 18, the Japanese master and crew tried to set sail and the Sikhs took over the ship. They locked the master in the cabin and threatened to slit the throat of any stokers trying to get up steam. Immigration authorities tried to board the vessel but was repelled.

Now the police were brought in. July 19, 150 city police under Chief M. B. McLennan (read about this brave officer here) and 50 special police under Captain Warden, attempted to board the Komogata Maru with the intention of provisioning her for the return voyage.

A grappling hook was thrown aboard the vessel and police with a firehose prevented the Sikhs from casting it off. The police then tried to board but were held off with a barrage of coal, bricks and old iron. Eleven policemen were seriously injured and even though all were armed, they obeyed orders not to fire on the Sikhs. 

The next step was to call for the aid of military authorities.

Assistance came immediately. In Victoria, the dismantled cruiser Rainbow was re-gunned and supplied with a crew of sailors and Garrison Artillery gunners; in Vancouver, 100 men of the Irish Fusiliers and 40 each of the Rifles and the Seaforths were called out. The Komogata Maru was overwhelmed by the troops on the wharf and the Rainbow beside her and the immigrants surrendered. The day was July 23, 1914. The ship hoisted anchor and sailed away.

Eleven days later, Canada was at war and the Komogata Maru was forgotten. But for the immigrants returning home, their journey was far from over. I wrote about this sad piece of history in a 2012 entry.

July 6 marked the fifth anniversary of the Vancouver Vagabond. What a fun five years it has been, filled with discovery, meeting new people and gaining a new respect for the city I live in. The blog has reached over 200,000 page views and I want to thank all my readers for taking the time to share this passion with me. Here's to another five years!

I also thank Alan Morley and the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Immigration Ban

During the winter of 1913, the City of Vancouver was spending $150,000 on unemployment relief. Public works were cut down and before spring, the provincial government came to the assistance of the city in caring for the jobless. Jonathan Rogers made a plea, unconvincing, that the depression had "shaken down" the financial structure and business was again on a sound basis.

He did go on to admit that speculation was extinct, no capital and little credit was available for even the soundest business. The Vancouver Board of Trade was pressing the provincial government for that last relief for a business community on the ropes - a moratorium on debts and taxes. The "pause" had become a depression and that depression was close to becoming a calamity.

Vancouver was fortunate enough to escape large-scale labour trouble. However, the shadow of that turmoil hung over the city.

Mackenzie and Mann - notorious "friends" of the McBride government - had taken over the Dunsmuir mines at Nanaimo and Ladysmith. The two were using Japanese and Chinese workers as strike-breakers in a major stoppage, backing them up with "special police".

There was wild rioting in Nanaimo and the Vancouver lawyer who was acting premier, W.J. Bowser, reverted to the old B.C. pattern and threw 1000 militiamen into the town to break the strike. For the previous six years, Oriental immigration was limited and that made the Chinese and Japanese much less of a threat to Vancouver workers in hard times. The Dominion government now banned immigration in B.C. but the threat was to be suddenly and dramatically revived.

The ban on Chinese and Japanese immigration was within in the powers of the government of Canada. However, the ban imposed on East Indians by order-in-council in 1913 was found invalid by Chief Justice Gordon Hunter of the Supreme Court of B.C. The East Indians were British subjects and therefore Canada could not exclude them. A special new orders-in-council applied only to entry into British Columbia and it was a complicated by a requirement of "direct passage" from the land of the immigrant's nativity. 

This ban insulted the pride of the Indians and a Sikh, Gurdit Singh, decided to test it.  Singh has identified as a wealthy landowner, as a "Punjabi agitator" and as a secret agent of the Japanese government. (The Japanese was insulted by Canadian immigration policies and resentful of the riots of 1907.)

Singh recruited 375 Sikhs, partly farmers and partly time-expired veterans of the Indian Army. The East Indians chartered the Japanese steamship Komogata Maru. The Indians boarded the steamship at Hong Kong, stopped at Yokohama en route and arrived at the William Head quarantine station (on Vancouver Island). The ship was granted permission and sent on to Vancouver. There she anchored in the stream, waiting immigration examination.

So what happened with the people aboard the Komogata Maru? Wednesday, I will tell you more.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill