-
THREE: Soldiers versus Citizens
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
THREE Soldiers versus Citizens In Berlin, Ontario, the New Year began full of promise. The weather was mild, the economy was booming, and C.S.M. Blood, when asked for his New Year's resolution, got it mixed up with birthdays and wished for lots more men to go with him to France. Those who had already joined the 118th had had a restful holiday season. Some had gone home on leave, and the rest had been spared the route marches and square-bashing that were the usual regimen for troops in training for the Flanders mud —though in Berlin it was more grass than square-bashing, as their drill ground was Victoria Park, where they would form fours and wheel in column of route under the watchful eye of Queen Victoria and small boys in knickerbockers and cloth caps. And there were other signs that army life was not to be without a reasonable amount of beer, if not skittles. George "Pop" Phillips, the legendary manager of the Roma Theatre, made Thursday night free for the boys of the 118th, and no doubt many of them took advantage of the privilege at the beginning of the year to see Ethel Barrymore in the five-act photo drama, The Final Judgement. On January 4, the spanking new Khaki Club was finally ready for business on the second and third floors of the old Auditorium on Queen Street South. Here the recruits could shoot some pool or play checkers and chess, write letters, read magazines, or if they wanted something more physical , they could go on up to the third floor and work out in the gym with its horizontal bars, rowing machines, and punching bags. All splendid training for dealing with the "Hun," whether at home or abroad. The gym could also convert into a concert hall for regular Monday night "smokers" at which the battalion's talent could show off its paces. Private McCumber, for example, 39 40 The Battlefor Berlin was famous for his clog dances, and it wasn't unusual for Sgt. Major Blood to belt out "The Road To Mandalay" as a finale. The Khaki Club was supervised by Fred Coyne of the Y.M.C.A. He had his office at the top of the first flight of stairs, and from here he orchestrated the innumerable dinners that every church group in the city wanted to lay on for the lads, arranged lectures of an improving nature on such topics as "Christ In The Holy Land" and "A Trip Through The Picturesque Rockies," and set up French classes which, of course, would come in particularly handy when the battalion got to Europe. In other words, he was charged with the spiritual and physical welfare of the young men living away from home for the first time. The appointment was probably as much tactical as humanitarian . Parental opposition was often cited as an explanation why young men were not coming forward in the expected droves, and one reason for this opposition was the rumour, so angrily denounced by Sam Williams, that unhealthy practices were not unknown in an army barracks. What better way to allay these fears than have a member of the Y.M.C.A. to keep an eye on things. Another event that momentarily helped to deflect attention from grimmer civic issues was the arrival on Friday, January 7, of a contingent of Australian cadets, now nearing the end of a year-long tour of the continent. The citizens, or at least those not beavering away on the factory floors for the war effort, flocked to the Grand Trunk Railway (G.T.R.) station on Victoria to greet these exotic visitors from Down Under when their train pulled in at 10:05 a.m. According to the News-Record, which reported their stay in some detail, everyone seems to have been enchanted by the 36 handsome teenagers in their neat blue uniforms who leapt smartly out of the train and formed up behind their marching band. Accompanied by an honour guard from the 118th, the Khaki Club Committee, the City Council, and a crowd of citizenry, they swung jauntily down Water Street, wheeled left onto King, and marched through the centre of town to city hall, where Mayor Hett gave them a predictable Busy Berlin welcome. "I trust that you will find many interesting sights in our industrial city," he said. "It has more than one hundred and twenty five manufacturing establishments, many...