On the one hand reading Petrou’s meticulously documented account reveals the vistas of my ignorance—take Morocco, for example. I had no idea that Franco’s coup began in Morocco and that many of the Nationalist troops were from North Africa.  I was also surprised, but probably shouldn’t have been, to learn that much of the Spanish Civil War was trench warfare. Being sent into an International Brigades disciplinary unit (euphemistically referred to an engineering, fortification, or labour battalion) meant night work repairing often too shallow trenches and a very high casualty rate. Hard to tell if disappearing into one of the Republicans’ secret, extra-legal prisons—Prevention Houses—was a worse fate. Hugh Garner ended up in a labour batallion for attempted desertion but accusations of Trotskyism could also have near fatal results.

Detail from photo taken near Teruel, probably in January or February 1938

On the other end of the scale, there are tiny details derive ultimately from Petrou’s work with Comintern records and in other archives.

Petrou’s research turned up this photo from the Imperial War Museum—an ambulance named after Tom Ewen (also known as Tom McEwen), father of Jean and of two sons who fought in Spain.

It also turns out that Stewart “Paddy” O’Neil—one of the leaders of the On-to-Ottawa Trek—was born Stewart Homer. (He died on July 6, 1937 during the Brunette offensive.)

Like O’Neil many of the Canadians fighting in the International Brigades had spent the early 30s as itinerant workers and logged time in Bennett’s work camps. Having lived rough for many years, the Canadians were unlikely to leave their bedrolls or shovels behind because they were too heavy. They left that particular mistake to those they dismissed as “New York ice cream boys”. Not surprisingly the American and Comintern officers of the International Brigades thought the Canadians had an attitude problem.

Doug Smith’s Zuken: Citizen and Socialist lacks of notes and bibliography but it filled in a few gaps in my understanding of Winnipeg history and the lives of a few people involved in the mid-20th century CPC.

Joe Zuken, a lawyer and CPC member, was a long-time Winnipeg school board and city council member. What’s stuck with me the most is Zuken’s work in defending the people arrested in 1940 under the Defence of Canada Act Regulations. Passed in September 1939  (and subsequently revised to limit some of its draconian measures), the Act permitted the arrest and indefinite detention of people perceived to be a threat to national security.  The state swung the net wide and caught up members of political, religious, and ethnic groups. Many of those detained did not go through any formal court process (most notably Japanese Canadians).

Those that did go through the court system found the process lacking in a few niceties. Those passing through R.B. Graham’s court in Winnipeg discovered that the judge had a habit of sentencing people in public court to jail time and then when the paperwork was being drawn up adding an additional qualification of hard labour. Tom McEwen was one of those sentenced in November 1940 to this combination of jail time and hard labour.

Joe Zuken in 1940

Graham’s hard labour additions led to legal challenges, not the least of which was that the Defence of Canada Act didn’t have provisions for hard labour.  Graham’s sentencing practices were curtailed but Joe Zuken, acting as McEwen’s lawyer, did some diligent legwork and discovered that Graham and jail officials had tried to tidy up after themselves by crossing out the phrase “hard labour” in one or more copies of the warrants that sent McEwen to jail. Worse the warrants would sometimes be re-typed to remove the offensive, extra-legal sentence of hard labour.

Zuken’s persistence led to the September 1941 filing of a writ of habeas corpus for McEwen.  After a period of judical review, McEwen was released in October 1941. He was free the length of time it took to walk out the door of the Headingley Jail.

The RCMP immediately detained him and interned him first in Petawawa and then in the Hull Jail before the shifts the war led to a release of most of the Canadians interned for being Communists.

All the same, I confess a nerdy delight in sites like the Theses Canada, especially since it’s easy to identify which items come with downloadable files.  Reading the first chapter or two of a thesis can quickly give me a sense of the major arguments in a field and a list of  key texts I should work through.

My most recent IR find is from Simon Fraser where I was able to read a recent MA thesis by Anne Toews on Annie Buller and Beckie Buhay’s friendship (pdf).

Beckie Buhay (l) and Annie Buller (r) in the mid 1920s

Buller and Buhay were key figures in the early- to mid-twentieth century Canadian Communist Party (seen here sometime before 1929 in an image cropped from a Buller biography once downloadable from Progress Books).  References to their organization, writing, and management work are scattered throughout most accounts of the period. Detailed information that both places them and their friendship in context and adds  accurate information grounded in the historical record is much harder to find.

The combination of Google and Simon Fraser’s IR made it extraordinarily easy for me to find Toews’ work. And since Toews’ has done significant archival work, someday, if I find myself shaping a curiosity into a larger project, I’ll be able to find key records. That’s no a small thing when you’re interested in rather obscure topics.

There’s more work to be done of course—I still have lots of questions about Buhay—much I’m happy and grateful to have found and read Toews work.

Arthur Evans (2nd from left), Mike McCauley, James "Red" Walsh, Robert "Doc" Savage, Peter Neilson, Stewart "Paddy" O'Neil, Tony Martin, Jack Cosgrove (source: On to Ottawa Historical Society)

Not quite three days later, they arrived in Ottawa and cooled their heels at the Keewatin Hotel. This hotel is long gone but used to stand around the corner from the train station on Sussex South, roughly above the overpass that until recently was a good spot for sleeping rough in Ottawa.

The trekkers filled the time until their Saturday meeting with Bennett and his cabinet with meetings with representatives from various work camps, including the Rockcliffe camp (DND Work Camp Project 27 PDF).

Not surprisingly, the meeting with Bennett did not go well and quickly degenerated into insults of one sort or another. Bennett didn’t take kindly to be asked if he’d ever slept in a tar paper shack or eaten work camp food. Evans didn’t take kindly to being called a jailbird. Matters went downhill fast.

The Trekkers withdrew and help a rally at the Rialto Theatre on Bank Street where they called for a National Trek.  The Trekkers primary audience would have been comfortable at the Rialto which was located between Waverly and Frank. Refurbished in 1932 with a small neon sign, a cream and gold interior it sat 485 people. It owner at the time, A. Levinson, once remarked “I’m not selling movies, I’m selling a heated sheltered park bench for a dime” (See A Theatre Near You).  Since then the Rialto’s gone through multiple incarnations from seamy to high brow (see recent account for a sense of the streetscape then and now; and for oddly comic view, see an Ottawa Citizen piece on the Rialto’s reincarnation as an art house.)

Unmourned by the good burghers of Ottawa, the Trekkers retreated to Regina. The Trek ended badly but contributed to Bennett’s electoral defeat and the closure of the work camps. The Trekkers delegates went on with their lives. Walsh and Martin spent time in Spanish POW camps; O’Neil and Neilson died in Spain; Savage spent time in the merchant marine; Cosgrove and McCauley drop out of sight; and Evans carries on with his union and political work.

There are few left now who have first hand experience with the 1935 Trek.

CC licence

Most of the people who signed the title page of Arthur Evans’ biography are gone now but the anniversary of their efforts is reconfigured in a new trek to Ottawa in protest of homelessness.

I’ve put no energy into verifying this information–there are much larger holes to deal with–but I happened on this site today. It allows you to search a database drawn from British Navy and Army records of men (and one woman) who
served at Trafalgar.