The paper is devoted to the study of the system of measures taken by the Canadian government to stimulate military recruitment into the ranks of Canadian volunteers at the height of the First World War. It investigates the main and additional measures to activate the recruitment to the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the midst of the army recruitment crisis in 1915—1916, including at the legislative level. It lists and discloses the mechanism for applying measures of a social, economic, organizational nature. The most important of them were: an increase in the size of the monetary allowance of volunteers and a one-time remuneration upon entering the service; the preservation of their jobs and part of the pre-war salary; creation of a network of local recruitment centers “near the house” and private military units; propaganda of military ideas and the prohibition of anti-war speeches; centralization of the mobilization process management system. It singles out the factors that slow down the set. Among them are noted: the influence of the ideas of pacifism, the ineffective activities of the federal authorities, the opposition of French-Canadian nationalists, the low degree of imperial loyalty of the population. The author comes to the conclusion that the measures taken by the Canadian government only partially made it possible to overcome the crisis in the recruitment of the army. They delayed, but did not prevent the introduction of compulsory military service (conscription) in the North American dominion.
For citation:
Simonenko E.S. Government measures to stimulate military recruitment in Canada at the height of the First World War: (Based on the Canadian press), Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2023, iss. 2, pp. 115—121.