Remembering Our War Heroes

With Remembrance Day upon us once again Web Talk is proud to take some time away from the political arena, where we normally exist, and instead provide an opportunity for our readers to remember, or perhaps even learn something new, about the history of the military in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Each year at this time we are all asked to take a few moments from our daily schedules to remember those who have fought and died in the name of their various Countries.

While the Dominion of Newfoundland may no longer exist, the men who fought and died are no less real and remembering their sacrifices this Remembrance Day is the least we can do.

Many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, at least those over the age of 30, likely remember the Australian war ballad “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, made famous in this province, by Liam Clancy.

The song contains the heart wrenching lines:

…the band played Waltzing Matilda,
As our ship sailed away from the Quay
And amidst all the cheers,
Flag waving and tears
We sailed off for Gallipoli

Well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk he was ready
Oh he primed himself well.
He rained us with bullets,
And he showered us with shells.
And in five minutes flat,
We were all blown to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia…

The reason I bring this up is that while most of us have grown up hearing stories about the near annihilation of the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel, there have been other battles in our history that are less known, though no less bloody.

Many of us may also be familiar with the words of the now famous Australian song but few of us are aware of the Regiment’s connection to the song’s subject and the blood stained soil of Gallipoli.

In early 1915, a year before the famous battle of the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment was sent to Egypt on its way to its very first commitment in the theatre of war, Gallipoli. This would be the place where the Regiment came close to being wiped out for the first time.

The Newfoundland Regiment landed at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula on the night of September 19th 1915 in order to reinforce the hard-pressed British 88th Brigade of the 29th Division.

From the beginning the Regiment had a hard time; day and night the Turkish army, in control of the high ground surrounding the beach, poured a constant stream of artillery and sniper fire down upon the line. Casualties mounted day by day and the constant enemy fire made re-supply difficult. Food and water shortages were common.

In spite of the hardships the Regiment played an important part in advancing the line and was awarded two Distinguished Conduct Medals and a Military Cross during the fighting.

With the coming of winter conditions went from bad to worse.

On November 26th a severe storm struck the Regiment a nasty blow. Three days of torrential rain and driving sleet washed away trenches and supplies and as the temperature fell rapidly the rain turned to snow.

With food and water running short and little or no shelter even the hardy men of the Newfoundland Regiment, who were no strangers to bad weather, began to succumb and several died of exposure.

By December 10th the Regiment was down to a quarter of its original strength.

Toward the end of the Gallipoli Campaign the “Newfoundlanders”, as they were called, were given the job of holding the Turkish forces. They formed part of a defensive line and the fighting was "hellish" for a number of weeks.

Eventually, on December 20th, the British decided to withdraw from Suvla and the Newfoundland Regiment was sent to Cape Helles to assist in the final exodus of British forces.

By then only 170 men were left.

The “Newfoundlanders” were among the very last troops to depart.

After the bloody and deadly Gallipoli engagement the Regiment began the task of rebuilding the tattered remnants of the unit in preparation for there next major engagement, at the Somme, and the now famous battle of Beaumont Hamel.

Perhaps we should take a moment this Remembrance Day to look back with pride on the fact that in North America it is the Newfoundland Regiment alone that has the distinction of having fought at Gallipoli.

No military units, from what was Canada back then, made it to the Dardanelles.

Ever since Newfoundland and Labrador became a part of Canada in 1949, what those brave troops did has been considered a part of the history of all of Canada, and as such all Canadians, not only Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, should take the time to remember and be thankful.

Post Script: For anyone who would like to listen to "Brand New Waltzing Matilda, a heart wrenching ballad, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg

The Truth of NL's Place in the Canadian Federation

The following was sent to Web Talk by a regular reader of our site.

The letter below was written to the St. John's Telegram 10 years ago by John Fitzgerald. For those of you who may not be familiar with the name, Mr. Fitzgerald is an expert in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador and is currently working for the provincial government as our "Quasi-Ambassador" to Ottawa.

The letter itself may be a decade old but it speaks volumes about the truth of Confederation and the clear understanding Mr. Fitzgerald has when it comes to our beautiful homeland. It's a sad thing most of us in this province are not as familiar with the facts as our representative in Ottawa is.

The Telegram
St. John's - April 6, 1998

The Telegram editorial of April 1, celebrating 49 years of Confederation as a "qualified success," claimed that Newfoundland would have been much worse off as an independent country than as a Canadian province, and that without Ottawa , Newfoundland might return to the "grinding poverty" of the 1930s. This is the same tired orthodoxy that The Telegram and Smallwood preached in 1948: Newfoundland would not survive without Confederation.

Newfoundland very likely could have prospered without Confederation. For nine of the 10 years before Confederation Newfoundland had a balanced budget. On the eve of Confederation, Newfoundland had two-per-cent unemployment and a per-capita debt which was one-tenth of Canada 's. On the eve of Confederation, Newfoundland had an accumulated surplus on current account of $43 million and $12 million in interest-free loans to Britain . In 1998 dollars this would be close to $1 billion. Was this prosperity temporary? No. Newfoundland changed forever in the 1940s. If the absence of a House of Assembly at the time prevented Newfoundlanders from knowing it or doing anything about it, then Canada certainly did know the wealth and value of Newfoundland.

Confederation may have been an qualified success for Canada , but not so for Newfoundland . Canada feared that Newfoundland could have used its resources to survive and prosper independently. The Ottawa mandarins realized that Confederation would help extract the Americans from their bases in Newfoundland . Newfoundland also had two of the largest airports in the world, situated on the Great Circle air route.

Canada wanted them, and acquired them with Confederation. It then used the control of the airports and landing rights to force its own way into American markets which had previously excluded Canada . In 1946, Newfoundland had an estimated 300 million tons of iron ore in Labrador , which Canada was interested in exploiting. (In March 1996 the IOC blasted the one billionth ton of iron ore out of Labrador, while Newfoundland still collects revenues under the 1944 royalty regime established by the Commission of Government which allows Newfoundland five per cent of what the IOC tells us their profits are.) Ottawa knew that controlling Newfoundland 's fisheries would eliminate Newfoundland from competing with Nova Scotia for markets for its fish. (Could Newfoundland have managed its cod stocks any worse than Canada has?)

On Oct. 17, 1946 , the Canadian High Commissioner in Newfound land, Scott Macdonald, wrote Ottawa about the benefits Newfoundland would bring to Canada . Newfoundland had "very considerable mineral and forest resources as well as easy access to the finest fishing grounds in the world." Confederation "would solve, permanently, all questions of post-war military and civil aviation rights which are at present terminable after March 31, 1949 , on 12 months' notice. It would make possible a common jurisdiction over North Atlantic fisheries. ..."

And would Newfoundland return to poverty? Not likely. "Moreover," Macdonald wrote, "(Newfoundland) is richer by the investment of at least $100 million by Canada and at least $300 million by the United States primarily for defence but much of which was spent on roads, wharfs (sic), telephone lines, warehouses, similar buildings, radio ranges, airfields, the training of Newfoundlanders in various technical jobs, etc. and has redounded to the general development of the country." In Macdonald's view, Newfoundland thus had the infrastructure to sustain prosperity.

For Canada , Newfoundland 's Confederation was not about the welfare state or about helping Newfoundlanders "out of poverty" (for which, The Globe and Mail tells us, we must be eternally grateful). Rather, it was about acquiring valuable resources, eliminating competition, acquiring very valuable aspects of Newfoundland's sovereignty, and doing it all rather deeply [cheaply?]. After all, Smallwood's Confederation campaigns only cost CD Howe and the Liberal Party of Canada a cool half-million bucks.

A New Definition for "Have" and "Have Not" Provinces

I’ve been saying it for years, as have others in the Atlantic region, that when it comes to Canada there are not only financial “have” and “have not” provinces but also “have” and “have not” attitudes among the people. The two realities don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

For decades, ever since Newfoundland and Labrador entered confederation in 1949, the province has been ridiculed by many Canadians as the poor cousin or the federal equalization sink hole of Canada and its people have been labelled as lazy whiners who continue to take and take while wanting more from the federal purse.

Even in the past year or so, as the province has reached the cusp of finally becoming a financial “have” province, there are those who still feel the need to label the place as a drain on Canada and are more than happy to ridicule the people living there.

If you ask many Canadians which province benefits the most from federal equalization transfers they will automatically say Newfoundland and Labrador. Never mind that Quebec actually accepts the lion’s share of those federal tax dollars, 8 billion last year compared to just 12 million for Newfoundland and Labrador.

When it comes to EI benefits its may be true that Newfoundland and Labrador has a higher percentage of users than many other provinces but this is due primarily to the rural nature of the place and the seasonal employment that kind of environment brings with it.

High unemployment also stems from the shut down of the 500 year old cod fishery in 1992 after decades of mismanagement by Ottawa. A situation that caused the loss of 10’s of thousands of jobs and still has repercussions on the economy to this day. Some analysts have compared the event (on a per capita basis) to the entire city of Mississauga losing their jobs on the same day.

Percentages are one side of the story but if you look at the actual numbers of individuals collecting EI and the dollars spent on the program in different regions of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador no longer sits at the top of the heap among the provinces or in the cost to Ottawa.

When it comes to Newfoundland and Labrador most Canadians have no trouble singling out the people of the province as whiners who can’t wait to pick up an EI cheque and who never get enough of suckling on the equalization teat. It seems that no matter what the reality may be nothing has changed when it comes to attitude of Canadians toward their favourite “whipping boy”.

Now that Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy is starting to turn around and the province plans to accept zero equalization next year it is Ontario and Quebec who are the ones complaining to Ottawa that their share of the pie is not big enough.

The economy in both of those provinces is slumping and it seems that Ontario may now require federal equalization assistance to remain afloat. The Ontario finance minister, Dwight Duncan, has already sent a strong message to his federal counterpart that any plan to short change Ontario on equalization assistance will not be acceptable. He has also signalled that changes to the EI program will be demanded to help the people of Ontario.

Meanwhile Quebec, also with an ailing economy, is looking for even more assistance from Ottawa than they now accept as Canada’s largest equalization recipient.

As both provinces are looking to Ottawa to assist them, which they have every right to do, why is it that nobody has seen fit to write letters to news editors or jam open line programs calling the people of either province a bunch of lazy whiners or saying they are looking for handouts rather than taking care of themselves. Not that I'm saying they should, my question is simply why it isn't happening.

Nobody has done that yet there are those who are still saying it about Newfoundland and Labrador every time the people of the province (or its premier) have anything to say on federal /provincial issues.

Yes indeed, there is definitely a hierarchy to the pecking order of provinces in Canada and a sort of “have” and “have not” status when it comes to the attitude of many regarding the larger and smaller provinces.

If this weren’t the case would the people of Ontario or Quebec, even in these tough economic times, feel as justified as they do in demanding more federal support while their unemployment rates sit at between 6.4% and 7.1%, yet still view Newfoundland and Labrador as a drain on federal coffers even as the province happily moves away from accepting any federal equalization but still suffers from the worst unemployment rate in Canada at more than 13%?

It seems now more than ever that perception is reality. With this in mind maybe we should all forget the financial side of the equation and look instead at public attitudes in creating a new definition of "have" or "have not".