Directing the War from Trafalgar Square? Vincent Massey and the Canadian High Commission, 1939–42

Abstract

This article explores a number of key facets of Vincent Massey's tenure as Canada's wartime high commissioner in London between 1939 and 1942. Using the personal tensions and mutual suspicions which existed between Massey and the mercurial Canadian prime minister, W. L. Mackenzie King, this essay analyses how Massey and his dedicated staff coped with the increasing and punishing workload during the first three years of the Second World War. Wheat, wartime finance and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan dominated Anglo-Canadian relations during the early stages of the war when the British Empire/Commonwealth stood almost alone against the European dictators. What emerges is that, despite King's attempts to restrict Massey's authority in wartime London, the pressure of prime ministerial work in Ottawa allowed Massey, for the first time since his appointment in 1935, to exert the authority and responsibility he so desperately craved prior to the war. However, this essay is not just about high policy and the tensions between Trafalgar Square and Ottawa or within the Commonwealth alliance. Massey and his wife Alice also responded magnificently to the needs of off-duty Canadian service personnel while on leave in London. At the centre of this analysis is the changing and at times frustrating part played by the Canadian high commissioner in London and Massey's role in modernising the office of high commissioner.

Notes

Ritchie, Siren Years, xi.

Bissell, Young Vincent and Imperial Canadian.

Bissell, Imperial Canadian, xi; English, Shadows of Heaven, 208; Buckner, ‘Canada and the End of Empire’, 118–19.

Heeney, Things That Are Caesar's, 56–57. A graduate of McGill and Oxford universities, Heeney joined the legal profession before his appointment as King's principal secretary in September 1938, and later in March 1940 as clerk of the Privy Council and secretary to the Canadian war cabinet. Hillmer, ‘Anglo-Canadian Neurosis’, 75, for examples of King's petulance directed at his own staff.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 240.

MacFarlane, Ernest Lapointe.

For essential reading and intriguing analyses of King and Canadian foreign and defence policy in the lead up to the Second World War, see Eayrs, In Defence of Canada, vol. 2; Granatstein and Bothwell, ‘“Self–Evident National Duty”’, 212–33; Hillmer, ‘The Foreign Office, the Dominions’, 64–77, ‘Pursuit of Peace’, 149–72; Neatby, William Lyon Mackenzie King, vol. 3; Stacey, Canada in the Age of Conflict, vol. 2.

Holmes, Shaping of Peace, vol. 1, 25.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 236, 240; Hilliker, Canada's Department of External Affairs, vol. 1, 184; Garner, Commonwealth Office, 76–78.

‘Recollections: The Memoirs of Sir Charles Dixon’, fol. 38, Sir H. F. Batterbee papers, MSS NZ s13, box 20, folder 5, Rhodes House Library, Oxford (RHL); Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 258.

King to Massey, 23 March 1939, and Massey to King, 14 April 1939, MG 26 J1 series, W. L. Mackenzie King papers, reel C-3746, vol. 274, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa (LAC); high commissioners' meeting, 30 March 1939, minute by F. K. Roberts, Second Secretary, Foreign Office, 14 April 1939, Foreign Office papers, FO 371/22969/G 3265, The National Archives, London (TNA).

Batterbee to Clark, 21 March 1936, Sir William Henry Clark papers, Collection Miscellaneous 528/3, London School of Economics and Political Science, Archives and Special Collections. When Clark finished his term of office in Ottawa in 1934 he was reassigned to Pretoria where he undertook the challenges of the British high commission in South Africa until 1940.

Stewart, ‘“The Liquidator”’, 171–94.

Aide-memoire, 10 Sept. 1925, MG 26 J4 series, Mackenzie King papers, reel C-2714, file 868, C85672-4, LAC; Bissell, Young Vincent, xi–xii, 95–6. Also see Lavin, From Empire, 118–20.

Bissell, Young Vincent, 143.

Finlay, Force of Culture, 168; Bissell, Young Vincent, 95–102.

Finlay, Force of Culture, 189–96, where she relies heavily on the pioneering work of Eastment, ‘Policies and Position of the British Council’. The proposal to appoint Massey as a trustee of the National Gallery seems to have come from no less than Churchill himself who acknowledged Massey's interest in art as something ‘quite special’. Minute by J. J. S. Garner, Assistant Secretary, Dominions Office, 2 May 1941, Dominions Office papers, DO 35/583/3, G60/21, TNA.

Galbraith, Establishment of Canadian Diplomatic Status, 88.

J. A. Stevenson, newspaper correspondent, to Geoffrey Dawson, editor of The Times, 11 Dec. 1925, Geoffrey Dawson papers, TT/ED/GGD/1, Times Newspapers Limited Archive, News International Limited, London (TNL Archive).

Neatby, William Lyon Mackenzie King, vol. 2, 178.

Quoted in Crowley, Marriage of Minds, 161.

Wigley, Canada and the Transition to Commonwealth.

Neatby, William Lyon Mackenzie King, vol. 2, 192–93.

Stevenson to Dawson, 1 Aug. 1930, Dawson papers, TT/ED/GGD/1, TNL Archive.

Canada, House of Commons Debates, 15 May 1931, 1783–1814; MacLaren, Commissions High, 308–10.

MacLaren, Commissions High, 310–11; Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 449.

Keenleyside, Memoirs, vol. 2, 143.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 225–26.

Ibid., 224.

Canada, House of Commons Debates, 15 May 1931, 1783; Hilliker, Canada's Department of External Affairs, vol. 1, 184.

Quotation cited in Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 75.

Violet Markham to Buchan, Governor General of Canada, 23 Oct. 1939, John Buchan papers, box 11, Queen's University Archives, Kingston.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 224.

Speaight, Vanier, 168–90, esp. 179, 161. Also see Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 53–54.

Champion, ‘Mike Pearson at Oxford’, 263–90.

For an examination of the rise of the prominente in the Canadian civil service at this time see Granatstein, Ottawa Men. For an insight into the Canadian civil service itself during the interwar period see Owram's excellent, ‘Two Worlds’, in Hillmer et al (eds), A Country of Limitations, 182–98. The growth of External Affairs is discussed in Hilliker, External Affairs, vol. 1, 176–213.

English, Shadows of Heaven, 190. Also see Pearson, Mike, vol. 1, 104–05.

Diary entry, 2 April 1941, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC; Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 224.

Ritchie, Siren Years, 28, 148. He was also a close associate of the Whitehall diarist, John Colville, who was the assistant private secretary to Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 224–25; Hilliker, Canada's Department of External Affairs, vol. 1, 185; Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 59–60.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 259–60.

Stephen Holmes, Secretary of the Office of the British High Commission, Ottawa, to Batterbee, 24 June 1937, DO 35/586/3, G88/20, TNA.

Pearson, Mike, vol. 1, 70–71; Granatstein, Man of Influence, 53, 183–86; Hilliker, Canada's Department of External Affairs, vol. 1, 193.

Self, Neville Chamberlain, 386; Eden, Memoirs, 62–63, 90–91.

Harvey, ed., Diplomatic Diaries, 343, diary entry, 27 March 1940.

Diary entry, 17 Jan. 1939, Sir Thomas Inskip papers, INKP 1/2, Churchill Archive Centre, Cambridge (CAC); Greenwood, ‘Sir Thomas Inskip’, 155–89.

Garner, Commonwealth Office, 161; E. J. Harding, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Dominions, to Batterbee, 18 Feb. and 16 April 1939, Batterbee papers, box 6, folder 4, RHL.

Diary entries, 2 and 8 Sept. and 17 Jan. 1939, Inskip papers, INKP 1/2, CAC.

High commissioners' meeting, 8 Sept. 1939, DO 121/6, TNA; Dominions Office memo for Eden, 6 Sept. 1939; Eden to Major-General Sir H. L. Ismay, Deputy Secretary (Military), War Cabinet, 9 Sept. 1939; minutes of the first meeting of the War Cabinet Committee on Dominion Collaboration, 14 Sept. 1939, Cabinet Office papers, CAB 104/247, TNA.

Hankey, Diplomacy by Conference, 14, 149.

Roskill, Hankey, vol. 3, 441.

Diary entry, 12 Feb. 1940, S. F. Waterson papers, BC 631 A3.6, University of Cape Town.

Diary entry, 29 Sept. 1939, Vincent Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, University of Toronto Archives (UTA).

Diary entry, 15 Sept. 1939, Inskip papers, INKP 2, CAC.

The detailed history of the Empire Air Training Scheme, known in Canada as the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, can be found in Hatch, Aerodrome of Democracy; Douglas, Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, vol. 2, 193–293.

Diary entry, 23 Sept. and 4 Oct. 1939, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, UTA; high commissioners' meeting, 16 Sept. 1939, DO 121/6, TNA. For the role played by Massey in the scheme's inception and the fraught negotiations which followed, see Hillmer, ‘Vincent Massey and the Origins of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan’, 49–52; Stewart, ‘1939 British and Canadian “Empire Air Training Scheme” Negotiations’, 739–54.

Diary entries, 23 and 25 Sept. 1939, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, UTA.

High commissioners' meeting, 20 Sept. 1939, DO 121/6, TNA; diary entry, 21 Sept. 1939, Lord Avon papers, AP 20/1/19, Birmingham University Library. Balfour claimed in his autobiography that Eden did not like the Air Ministry and certainly did not like him because of his support for Chamberlain and appeasement. This ‘dislike was political’ but Balfour also admitted that he himself was never one of Eden's ‘faithful fans’. Balfour, Wings Over Westminster, 159–60.

Granatstein, Canada's War, 42–71; Mackenzie, ‘Sinews of War and Peace’, 648–70.

Diary entry, 14–16 Dec. 1939, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC; Pearson, Mike, vol. 1, 143.

Pearson, Mike, vol. 1, 143.

Pearson to Skelton, 15 Jan. 1940, MG 26 N1, vol. 14, Pearson papers, LAC.

Report of the Secretary of State for External Affairs 1940, 8.

Granatstein, Man of Influence, 184.

Diary entry, 7 Sept. 1939, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC.

Pearson to Skelton, 15 Jan. 1940, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 14, LAC.

Rea, T. A. Crerar, 194–95.

Pearson to Massey, 4 Nov. 1941, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 10, LAC on the educational purposes behind these visits; diary entry, 21–27 Oct. 1939, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC.

Diary entry, 29 Oct. 1939, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC; Dickson, Thoroughly Canadian General, 118.

Diary entry, 21–27 Oct. 1939, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC.

Diary entry, 23 Nov. 1939, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, UTA; diary entries, 29 Oct. and 21 Nov. 1939, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC; Dickson, Thoroughly Canadian General, 123; Stacey, Official History, 189–203.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 320.

Diary entry, 14 Dec. 1940, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 44, UTA.

Grigg to father, Sir James Percy Grigg papers, PJGG 9/6/15, CAC; Lawlor, Churchill and the Politics of War.

Massey to King, 26 Aug. 1941, MG 26 J1 series, Mackenzie King papers, reel C-4866, vol. 311, LAC.

Diary entry, 24 Feb. 1941, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC.

King to Massey, 22 Feb. 1941, MG 26 J1 series, Mackenzie King papers, reel C-4866, vol. 311, LAC.

King to Massey, 3 May 1941, ibid; King to Cranborne, 20 May 1941; King to Churchill, 16 June 1941, DO 35/999/3, WC 8/3 and WC 8/2; Cranborne to Churchill, 30 May 1941, FO 371/29119/W 7813, TNA.

Ritchie, Siren Years, 117; Churchill to King, personal telegram, T 442, 25 July1941; MacDonald to Dominions Office, 27 July 1941, DO 35/999/3, WC 8/4A, TNA.

Diary entry, 5 Aug. 1941, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 45, UTA. This flight to the UK, in a stripped down US B-24 Liberator, was King's first trip in an aeroplane.

Granatstein, Man of Influence, 129.

Massey to Pearson, 12 Sept. 1941, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 10, LAC.

Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 66–67; diary entry, 23 Aug. 1941, MG 26 J13 series, Mackenzie King papers, LAC; Gibson and Robertson, eds, Ottawa at War, 193.

Massey quotation cited in Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 120; Lord Athlone, Governor General of Canada, to Churchill, 23 Aug. 1941, and Churchill's reply, 12 Sept. 1941, Prime Minister's Office papers, PREM 4/44/10, TNA.

Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 67; MacLaren, Commissions High, 356.

Diary entry, 29 Oct. 1940, Waterson papers, A 3.6, UCTAL.

Massey to Pearson, 25 June 1941, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 10, LAC.

Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 63.

Granatstein, Ottawa Men, 116.

Ibid., 116–17; Hume Wrong to his sister Margaret, 29 March 1928, Wrong Family papers, H. Hume Wrong series, box 12, file 10, UTA.

A promising start has been made recently by Mösslang and Riotte, eds, Diplomats' World.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 374–77; Finlay, Force of Culture, 167–99, quotation on 167.

Massey to Skelton, 15 Jan. 1940, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 14, LAC.

Diary entry, 12 April 1940, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 43, UTA.

Stacey and Wilson, The Half-Million, 102; Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 287.

Alice Massey to Pearson, 26 Oct. 1941, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 10, LAC; Stacey, Official History, vol. 1, 423.

Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 151–52; Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 287–88.

Stacey and Wilson, The Half-Million, 106; Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 153; Alice Massey to Pearson, 26 Oct. 1941, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 10, LAC.

Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 69.

Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 154–55.

Ibid., 154; Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 59, 285. See Keshen, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, 228–57, for issues concerning morale, discipline and welfare of Canadian service personnel in Europe during the war.

Diary entry, 28 Sept. 1939, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, UTA.

Diary entries, 26 and 28 Sept. and 20 Nov. 1939, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC.

Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 152.

Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 68. Pearson, Mike, vol. 1, 143, also noted Massey's unsuccessful attempts to establish friendly wartime relations with the former premier. Massey's conversion from Methodism to Anglicanism in 1924 and the diversion of Massey Foundation funds away from Canadian Methodism, of which Bennett was a leading figure, may have had a role to play. Stevenson to Dawson, 1 Aug. 1930, Dawson papers, TT/ED/GGD/1, TNL Archive.

Diary entry, 6 March 1941, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, LAC. Pearson was keen to keep clear of these voluntary efforts. ‘I would far rather battle the whole of the Treasury over the financing of the Air Training Scheme than try to co-operate with embattled hosts of Canadian war women’. Pearson to Skelton, 15 Jan. 1940, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 14, LAC.

Diary entries, 14, 17 and 23 Oct. 1939, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, UTA.

Ritchie to Pearson, 16 June 1941, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 12, LAC; diary entries, 28 Nov. 1939 and 29 Oct. 1941, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 40, and box. 311, vol. 46, UTA. The context of Ritchie's reference to the former leader of Canada's Conservative party is to the internationally acclaimed rodeo—the Calgary Stampede—that was held in Bennett's home city every year.

For insights into Beaverbrook's friendship with Bennett, especially his roles and indifferent performance within the MAP and Ministry of Supply, see Taylor, Beaverbrook, passim. For the softer side of Bennett, see Waite, The Loner, 59–89.

Stacey and Wilson, The Half-Million, 3; Keshen, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, 230.

Personal notes, 30 July 1940, J. B. Bickersteth papers, BICK 2/1, CAC. An excellent survey of the problems for the Canadian Army is provided by Granatstein, Canada's Army, 175–216.

Minutes of meeting on evacuation of children to Canada called at Massey's request, 31 May 1940, DO 35/1002/6, WF 56/1, TNA.

Diary entry, 20 June 1940, Massey papers, box 310, vol. 43, UTA.

Ignatieff, who replaced Ritchie as Massey's private secretary in early 1941, became responsible for POW work which, Massey informed Pearson, took a considerable amount of his time. Massey to Pearson, 4 March 1942, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 3, LAC; Report of the Secretary of State for External Affairs 1941, 6; Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 403–05; Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 112–14; Vance, ‘Trouble with Allies’, 69–85; Wylie, ‘Prisoner of War Relief’, 239–58. For the touching correspondence between the Masseys and their son, see Wylie, Barbed Wire Diplomacy, 1–2.

Keshen, Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers, 268.

Brooke Claxton, Montreal lawyer, to Pearson, 27 April 1940, MG 26 N1, Pearson papers, vol. 2, LAC.

High commissioners' meeting, 10 Aug. 1940, DO 121/9, TNA; ‘Method of Providing Canadian Information in the United States’, preliminary draft, 4 Sept. 1941, Massey papers, box 291, folder 1, UTA.

Diary entry, 16 Jan. 1940, Massey papers, box. 310, vol. 41, UTA.

Diary entry, 22 Feb. 1940, ibid.

Pearson, Mike, vol. 1, 105; diary entry, 3 March 1941, MG 26 N8, Pearson papers, vol. 1–2, UTA; Ignatieff, Making of a Peacemonger, 62.

Heaton Nicholls, South Africa in My Time, 383.

Massey, What's Past is Prologue, 448.

Ibid., 350.

Ibid., 449.