"During World War One, I had to report to the police every
month. All Austrian citizens had to do the same... Those who
reported regularly had no problems. Those who failed to report
were in trouble and were sent to the special labour camps in
British Columbia. Once I failed to report to the authorities for
three months. I was having difficulties at work. I remember as
if it were today. I was coming home from work in the mine. It
was midnight, the moon was shining brightly and the night was
beautiful. I was thinking that the next morning I would walk the
seven miles into town and report to the police. I stopped a
moment, looked at the moon and sorrow welled up in me. I said to
myself "Oh God, good God, is there anybody in the world who
could talk to the angels on behalf of us Poles? Why am I
supposed to go there? What for? I am not guilty of anything. I
do not owe anyone anything. Austria is not my country."1
With the outbreak of the Great War, all "enemy aliens" were
required to register and report on a regular basis to the
nearest police station or government office. Not doing so meant
that an immigrant could face imprisonment at an internment camp.
These internment camps not only housed those deemed to be a
national security threat but was also a prison for any immigrant
unfortunate enough to be unemployed or fired from their job in
the swelling wartime nationalism.2
Not only did the Drumheller Valley's "enemy alien" coal
miners face possible imprisonment because of their birthplace
but those naturalized after 1902 were also suddenly
disenfranchised under the War Times Elections Act. The Act
passed by Prime Minister Robert Borden's conscriptionist Union
government was legislated under the belief that the "foreigners"
traditionally voted Liberal and thus, could threaten the victory
of Borden's government.3
To make conditions even more difficult for any immigrant
eastern European coal miner, the passing of the War Measures Act
enabled the federal government to take any actions it determine
necessary in a time of war. The Drumheller Valley coal miner
never posed any actual threat to national security and the
passing of such legislation was not done in answer to any "enemy
aliens" posing a real threat. It was done mainly as a response
to public pressure.4
This article has been extracted from It's a Miner's Life by
J. E. Russell (East Coulee, Alberta: Atlas Coal Mine
Historical Society, 1995). The
Heritage Community Foundation and the Year of the Coal Miner
Consortium would like to thank the author and the Atlas Coal
Mine Historical Site (a Year of the Coal Miner member) for
permission to reprint this material.
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