by Mora Gregg
Winnipeg
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Mark Zuehlke, The Gallant Cause: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Vancouver/Toronto: Whitecap Books, c1996. pp. 280, ill. ISBN 1-55110-488-1.
On the south side of Winnipeg City Hall, imbedded in a low polished granite wall, is a modest plaque put there in 1989 “in tribute to the Canadian veterans—106 from Manitoba—who fought with the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion in Spain from 1936 to 1939.” At first glance the plaque seems poorly placed. There are no heroic sculptures or green plantings and one has to stoop a bit to read the dedication splashed with grime from the street. It would be tempting to say this cold stony corner reflects the way in which those who volunteered “to fight on the side of the Spanish Republic against the insurgence of Franco’s fascist movement” have been shunted into a corner of history, never acknowledged by any Canadian government. A second look reveals that the plaque couldn’t be placed more fittingly. It shares the wall with a Government of Canada plaque on the Winnipeg General Strike; and the veterans’ plaque was placed at a bus stop where many have an opportunity to read it. Those riders who wish to know the story of these volunteers would be well advised to begin with Mark Zuehlke’s book.
Estimates of the number of volunteers who went to Spain from Canada between 1936 and 1939 vary from 1,200 to 1,600 depending on whether health workers and other non-military volunteers are counted and whether immigrants to Canada as well as Canadian citizens are counted. What is clear is that Canada had close to the highest level of representation among the countries who provided volunteers to defend the Republic, France having the highest and the U.S. the lowest. Furthermore, the volunteers did not represent a “cross section” of various classes of Canadian society (unlike in the U.S.), but were indisputably working class, drawn from the resource communities and industrial centres, particularly those in Ontario and British Columbia. [1] The Canadians were older and more “seasoned” than their American counterparts. Not a few were veterans of the relief camps and the 1935 On To Ottawa trek and the author quite rightly devotes a chapter in the early part of the book to these events. Canadians served in many international and regular Spanish battalions. Many served in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (formed in July 1937) along with Americans, some Cubans and other internationals. From the beginning Canadians were renowned for their daring and staunchness in battle.
Drawing on correspondence, memoirs and taped interviews, Zuehlke has plucked a representative group of personal stories and has interwoven them into a very readable narrative of Canadian participation in the Spanish Civil War. The author describes the genre as “literary non-fiction.” It is to be supposed that this is a new term for popular history. There is no detail which has not been meticulously researched and verified. If the author states that the temperature was -18°C in Tereul on January 14, 1938 you can be sure it was. Those who are familiar with the history of the conflict and Canadian participation will still be caught up in the story. Zuehlke has had access to some material not available to previous chroniclers [2] and has been able to flesh out some incidents such as the circumstances of Norman Bethune’s departure from Spain,the events around the formation of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion and the efforts by Matthew Halton to raise money to get the volunteers home. In case there are those who still think the Spanish Civil War was a romantic adventure, this impression will be dispelled. Zuehlke has managed to recreate the conditions of extreme fatigue, hunger, cold and heat, lice, the craving for decent weapons, cigarettes, fresh socks and fresh food (other than beans and rice) and the anger and frustration of survivors (about half) who, leaving Spain, saw material intended for the Republic rusting on French sidings, knowing that the western democracies had turned a blind eye to the intervention of Germany and Italy on the side of the fascist rebels.
Manitobans who went to Spain include Bill Williamson, the first Canadian to arrive in Spain; William Kardash, lieutenant in the tank corps of the Spanish Fifth Regiment, Edward Komodowski, a runner during the Battle of Tereul (650 Mac-Paps went into action and 200 returned) and Winnipegger Hans thing, a German immigrant and one of the last to leave Spain. The story of thing’s desperate attempt to return to Canada is rich with examples of sympathetic officials who helped in spite of the Canadian government’s law forbidding participation in the conflict, and in spite of laws revoking the residency of immigrants and the government’s refusal to help finance the return of the veterans.
What the narrative lacks (and this book is not alone) is more about Canadian women who volunteered. Two are known to have gone to Spain from Canada (and possibly other Canadians from the U.S.)—Florence Pike, a nurse, and Jean Watts, an ambulance driver. Like other histories of the war, there is little to be found about non-medical volunteers who worked “behind the lines”—drivers, clerks, photographers, radio operators and so on. As well, it would have been interesting to know more about the experiences of those who supported the Republic from Canada during the conflict. Many dedicated people, women in particular, devoted years of effort into generating support and raising money for the volunteers, for medical aid, aid to refugees, particularly for Spanish children. There was a tremendous sympathy in this country in spite of the shameful and obstructionist policies of the Canadian government and the hostility of the Church and the big press. A notable exceptions to the anti-Republic and anti-volunteer stance was that of the Winnipeg Free Press. The independent editor of the Free Press (John Dafoe) supported the Loyalist cause, criticized the infamous non-intervention Pact, and generated support for the volunteers. [3]
If the story and its context seem dated and at times naive in tone it is because Zuehlke has climbed into the time period and related the experience from the point of view of the participants. Not only has he captured the spirit of the times, he has managed to take the very complex politics in Canada during the Depression and in Spain during the conflict and simplified them without indulging in cold-war rhetoric. Inspired by a half-hidden monument in Queen’s Park dedicated to the volunteers, Mark Zuehlke decided to “attempt to give their history a voice” (p. xv). In this, he has succeeded.
1. Historical Atlas of Canada, III Addressing the Twentieth Century, Donald Kerr, Deryck W. Holckworth, Editors, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990, plate 46.
2. Beeching, William C., Canadian Volunteers: Spain 1936-1939, Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1989; Hoar, Victor with Mac Reynolds, The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion: Canadian Participation in the Spanish Civil War, Toronto: Copp-Clark, 1969.
3. Peck, Mary Biggar, Red Moon over Spain: Canadian Media Reaction to the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, Ottawa: Steel Rail Publishing, 1988.
Page revised: 13 October 2012
