on a slushy November
Saturday in 1944 a
column of troops
wound down from the
bench into town, .

Residents. of Terrace were us-

ed. to the sight of soldiers
parading s since they first arrived
in 1942:and set up camp iti three
locations Surrounding the town,’

: This time, the parade was dif-

ferent: -.Officers were missing. -

Some ‘soldiers carried loaded
weapons,

* Two. soldiers in front cartied
a large banner Treading ‘Down
With * Conscription.” ‘Other:
‘banners read -'‘Conscript
‘Wealth and Industry” -and
“Zombies Strike Back.”*

The men, an estimated ‘1,500
from the three battalions here at
‘the ‘time, marched back. and’
forth for’ several hours before
returning to their camps, -

‘It was the first public sign of
what became known as the Ter-
race army mutiny, a: period

" from Noy. -24, 1944 to the end °

of month during - which time

soldiers refused to take. orders

and seized arms and ammuni-
tion. It is also the largest such
incident -in- the history ‘of the

Canadian military.

The men in the parade were
‘“zombies’’, the name given toa
particular and -peculiar type of
Canadian conscript .during the
‘Second World War.

Although, the. draft was
. brought in in 1940, only those
- who volunteered were sent

overseas.

*. "That situation, caused in part
by a policy of Prime Minister
‘William Lyon Mackenzie King

> ta. not antagonize key sup-

porters among: his Liberal par-
~“ty’s Quebec power base because
they opposed the forcible draft
of men overseas, was fine dur-
~ ing the early part of. the war. .

then in: France, there were fears
“of a shortage of reinforcements,

.. Despite the’ many efforts to
; ‘persuade the Home Defence
*: soldiers’ to “go active’, man:
‘, "Power targets weren’t. being
‘kept, Finally, on Nov. 23,1944,
with no-forewarning,: Macken-.

: sate King. had. issuedaacgoverne,
"  Mment<‘order® to send: 16,000

"“**zombies"? to Europe.
.. News of the order reached the
men in Terrace later that day by
. > civilian’: radio, Various - com-
; “manding officers of the units

“1 were-away in’ Vancouver at a

conference to discuss efforts to
i persuade the men to volunteer.
This: wasn’t the Best way for.

° the. men to-hear of the order,

“says. a Canadian military

~~ historian, -
i The! majority. of soldiers in-
“Terrace were considered among

ae the hard care of those whe had

- “resisted all earlier efforts to per-
‘ ‘suade:them to vohinteer, they
“> were tired of being away from
"home and wanted releases now
“thatit looked like the war in

a Europe was coming to an end,
“says Professor Reginald Roy,

_. “They really: didn't know
(what was going on. They were

_ tadio before their officers knew :

° Fusiliers du-St. Laurent, the one:
‘Quebec: regiment in Terrace,*
:tefused-to: go‘on: parade, a

65,000 rounds‘of rifle and sub-

isolited. ‘Then they suddenly
heard what happened over the

about it,"* said Roy,

" The evening of Nov: 23 pass-” ;
ed quietly but on the next day, a
Friday, two companies -of Les.

Word of this was passed to
the other regiments. That night,

machine ‘gun ammunition, afd
four boxes. of grenades: were
‘reported taken from an am-
munition dump. -

‘The next day, Nov. 25,
-mutineers from the: Fusiliers
began to make contact with the
other regiments.

_ It culminated ‘in ‘the pariaile bs
that afternoon With *par-

licipating soldiers encouraging
others to take part.

» Mutineers set-up their own
lines of communication, travell-.
ed through the camps waving
weapons and continued to work
on more reluctant soldiers,

Officers did not take action at
first, preferring not.to give the
mulineers an excuse for further -
and more serious. activities.
They did, after the ammunition
dump was raided, post guards
on the remaining: ones, Unsure
of which . soldiers-- might. be
loyal, ‘offi icers themselves, stood
wateh.

*

eBut. as the army saw ground -
in nm Sicily, in ‘Italy: and -

4 also told my officers
_that if there was any
shooting to _be done, to

_ Start with, | would do it.”

Lt. Col, W.B. Hendrie, com-
manding officer of the moun-
tain. warfare school, assumed
overall command and took
other. safeguards,:

““] told: him (the. town

magistrate) 1 thought the whole

brigade. would go out. I asked
him. to close the beér’ parlours
and try to close the liquor ven-
dors,’’ Hendrie told a subse-

_ quent military inquiry.

~ “T then went ... to the station

. agent and: there was a car of

“booze’’-on thesiding; and'a
car of. ‘ammunition. P- dm
‘mediately * had ‘the’ cars ‘takeri
off."

“I also told. my officers that
if there was any shooting to be
done, to start with, I would do
it,”” he said,

The situation worsened Nov.
26. Companies of the - other
regiments made their quarters
off limits to officers. Sergeants
were threatened,

Hendrie asked for, but was
refused, an overflight over the
camps by bombers as a show of
force. -

The most serious incidents
took place. Nov. 27, the day the
first of the three regiments, the
Prince Albert Volunteers, were |
to leave by train for: Prince
Rupert for postings that could
eventually take them overseas,

An advance party of the regi- -
ment left for the train before
they could be stopped by the

Yes, wenced your help,;.and aced Iebadly.

This is the biggest job we'hare ever
tackled! Everything depends upon Victory.

Canada’s “Army needs volunteers NOW,
And, that means you and yousad you!

Wear Canada’s Badge of Hoanur on your

arm. You'll be proud of it,'s0. will your

friends,

Every man who is able bas got todo his bit!

- WELLOOITACAIN-_
but wenced YOURHELP/

Mayhe you don't ‘think this means you. s6°
that i it’s a job for the other fellow.

“Hyou do, you're wrong, It's your war, coo
t3sa war for every man who rsa man, oa
for everyone who has a srake in Canada.

Yea, this means you all right and we aced

you now for the rionths of intensive train-

ing to make you fighting-fit, We did it
before and we can do it again: .. bur we

-Mackenzie King, says a:

NEWSPAPER ADS: “such? 28 Nis ona: appeating.i
Hazelton, urged men to volunteer for overseas service. They weren't very effective and the government

finally ordered Home Defence troops sent to Europe | in November 1944. This !ead to the Terrace army
mutiny.

need your help.

in-an: hugs 1944,issuerot The Omineca Herald in ”

mutineers. Some | mutineers did
give chase but. quit when they
found the train had departed.
Those remaining pointed
weapons at the. Volunteers still
in camp and threatened. to shoot
officers, *

Yet that departure also mark-
ed- the first sign of. a. tur-
naround. Senior officers by this
time had returned to’ Terrace

‘and began to persuade their

men to return to duty,

‘Preparations were made to-

send more troops by train. Of-
ficers began to go inte the bar-
racks and speak to their men,
The idea was that. by, first
assembling the soldiers in small
groups, officers could avoid

them being intimidated by the
more militant, “and armed,
mutineers, :

Pay was also cut off to the .:
soldiers.and they were officially,
read the section of the King’s”
Regulations , pertaining to’

mutiny. A significant number
of mulineers turned in their
arms and ammunition.

There was one final act to
take place and that occurred on
Nov, 29 when, as the last group
of Prince Albert Volunteers left
for the train station; a small
group of miutineers tried to
block their route.

That attempt didn't work and
the mutineers joined the rest as
the regiment left town. It was a

rather quiet end to what may
have been a far more serious .
situation,

Although. a military inquiry

.was-held, and a few men sent to

prison, authorities ultimately
decided to leave well enough
alone, says military historian

Roy.

“'The idea was to forget and

“get on with the war. Under ar-
‘my rules and regulations, if you

charge someone you need
witnesses. Some of the men
were AWOL. Some were
overseas,” said Roy.

“It would have been far too
much in war time. I hate ta say

this but the authorities were

tight at the time,” he said.

Army

esidents of tiny Ter-
’ race, population 500,
had little idea what
awaited them when

the Second World War broke ;

: out in, 1939,
"At first, efforts were concen-
“trated on Canada’s east coasi as

ports became ‘busy sending a

: supply - ‘of military hardware,
food’ ‘and men overseas - to
, Burope.. .

‘That all changed i in ‘late 1941
ith the entry of Japan into the

enemy : faised + fears" of ‘ what
could happen on the west coast.
Military; ‘units were sent to
British Columbia in short order.
vain the northwest, ‘they were sta-
“tiofied on: the Queen Charlotte
~ Aslands and in Prince Rupert,
American. and: “Canadian
soldiers took up residence. .-

“Terrace was added to the list

war: The presence of'a. Pacific _

1942 with the’ establishmént .

Avenues,

In all, Terrace became the
home to more than 3,000 troops
al any one time. It was not con-
sidered by the military as one of
the more desirable postings.

Rain dampened spirts, recrea-
tional opportunities took a low
‘position on the priority list,
there was.a feeling of isolation
and the small town could offer

only ; A limited amount of ac- .

tivities to off-duty soldiers.

By various: accounts, rela-
tions between the military and
the -civilian ‘population. were
mixed’ in social and. other .ac- ..
tivities.

The Nov, 1, 1944 edition of
the Hazelton-based Omineca
Herald and Terrace News alter-
nately praised and criticized the
role of soldiers in selling Victory
Bonds.::..- -

One. article noted: the ‘par-
ticipation, of soldiers in a parade _

brigade swamps Terrace

ONE OF several army encampments to spring up around Terrace during the Second World War was
this one. Riverside Park is now located where that large number of tents is in the foreground. Just up

Terrace Standard, Wetnesday, November 26, 1900 ~ Pago AS

Mackenzie King
Origin
lies in
politics —

TERRACE — The origins of ;
the Terrace army mutiny. go
back to the First World-War:

Minister William Lyon:

Canadian miliiary historian. :
That war saw a crisis from
conscription — one also
caused by the reluctance of |

overseas for a war it .con-
sidered foreign, says Pro-'
fessor Reginald Roy. ©... ~~

The result of the First.
Work] War conscription.
crisis was a downfall of the
Liberal government when its
Quebec wing split off, It was
replaced ‘by a coalition of
Conservative and Liberals i in
1917,

“The Liberal party in 1917:
was shredded. Mackenzie
King was devastated. You
cam.read it in his diary...He
felt the Liberals and only the
Liberals could run Canada.
There was no way -he would
let that happen again,” said
Roy.

That’s why, when con-
scription was enacted. during
the Second World War in
1940, troops would be sent
overseas “Onky ‘HE they'l
“volunteered, added Roy... .1

In this fashion, he con-
tinued, Mackenzie King
hoped to preserve the sup-
port of Quebec and in doing
so, keep in government.

“You have to remember
— and admittedly I’m. pre-
judiced as you can tell —
Mackenzie King was not a
wartime leader,"’ said Roy.

“The key to this whole
thing is that Mackenzie King
was a political animal. He
did not like soldiers, generals
or the war. He couldn’t con-
trol it politically,” Roy said.

What should have. hap-
pend, said Roy, is complete
conscription for overseas ser-
vice at the start of the war.

“Tf not in 1939, in 1940
when France was defeated,
when Holland, Belgium and
Denmark were defeated. He
(Mackenzie King) could have
done it,” said Roy.

and its affect on Prime’.

Quebec to have troops sent |

A legacy

TERRACE — The develop-
ment of the city owes a lot to
what happened here during
the Second World War.

A water system built by the
army was turned over at the
end of the war and a drill hall
was converted into a civic
centre.

Officers’ quarters. became
a hospital while part of a bar-
racks complex became. a
school.

The largest such conver-
sion to civilian use took place
when an army hospital
became Skeenaview
Hospital, a geriatric facility
that housed people from as
far south as Vancouver.

Terraceview Lodge i is now
located on the site. .

The highway to! ' Prince
Rupert was built« ‘by

a ae ey

ete

am UR LE eee le

American army engineers, ‘it
was finished in September
1944, as a strategic connece
tion to the coast arising from |
the possibility of doing battle
with the Japanese,

As. well,. the Terrace-
Kitimat airport was.a Second

“anid bond = “selling rally: but from there. Is the present day home of the Royal Canadian Legion.

~ another,” headlined’ /"Dirty
>| Work at the Crossroads" told a civilian sellers, the article said.
“different story. By: 1944 the’. threat of ‘a.

“41” seems that niembers of -Japanese invasion had subsided
- the armed: forces have set out to . and thdse soldiers based in Ter- ,
make sure that military quotas *,-tce bégan to Guestion why they
are fi led} and Kal “elad :

of the} 1St ‘Canadian ibe

» The, great majority ‘of the ~ The. Terrace Standard
“troops. in Terrace at the time of acknowledges . the ‘assistance of
‘the mutiny.were classified as Professor Reginald. Roy, the
. Home Defence! They were con- “Department of National
Scripts, but adit voluntecred Defencets: Directorate - of
Milltary History,‘ Terrace: resi-
dent: Theresa Elkiw and the Ter. | World War project as part of
italy ordered in race Publid “Library for infor- | @ system . ‘of. landing: strips
1944,'a Variety of reasons came mation: teadirig: Jo:the prepara. and facilities: across the
““fobellierwhich ‘resulted ‘in. the: tion of ss page north, 29-2

a cee

ie ‘became ‘the home oF the
/ re Fusiliers x St. Laurent

f g
hasea::. to's. defeice
totals 6 the dettiinent t of local