In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER 2 29 Winds of Change: The Regular Officer Training Plan and College Militaire Royal After the Second World WarCanada's Armed Forces, pared to a skeleton and settling down to peacetime soldiering , were left with inadequate means to maintain the military prowess they had displayed in Europe.1 Three broad objectives officially defined their tasks: the defence of North America in cooperation with the United States; the provision of administrative, training, and operational staffs as well as reserves to make possible an expansion like those of 1914 and 1939; and, in keeping with the recent creation of the United Nations, cooperation with other free nations to preserve peace and restrain aggression.2 Exactly what this international cooperation would involve was nowhere made clear. None of the three functions aroused a sense of urgency about military preparation. A lack of clear political direction threatened the military'scapabilityand sense of purpose. When Mackenzie King appointed Brooke Claxton minister of national defence in December 1946, it was for the express purpose of cutting down military expenditures . Nevertheless, despite King's primary intention , Claxton began to restore the image of the military and to refill some of the deficiencies in its strength, though withoutany significant expansion. He approved the establishment of the tri-service Canadian Services Colleges (esc) on the lines of the prewar RMC- there was no obligation for graduates to take regular force commissions . The government and people of Canada assumed in 1948 that the threat of war was at least as remote as they had thought in the 1920s and early 1930s. Before the college reopened in 1948, the Czech coup and the Soviet blockade of Berlin reminded Canadians of a need to maintain a military potential, but there was no immediate growth of defence forces. Canada's assumption of a share in responsibility for the defence of Western Europe in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance in 1949 also brought little change in military development. Claxton called NATO "a pact for peace," and said that "the final result will not be to increase the expenditure which every nation on our side must take." By the time the treaty was signed in April, the strength of the three Canadian Armed Forces had been rebuilt only to about 40,000 from the postwar low of 32,000 in 1946. In September it was still less than 46,000.3 RMC'S first postwar graduating class would not be available until 1952. How the need for normal officer replacement was to be met, let alone how future expansion was to be provided for, was not indicated. Having decided to reopen RMC, the government gave little further thought to officer production before the Korean War. Claxton said there were 5000 candidatesin training for Canadian commissions, and boasted thatwas "in greater proportion to the population than in any country."4 Major-General W.H.S. Macklin,* the army ad- *Maj.-Gen. Wilfrid Harold Stephen "Slim" Macklin served in both world wars and was adjutant-general 1949-54. 30 TO SERVE CANADA jutant-general, advised the Cabinet Defence Committee, however, that "for professional reasons the majority of the officers required by the services should have a university degree or equivalent," and that the services were short 1870 officers with that qualification. They had already found it difficult to attract suitable candidates of that calibre.5 What Claxton did not indicate was that twofifths of the candidates were only training for shortservice commissions that offered little prospect of a full military career.6 Some of them had only ajunior matriculation academic qualification, one year short of high school graduation in Ontario and some other provinces. In 1947, when the RCAF needed 165 officers for various appointments as engineers or other technical duties, it RMC in the 1950s offered commissions to ninety-five veterans graduating in pure and applied sciences, but only sixaccepted.7 The other services had similar problems. The minister also did not mention that the remaining 3000 officer candidates in training, many of whom did have the desired academic qualifications,were not committed to join the regular forces. Nearly 2500 were in voluntary unpaid universityunitsof one kind or another, such as the Canadian Officer Training Corps, from which most would take only a reserve commission. Graduates of the services colleges were similarly obliged to take only reserve commissions. By 1950 the arrangements Claxton had made for officer production did not satisfy current needs. The Korean War soon created a serious shortage of young officers...

Share