July 2005 - Vol Five, No.8

History Helps, Volume Five, Number 8, July 2005
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GREETINGS!

Changing Immigrant Names

That’s the name of this web page which can be found at this address, http://uscis.gov/graphics/aboutus/history/articles/NAMES.htm

While it’s American and, therefore, relates to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), some of the circumstances described apply universally to the immigrant experience. Certainly we know of instances in Delta where name change, particularly in the Greek community, took place arbitrarily.

Letter to the Editor

I rarely receive anything that could be interpreted as a “letter to the editor,” and, therefore, am including the following correspondence verbatim:

“I would like to respond to the entry in History Helps, Vol. 5, No. 7, under the heading "Children Evacuated to Canada during World War Two".

The Canadian government and immigration officials were adept at appearing generous, as the times seemed to require, while applying already narrow immigration rules as meanly as possible to deny entry to European Jews escaping the Continent and the Holocaust. Abella and Troper have carefully documented Canadian immigration policy and activity with respect to European Jews between 1933 and 1948 in their book "None is Too Many". They discuss the background to this government announcement made in the summer of 1940 in the chapter titled "The Children Who Never Came".

To quote one part of the chapter: "Jewish leaders complained bitterly about the restriction [orphans were refused admission if their parents were still in Poland]. Many Jewish children, a CNCR official argued, did not know whether they were orphans or not; their parents "were last heard of in Prague -- or Vienna," and could be presumed neither alive nor dead. The Toronto Daily Star also condemned the government. "It is not altogether clear", the editorial stated, why Jewish refugee children "now in England...have been excluded from this mass rescue movement...They have suffered as much -- and probably more -- than British children... . They have been torn from their parents, some of whom were sent to concentration camps, to prison or to slave labour fields"; for Canadians to open their hearts and homes to these children would be "a humane Christian act." The government would not be moved. Though in the end it received about forty-five hundred British children -- including some British-born Jews -- it took none of those who had managed to escape from the Continent." [p. 104-105, 1st edition].

An absolutely important part of the book is the use the authors make of archives to reveal government immigration policy and action during the war, and, arguably, Western nations' complicity in the murder of the Jews in Europe.

To quote from the conclusion to the book: "In 1940 the Canadian Pacific Railway immigration agent, Mark Sorensen, wrote to his superior: 'The day will come when immigration will be under debate, and then the Ottawa Immigration Service shall be judged by [its] records. For us it will not be unimportant to have these records at our fingertips. They shall then find us as their bad conscience.’ [page 285, 1st edition].

I strongly recommend this book to any of your readers interested in the sorry history of racism in Canada. A happy note is that, in the second edition epilogue, the authors consider how immigration policy has changed and why, since WWII, and, in particular, how their book affected the then Immigration Minister when Canada generously accepted Vietnamese refugees in the 1980s.

Sincerely yours,
Kathy Bossort
Archivist
Delta Museum and Archives”

A Variation on a Letter to the Editor

This comes from Peter Grauer, whom some of you will remember was looking for a Grade School Reader that he remembered as containing a story about Bill Miner. I’ll leave it to Peter to report on his progress in that search, except to comment on the omnipresence of serendipity.

“As you know, I seemed to remember a primary school reader that featured the story of Bill Miner in it, which, if correct, goes a ways to explaining why his story has lived so long in the popular imagination of people in B.C.

I have been keeping my eyes open for the past 5 years now, with no luck. I even asked for help from your newsletter readership. Although some help was extended, I had no success in identifying the elusive textbook.

Last Saturday, after having a nice leisurely breakfast in downtown Kamloops, my wife and eye stopped in at a garage sale that was still running in the mid afternoon. As I always do, I skimmed the books for titles on early B.C. History. As most times, nothing appeared interesting. Makes you wonder who reads B.C. History, or if they do, they never seem to get rid of their books.

As the wife was occupied with other things, I wandered around, then perused the books again. Upon this second search, I spotted a beat-up early text book, identified by the "5" on its spine. I picked it up, and found it was "Under Canadian Skies", a Grade 5 reader produced by Dent and Sons in 1962. A bit later than when I was in Grade 5, but I searched through the chapters to see what was in it.

There, in a chapter entitled "Robbery Under Arms" on page 144, and on 10 pages nicely illustrated, was the story of Bill Miner. You can imagine my excitement at finding this text book after looking for it for so many years. I wonder if it had previously been issued under an earlier publication date? That would account for my earlier memory of it.

So, I am feeling quite good about my latest little treasure. I will have to keep my eyes open for a more pristine copy.

The fact that the story of an early B.C. train robber appeared in a textbook that was utilized by all schools, at least in B.C., partially explains the fascination B.C. has with the exploits of a rather unsuccessful and inept career criminal from the US. While he was not violent, and did have a number of socially redeeming qualities, his life of crime ensured that he had spent 33 years in San Quentin by the time he was 60 and in Canada. He started by rustling horses in California when he was 17, and was convicted of robbery three times. His life spanned from the old West, the coming of the trans continental railroads in Canada and the States, the death of Queen Victoria, the coming of the automobile and aircraft, and when he died in Georgia in 1913 the townspeople took up a collection for his tombstone. It can be seen at http://www.promotega.org/msc30009/history.htm.

There you have it. The latest on my hunt for the elusive reader.

I haven't done much on my book for the past 6 months as I had to have an operation this spring, however I have been recovering quickly and look forward to starting up again soon. I want to have it finished before next spring, which is the 100th anniversary of the train robbery at Ducks in May of 1906. I am about 7/8th's complete.
Regards,
Peter”

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