Transnational Christian Charity: The Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the Hungarian Refugee Crisis, 1956–1957

Notes

• We wish to acknowledge David Massell, Ruth Compton Brouwer, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Support from King's University College is gratefully acknowledged. This article was first delivered at the ACSUS Biennial Conference in Toronto, Ontario, in 2007, and we thank those participants for their suggestions.
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• According to figures compiled by the UN High Commission for Refugees, roughly 206,000 Hungarians, or 2 percent of the population, had fled Hungary by the end of 1958. See György Litván (ed.), The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Reform, Revolt and Repression 1953—1963, English version ed. and trans. János M. Bak and Lyman H. Legters (New York Longman, 1996), 103.
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• Ibid., 91.
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• See Gerald E. Dirks, “Canada and Immigration: International and Domestic Considerations in the Decade Preceding the 1956 Hungarian Exodus,” in Breaking Ground: The 1956 Hungarian Refugee Movement to Canada, ed. Robert H. Keyserlingk, 5–11 (Toronto: York Lanes Press, Inc., 1993). See also Roberto Perin, “Churches and Immigrant Immigration in Toronto, 1947–65,” in The Churches and Social Order in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Canada, ed. Michael Gauvreau and Ollivier Hubert, 274–291 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006).
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• Throughout the crisis, the federal government relied heavily on groups such as the Canadian Catholic Conference, the Canadian Rural Settlement Society, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Red Cross, the Canadian Hungarian Relief Committee, the Canadian Hungarian Protestant Ministerial Association, the Canadian Christian Council for the Rehabilitation of Refugees, the Canadian Welfare Council, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, and the Canadian Hungarian Relief Committee to assist with the resettlement and integration of the Hungarian refugees that arrived in Canada. Library and Archives Canada (LAC), RG26-A-1-c, vol. 117, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, “Minutes of the Meeting Respecting Hungarian Refugees,” Toronto, 27 November 1956. For an account of the experiences of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, see Joseph Kage, “The Settlement of Hungarian Refugees in Canada,” in Breaking Ground, ed. Robert Keyserlingk, 99–107, and Peter I. Hidas, “Canada and the Hungarian Jewish Refugees 1956–1957,” http://www3.sympatico.ca/thidas/Hungarian-history/Exodus.html [accessed 6 June 2008].
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• Gerald Dirks, Canada's Refugee Policy: Indifference or Opportunism? (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1977), 190–191; Robert Keyserlingk, ed., Breaking Ground, viii—ix.
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• Freda Hawkins, Canada and Immigration: Public Policy and Public Concern, 2nd ed. (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1988), 118.
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• N. F. Dreisziger with M. L. Kovacs, Paul Body, and Bennett Kovrig, Struggle and Hope: The Hungarian-Canadian Experience (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982), 206–209.
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• Michael Lanphier, “Canada's Response to Refugees,” International Migration Review 15, no. 1 (1981): 114.
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• The Canadian Council of Churches was one of three voluntary organizations that the federal government relied heavily upon during the crisis. The other two were the Catholic Immigrant Aid Society and the Jewish Immigrant Assistance Services. See Gerald E. Dirks, “Canada and Immigration: International and Domestic Considerations in the Decade Preceding the 1956 Hungarian Exodus,” in Breaking Ground, ed. Robert Keyserlingk, 10. Other groups that the federal government turned to for assistance were the Canadian Rural Settlement Society, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Red Cross, the Canadian Hungarian Relief Committee, the Canadian Hungarian Protestant Ministerial Association, the Canadian Christian Council for the Rehabilitation of Refugees, the Canadian Welfare Council, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, and the Canadian Hungarian Relief Committee. See LAC, RG26-A-l-c, vol. 117, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, “Minutes of the Meeting Respecting Hungarian Refugees,” Toronto, 27 November 1956. See also LAC, MG28–1327, Canadian Council of Churches Papers hereafter cited as CCC Papers], “Minutes of Immigration Conference,” Ottawa, 19 March 1957, p. 2 in vol. 37, file 8 “Department of Ecumenical Affairs—Minutes, 1954–1964.”.
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• Keck and Sikkink argue that it is the organization around shared values that distinguishes transnational advocacy networks from other transnational networks, such as banks and corporations, which share purely operational goals. Transnational advocacy networks are not powerful in the traditional sense but instead develop innovative strategies and techniques to make a difference. Keck and Sikkink identify four types of strategies and techniques: information politics (gathering and providing information, dramatizing facts by using testimonies), symbolic politics (use of symbolic events and conferences to publicize issues), leverage politics (linking issues of concern to money, trade, or prestige and persuading more powerful actors to exert pressure), and accountability politics (exposing the differences between discourse and practice by governments on previously stated principles). Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998), 16, 200.
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• Ibid., 37.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, W. J. Gallagher, “The World Council of Churches Canadian Committee,” found in Record of Proceedings of the First Meeting, 26–28 September 1944, Yorkminster Baptist Church, Toronto, Ontario, 52.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, W. W. Judd, “Statement Concerning the Christian Social Council of Canada and the Proposed Canadian Council of Churches,” Record of Proceedings of the First Meting, 26–28 September 1944, Yorkminster Baptist Church, Toronto, Ontario, 49.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, W. J. Gallagher, “The World Council of Churches Canadian Committee,” Record of Proceedings of the First Meeting, 26–28 September 1944, Yorkminster Baptist Church, Toronto, Ontario, 51.
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• The first member organizations of the Canadian Council of Churches included the Church of England in Canada, the United Baptist Convention of Maritime Provinces, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, the Western Baptist Union, the Churches of Christ (Disciples), the Evangelical Church, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the United Church in Canada, the Salvation Army, and the Society of Friends. Affiliated members included the National Council YWCA, the Student Christian Movement, and the National Council YMCA. Ibid., 39.
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• Articles II (1) and (2) of the CCC's constitution state: “The objects of the Council shall be: 1. to give expression which is the outcome of their faith in Christ Jesus, their common Master and Lord, and of their allegiance to Him as Head of the Church; to labour for the continuous growth of that unity; and to foster the development of the ecumenical spirit; 2. to provide an agency for conference, consultation, and common planning by the Canadian Churches; to facilitate common action in so far as they may desire it; and to give direction to such joint co-operative, or co-ordinated enterprises as may be agreed upon from time to time.” LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, “Constitution,” found in First Meeting, 1944, 92.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, Henry Smith Leiper, American secretary, WCC, “Address to the Canadian Council of Churches, Canadian Council of Churches Inaugural Meeting,” found in First Meeting, 75.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, Gallagher, “World Council,” 53.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers. E. A. Dale and W.J. Gallagher, “Commission on Peace and Reconstruction,” found in Record of Roceedings, 25–27 September 1945, St. Paul's Avenue Road United Church, Toronto, Ontario, 84.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, Dale and Gallagher, “Peace and Reconstruction,” 107.
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• bid., p. 104.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, W. A. Riddell, “The Church and International Affairs: Internationalism—World Government and the Use of Power,” found in Record of Roceedings, 21–23 October 1947, Central Presbyterian Church, Hamilton, Ontario, 126–127.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, W. W. Judd, “The Church and International Affairs: Canadian Immigration,” found in Record of Roceedings, 21–23 October 1947, Central Presbyterian Church, Hamilton, Ontario, 143.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, Fred Poulton, “Committee on Immigration of Refugees: A Report to the Churches,” October 1953, 4.
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• The relationship also permitted them the chance to bolster their numbers. It was no coincidence that the vast majority of refugees the CCC helped to resettle were of the same denominations as the Protestant or Orthodox churches that sponsored them. LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, World Council of Churches Central Committee, “General Statement on the Refugee Problem,” Toronto, Ontario, July 1950, 1. See also, Canadian Council of Churches, “Notes on Immigration Conference,” Toronto, Ontario, 1 November 1950, 2. MG28–1327, vol. 37, file 7 “Department of Ecumenical Affairs—Minutes, 195–1953.”.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, “WCC Activities in Connection with the Hungarian Emergency, 29th October – 20th November, 1956,” 20 November 1956.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, letter, WCC, Leslie E. Cooke, director, to “Dear Friends,” 28 November 1956.
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• The perspective of the federal government is discussed later in the article.
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• LAC, MG28–1327, CCC Papers, minutes, Meeting of the Advisory Committee and Committee on Immigration of Refugees, 4 December 1956, 1.
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• This sum would later be increased to $600,000 in light of the greater numbers of Hungarians seeking refuge than originally anticipated. MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, vol. 105, file 105–31 GSO, letter from Gallagher to “Dear Sir,” 12 December 1956.
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• MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, minutes, Meeting of the Advisory Committee and Committee on Immigration of Refugees, 4 December 1956, 2.
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• MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, letter from Gallagher to “Dear Sir,” 12 December 1956.
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• Ibid., 2.
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• Hidas, “Canada and the Hungarian Jewish Refugees, 1956–1957”; MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, letter, Gallagher to Cooke, 10 January 1957; CCC Papers, letter, Cooke to Gallagher, 30 January 1957; CCC Papers, Committee on Immigration of Refugee minutes, 30 January 1957; CCC Papers, WCC bulletin, “Inter Church Aid and Service to Refugees, 1956,” n.d. (January 1957?); CCC Papers, bulletin, WCC Activities in Connection with the Hungarian Emergency, Fifth Summary—11th December 1956 to 5thJanuary 1957, 5 January 1957; CCC Papers, letter, W. A. Visser 't Hooft, general secretary, to Mr. John McNab, 5 March 1957.
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• MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, Roberta Riggleman, secretary for publicity, WCC, “Hungary … Five Months Later,” n.d., p. 3; CCC Papers, Committee on Immigration of Refugees minutes, 5 June 1957; CCC Papers, “Report of Settlement Officer,” 12 December 1957.
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• MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, Cooke to WCC affiliates, 28 November 1956; CCC Papers, letter, Gallagher to “Dear Sir,” 12 December 1956; CCC Papers, Roberta Riggleman, secretary for publicity, WCC, “Hungary … Five Months Later,” n.d., 2.
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• Canada, House of Commons Debates, 5 March 1959, 1636.
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• MG28 I 327, CCC Papers, “Minutes of the Committee on Immigration of Refugees,” 12 December 1957, 2.
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• Peter Hidas, “Canada and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956—A Canadian Chronicle,” Hungarian Studies 12, nos. 1–2 (1997): 223–226; Dreisziger, Struggle and Hope, 203–204.
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• RG 26 vol. 117, file # 3–24-34-1 v. 1, Report of Meeting Convened with the Hon. J. W. Pickersgill and Ethnic Representatives from Countries Behind the Iron Curtain, 13 November 1956; International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto Minutes of Meeting, 19 November 1956; Minutes of an Informal Meeting held at the Office of the Citizenship Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, 22 November 1956.
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• RG 26, vol. 117, file #3–24-34-1 vol. 1, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Immigration Branch memo, from the director to the deputy minister, 22 November 1956.
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• Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 26 November 1956, 36–40.
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• “Extract from Cabinet Conclusions,” 28 November 1956, in Documents on Canadian External Relations, ed. Greg Donaghy, 480, vol. 23: 1956–1957, Part II (Ottawa: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 2002); Dreisziger, Struggle and Hope, 203–204.
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• The eleven voluntary agencies included the Canadian Catholic Conference, the Canadian Rural Settlement Society, the Canadian Council of Churches, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Red Cross, the Canadian Hungarian Relief Committee, the Canadian Hungarian Protestant Ministerial Association, the Canadian Christian Council for the Rehabilitation of Refugees, the Canadian Welfare Council, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, and the Canadian Hungarian Relief Committee. RG 26 vol. 117, file 3–24-34-1, vol. 1, “Meeting respecting Hungarian refugees,” 27 November 1956, 1.
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• Ibid., 2.
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• Ibid., 2.
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• Ibid., 6, 9. More instruction from the Immigration Branch at this time can be found in RG 26 vol. 117, file 3–24-34-1 vol. 1, confidential memo to all district superintendents from acting chief, operations division, 6 December 1956, re: Hungarian Refugee Movement—Voluntary Agencies.
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• Dirks, “Canada and Immigration,” 10.
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• MG 28 1327, CCC Papers, vol. 105, file 105–31 GSO (Green), “Inter-church Aid and Service to Refugees and Correspondence, 1956,” memorandum of interview with the deputy minister of immigration, re: Hungarian refugee immigration, 13 December 1956; RG 26, vol. 117, file #3–24-34-1, “Voluntary Agencies Interested in the Welfare of Hungarian Refugees,” memo from director of the Immigration Branch to deputy minister, 14 December 1956.
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• RG 26 vol. 117, file 3–24-34-1 vol. 1, confidential memo to all district superintendents from acting chief, operations division, 6 December 1956, re: Hungarian Refugee Movement—Voluntary Agencies, 1. A later memo from the same department noted that the federal government also reserved the right not to publicize any slowdown of the movement of refugees. RG 26 vol. 111, file 3–24-12-1 part. 1, confidential memo from the assistant chief, operations division, to all posts abroad, 21 December 1956.
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• MG 28 1327, CCC Papers, letter from J. W. Pickersgill to W. J. Gallagher, 21 January 1957; CCC Papers, Committee on Immigration of Refugees minutes, 30 January 1957, 1.
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• MG 28 1327, CCC Papers, Report of the Immigration Conference by Fred N. Poulton, 19 March 1957, 1.
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• Ibid., 2.
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• Ibid., 2. Poulton's report is interesting because it reveals that a certain degree of strategizing to effect policy change took place among the various religious organizations. At the close of the conference and during dinner, Poulton described in his report discussions of the admission to Canada of aged and ill refugees—among those, refugees from Hungary. In addition to Poulton, the other discussants included Saul Hayes (Canadian Jewish Congress), John Lanctot (Roman Catholic Immigration Service), and Clifton Monk (Canadian Lutheran World Relief).
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• RG 26 vol. 117 file 3–24-34, Welfare Organizations and Voluntary Agencies General File, “Minutes of a Meeting Respecting Immigration Policy Held at the Conference Room, Woods Bldg,” 10 August 1957.
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• RG 26 vol. 117 file 3–24-34, Welfare Organizations and Voluntary Agencies General File, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, “Minutes of a Meeting Respecting Immigration Policy,” Ottawa, 6 August 1957; RG 26 vol. 117 file 3–24-34, Welfare Organizations and Voluntary Agencies General File, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, “Press Release,” no. 57–8, Ottawa, 26 July 1957, 1.
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• RG 26 vol. 117 file 3–24-34, Welfare Organizations and Voluntary Agencies General File, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, “Press Release,” no. 57–8, Ottawa, 26 July 1957, 1; MG 28 1327, CCC Papers, Roberta Riggleman, World Council of Churches, “Hungary: Five Months Later,” n.d., 1.
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• Memorandum from the acting minister of citizenship and immigration to the Cabinet, 10 July 1957, in Documents on Canadian External Relations, ed. Michael D. Stevenson, 959, vol. 25: 1957–1958, Part II (Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2004).
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• RG 26 vol. 111, file 3–24-12-1 part 2, confidential letter, Fortier to Jules Leger, under-secretary of state for external affairs, 22 May 1957; RG 26 vol. 93 file 3–5-12, memo from C. E. S. Smith, director, Immigration Branch, to Col. Laval Fortier, deputy minister, 11 March 1957; RG 26 vol. 93 file 3–5-12, memo from chief, administration division, Immigration Branch, to C. E. S. Smith, director, 15 March 1957.
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• RG 26 vol. 112, file 3–24-12–8, letter, Pickersgill to George Nagy, secretary-general, Canadian Hungarian Federation, 9 April 1957; ibid., telegram, Fortier to A. R. Lindt, UN high commissioner for refugees, 31 October 1957.
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• Dirks, “Canada and Immigration,” 10–11.
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• MG 28 1327, CCC Papers, vol. 184, file 184–43, WCC Service to Refugees, “Report on the Resettlement of Aged, T.B. and Other Difficult-to-Resettle Refugees in 1955,” 31 December 1955; MG 28 I357, vol. 37, file 37–7, minutes, CCC, Committee on Immigration of Refugees, 26 May 1959 and 30 October 1959.
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• By December 1957, the CCC had found sponsors for 5,172 of the Hungarian refugees. MG 28 1327, CCC Papers, Canadian Council of Churches, “Minutes of the Committee on Immigration of Refugees,” 12 December 1957, 2. See also Canadian Council of Churches, “Memorandum of Interview with the Deputy Minister of Immigration,” Ottawa, 13 December 1956. MG29-I327, vol. 37, file 8 “Department of Ecumenical Mairs—Minutes, 1954–1964.”.
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• Dirks, “Canada and Immigration,” 11.
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• See Howard Adelman, “An Immigration Dream: Hungarian Refugees Come to Canada—An Analysis,” in Breaking Ground, ed. Robert H. Keyserlingk, 25–44 (Toronto: York Lanes Press, 1993).
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• For descriptions of the CCC's contributions to the resettlement of Czechoslovakian refugees in 1968, Ugandans of Indian descent in 1972–73, Chilean refugees from 1973 to 1976, and the Indo-Chinese boat people in 1979–80, see Kathleen Ptolemy, “From Oppression to Promise: Journeying Together with the Refugee,” in Canadian Churches and Foreign Policy, ed. Bonnie Greene, 143–160 (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1990); and Henriette Thompson, “The Inter-Church Committee for Refugees,” in Coalitions for Justice, ed. Christopher Lind and Joe Mihevc, 203—218 (Ottawa: Novalis, 1994).
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