A.W.O.L.

It was a national humiliation--thousands of Canadian soldiers were deserting to avoid combat.

Defense Minister Andrew G. L. McNaughton himself announced the shameful news. First, he told of the arrival in Britain of "more than 8,300" home-defense draftees (zombies) who had been conscripted for overseas service. He said that the program for reinforcing Canada's overseas forces was "progressing according to schedule." Then the General confessed:

"A high percentage of absenteeism was reported during the movement of the various [draftee] units in Canada over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Of 15,600 draftees warned for overseas service, 7,800 were at one time overdue or absent without leave. . . . Approximately 6,300 are still unreported. . . ."

Jumping the Gun. Newspapers had known of the desertions all along. But censorship had requested silence until those troops who did sail reached Britain. Last week, Toronto's impatient (and Government-baiting) Globe & Mail jumped the gun: "This newspaper . . . cannot . . . accept the censors' directions." After that the lid was off.

Most of the troops had deserted by going on pre-embarkation leaves and not coming back. In Quebec, about 700 men of Le Regiment de Chateauguay, stationed at Sorel, vanished. Another 600 were missing from Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke at Joliette.

At one camp in Alberta, 100 Europe-bound draftees were missing. In Manitoba, at least 350 had vanished. In Saskatchewan, 400 were overdue from one unit, 200 from another. In British Columbia, military authorities admitted that 250 draftees, plus 232 active service men (volunteers) from that province had deserted. Pacific Command officials announced that action would be taken against sweethearts and relatives who harbored missing soldiers--a violation of the Defense of Canada Act.

Jumping the Fence. By no means all the deserters were French Canadians. At least 600 members of the Oxford Rifles, transferred to London, Ont., from the West Coast at year's end and headed for overseas duty, did not return from leaves. When members of the Dufferin & Haldimand Rifles were rushed to fill the Oxford's ranks, at least 100 of them went A.W.O.L. by scrambling over a 6 ft. fence.

All over Canada, police were so busy rounding up deserters* that, in London, Ont., a provincial police official remarked: "The nearest approach man's ingenuity has made to perpetual motion is the process of draftees going A.W.O.L., being picked up by police and put back in barracks, to go A.W.O.L. again."

Canada's Government had tried to solve its November reinforcements crisis (TIME, Nov. 13 et seq.) by adopting partial conscription: at least 16,000 of the Dominion's 60,000-odd home-defense draftees would be compelled to serve overseas; 5,000 would be sent in December, 5,000 in January, 6,000 in succeeding months. The commitments had been met, General McNaughton now admitted, only because the Government had anticipated substantial desertions, had moved enough troops to ports to "insure embarkation of a full complement of reinforcements." Undeniable was the fact that thousands of Canadian draftees simply did not want to go to war. (At week's end it was announced that throughout Canada there have been 90,000 men A.W.O.L. since war's beginning.)

Political Repercussions. Militarily, that fact was not important. Canada's 800,000-man Army (260,000 overseas) is large for a country of Canada's size (pop. 11,500,000), but small compared with the armies of bigger Allied nations.

Politically, the crisis might have historic repercussions. It was sure to be felt in the important by-election in the Ontario riding of Grey North, where Defense Minister McNaughton himself is running for a seat in Parliament. Moreover, a Federal election was in the offing. The opponents of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King now had election ammunition beyond their wildest hopes.

* Penalties for desertion in the Canadian Army depend upon the circumstances. They include "field punishment" (long hours at dirty, disagreeable jobs in the field), dishonorable discharges, and life imprisonment.

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