Smooth Sailing?
Edgar Whitehead had never been to Canada, and with a fortnight's leave after the Officers Training Course, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas he was granted permission to visit his brother George in Ottawa.
Movements arranged a 'drawing room' for him and two Canadian Majors returning home from Fort Leavenworth. Edgar was fascinated to see another great section of the US. The frontier station was decorated with two huge Stars and Stripes hung from the roof. They rumbled over the bridge to Windsor, Ontario, where they found twenty-four immense Union Jacks hung from the roof along the platform. He asked his Canadian companions, "It's nice to see this, but why so many?"
The answer came, "That's to annoy the goddam Yanks, it makes them furious."
Edgar had last seen George in 1932, but that evening he was waiting at Ottawa station to meet him.
George's real home was in Montreal, but he had taken a war job in the legal section of the Canadian Ministry of Munitions, abandoning his practice at the Quebec Bar. He lived in a hotel in Hull just across the river from Ottawa but still in Quebec Provence. After years of British and American Army rations the food seemed the best Edgar had ever eaten; a combination of Canadian raw materials, like fresh salmon and trout, with French cooking. Edgar loafed and read at the hotel all morning while George worked before traveling to Ottawa by tram to join him for lunch. In the afternoon, using his membership of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Edgar saw something of the Canadian House of Commons. In the evening he planned various expeditions to see something of Canadian life.
The fortnight's rest passed very pleasantly until the time came for him to make the overnight journey to New York. There he was reunited with his former colleagues in a hotel. They compared their impressions of the United States. There were very many things they admired, but not their wartime legislation and restrictions which they thought both onerous and ineffective.
Finally they embarked on the RMS Aquitania with a US Division en route for Germany. Immediately they got on board they were besieged by eight war correspondents asking for their impressions of the US. They told them firmly they would be court-martialed if they made any comment.
The voyage was Edgar's first experience of the American method of controlling troops at sea. There was a never ending succession of orders over the loud speaker system. Apart from the Division, numerous small units were on board, each of which received their instructions also over the system. An order was always prefaced by a loud buzzing noise followed by "Attention all ranks", then followed the order, ending, "That's all."
The first full day at sea was fine and the Atlantic like a millpond. The decks were packed and Edgar found himself beside a young Subaltern from Texas. They got into a conversation. He told Edgar his home was in blue grass country, and added, "I have never seen the ocean before and I am sure disappointed, its just like Texas, miles and miles of blue and not a tree in sight."
They were all electrified one morning to hear the following, "Attention all ranks, there will be a parade of the WAVES at 1430 hours this afternoon on C deck on the left side. All WAVES will wear hats and gloves. That's all."
Somebody discovered Edgar was the Senior British Officer on board and so he was approached by American Security whenever they suspected any of their people of being a security risks. Edgar had one Irish officer who made a point of pulling the Yank's legs by uttering rabid anti-British sentiments whenever he identified a Security man in his audience. Edgar finally sent for him and ordered him to stop causing trouble. On investigation he discovered he had won an MC (Military Cross) and bar in the desert and was utterly reliable but very bored.
As in West Africa, Edgar was invited to attend the only American Court Martial during the voyage...
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian
- Photo Credit:
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