On February 16, 1934 the Commission assumed office consisting of
three Newfoundlanders--Frederick C. Alderdice, William R. Howley,
and John C. Puddester--and three British appointees--Thomas Lodge,
Sir John Hope Simpson, and E.N.R. Trentham--and the governor, Sir
David Murray Anderson. Holding its meetings in camera within the
stately confines of the Newfoundland Hotel, the Commission had full
legislative and executive powers. Its proceedings were subject
only to the supervisory control of the British government, with the
Governor-in-Commission being responsible to the Secretary of State
for Dominion Affairs. Britain assumed financial responsibility for
the Commission, which until 1940 only managed to balance its budget
through grants-in-aid from the Treasury. In their financial
management of Newfoundland, however, the Commissioners were also
greatly assisted by the conversion in 1934 of the Island's
outstanding debt issues into bonds guaranteed by Britain at a lower
interest rate, thus saving some two million dollars in interest
charges each year.
The Commissioners saw their principal task as the delivery of
efficient government without being bound by the political and
religious practices, which, in the past, had characterized
government in general and the civil service in particular. With
the help of some British civil servants which it brought out from
Britain, the Commission reorganized the civil service and made
merit the sole basis for promotion; it deliberately sought out and
encouraged young Newfoundlanders with professional training to join
the civil service; and it also reorganized the magistracy and
formed a new police force, the Ranger Force which was modelled
along the lines of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to serve the
outports.
The Commission made its greatest strides in the educational and
public health fields. The attempts of past governments to survive
financial bankruptcy in the early 1930s had resulted in substantial
cuts to the educational grants. In 1930-1931 the grant was $1,000,000; in
193233, it had been reduced to $500,000. About 90% of the
amount had gone to pay teachers' salaries. The report of the
Amulree Commission in 1932 noted that poor educational standards
had been at the root of Newfoundland's political problems but,
because of the commissioners' fear of antagonizing the churches,
there was only passing reference in the Report to education (Philip
McCann,"The Educational Policy of the Commission of government"
Newfoundland Studies vol. 3, Fall 1987, 201-15).
No change was made in the denominational educational system,
because the Commissioners feared that such a move would create a
strong public backlash towards them. In 1934 there was strong
support among British officials and the Commissioners for abolishing the denominational system, but efforts in this direction were
quickly thwarted by the churches. One area the churches closely
guarded was change to the school curriculum. In 1932 British
educator C.A. Richardson had been invited by Prime Minister Alderdice to examine the curriculum. His October 1933 report preferred
a system which emphasized that children could be differentiated by
intelligence tests and classified according to their ability, in
contrast to the view dominant in local schools of the faculty
theory which emphasized all children could develop and learn at the
same rate (McCann, "The Educational Policy"). The report was
regarded by the Churches as an attack on their elite college system
and was essentially shelved.
In 1935 the Commission of government proposed a number of educational reforms. These included compulsory education, a new
curriculum, the abolition of the offices of superintendent and
assistant superintendent, and the creation of state schools in St.
John's for children not attending schools because of a lack of
facilities. Anglican and Roman Catholic church officials strongly
opposed the reforms and forced a compromise. The Bureau of
Education was replaced by the Commissioner of Home Affairs and
Education. The superintendent's position was abolished, but a
denominational committee was created to act as a buffer between the
churches and the government's education officials. Supervising
inspectors were appointed on a denominational basis with inspection
limited to their own schools, and local boards of education
appointed by the committee. The government's administrative
officials included a secretary known as the General Superintendent
of education, assisted by three officials--the chief executive
officer, the research officer, and the accountant. There was an
advisory committee comprised of representatives from the major
denominations with no responsibility for the department's administrative work; instead, it was a "secularized department administering a denominational school system (McCann, "The Educational
Policy"). The Commission's acknowledgement that it could not
change the denominational educational system became clear in 1937
when it created a council of education to direct educational
policy. The three professional officers were replaced by executive
officers representing the major denominations, who formed a
majority on the council.
In 1936 the government changed the school curriculum with an
emphasis on less formal education stressing new areas such as
health, social education and industrial training. The Commission
also concentrated on improving programs and services and restored
teachers' salaries by 1939 to their pre-1933 cut levels. Between
1934 and 1949 the Commission built 555 new schools and renovated
264 others, and spent $3,400,000 on school construction between
1938 and 1949 (McCann, "The Educational Policy"). The Commissioners made textbooks and school supplies available on loan to
pupils and tried to improve the health of students by providing
them with free nutritional cocomalt--a coco-milk powder. Under 1943
legislation free and compulsory education was applied to all
school-age children but the act did permit a child who could not
attend his own denominational school to refuse schooling offered by
another denomination. The Commission also encouraged the growth of
common schools--at Deer Lake, Buchans, Bay Roberts, Gander, Hampden,
and North West River. The Commission promoted non-denominational
schools in communities where the government had encouraged land
settlements, Markland and Haricot.
The Commission improved the health service after 1935 through the
creation of a cottage hospital system in the larger outports to
provide medical facilities, nursing services, midwifery training,
and a health education service. By 1938 a total of ten cottage
hospitals operated in Newfoundland providing a total of 130 beds.
This medical system was the first instance in North America of a
government establishing a subsidized medical-care plan on a pre-payment basis. To help combat tuberculosis, the Commission formed
a mobile Health Unit to visit communities and examine residents for
the dreaded disease, tuberculosis "the silent menace" which until
1947 was the leading cause of death in Newfoundland. A new wing
was also added to the St. John's Sanitorium to provide additional
beds for tuberculosis patients.
In its first years the Commission attempted an ambitious land
settlement scheme emphasizing agricultural development as an
alternative to the Island's reliance on the fishery. This scheme
was the creation of Thomas Lodge, a strong-willed Commissioner, who
imposed his idea of "social reorganization" on a reluctant
Commission, which accepted the scheme because it had no other
definite plan of economic action available. Although Lodge had
established by 1938 11 settlements involving 340 families, the
scheme proved to have only limited success because of the harsh
climate and use of inexperienced farmers. Among the settlements
established were Markland, Haricort, Brown's Arm, Midland, and
Lourdes (see Gordon Handcock, "The Commission of government's Land
Settlement Scheme in Newfoundland," in James Hiller and Peter
Neary, eds., Twentieth Century Newfoundland: Explorations, 1994,
pp. 123-151).
Consequently, the Commission soon abandoned its emphasis on this
expensive scheme and concentrated its efforts, instead, on the
fishery. To make fishermen more self-sufficient, the Commission
encouraged them to organize cooperatives. It also gave fishermen
financial assistance to enable them to purchase boats, engines and
other supplies. In 1936 it set up the Newfoundland Fisheries Board
with complete authority under the chairmanship of Raymond Gushue
over the licensing, exporting, and marketing of fish. Despite these
improvements, the fishing industry in the late 1930s continued to
perform poorly. Economic and political unrest in the Spanish and
Italian markets and low demand for Brazilian coffee and West Indian
sugar and fruits adversely affected fish exports from Newfoundland.
In 1938, for example, the value of salt cod exports was lower than
at any other time during the century. Consequently, there was an
increase in the number of people receiving the dole, or public
relief. Between 1934 and 1940 the average monthly number receiving
the dole rose from 31,899 to 39,802, with 85,000 recipients on the
relief rolls during the winter of 1938.
By the late 1930s the early popular expectations associated with
the constitutional change in 1934 gave way to growing public
disenchantment with the Commission, particularly in St. John's.
When the Commission was established, many people expected that it
would have easy access to large sums of money from the Treasury for
economic development and that British capitalists would rush to
invest their money in Newfoundland. However, the Commissioners
gave the people more efficient government but not any substantial
improvement in their standard of living. Thus, in August 1939 a
committee of prominent St. John's citizens was formed to work for
the return of responsible government, but the outbreak of war in
Europe and the Commission's mobilization of the Island's human and
natural resources for Britain's war effort, served to silence the
Commission's critics.
Newfoundlanders enthusiastically answered their Mother Country's
appeal for a call to arms and enlisted in the British and Canadian
armed forces. Newfoundland also supplied on its own two artillery
regiments and an Overseas Forestry Unit which worked in Scotland.
However, Newfoundland's true importance to the Allied war effort
lay in its strategic location as a defence base in the North
Atlantic for North America. A major security concern for Canada in
Newfoundland was the safety of the Bell Island mines which supplied
iron to the Sydney steel industry. This industry accounted for 30
percent of Canada's total steel needs. In 1942 Bell Island had the
dubious honour of being the only land based area in North America
to be attacked by German U-Boats. On this occasion, submarines
sank four iron ore boats at the pier on Bell Island resulting in
the loss of 69 lives (Steve Neary, The Enemy on our Doorstep, St.
John's, 1994). Other wartime tragedies include the sinking, also,
that same year of the ferry steamer Caribou which operated between
Port aux Basques and North Sydney, Cape Breton, and a fire at St.
John's also in 1942 that destroyed the Knights of Columbus hostel,
where 99 lives were lost during a dance attended by both civilians
and servicemen.
Through a series of defence agreements reached with the Commission,
Canada established several installations in Newfoundland that cost
over 65 million dollars to construct. These included air bases at
Gander, Torbay, and Goose Bay, and a naval base in St. John's for
which the British Admiralty provided funding. In total, the number
of Canadian garrison troops stationed in Newfoundland peaked at
nearly 6,000 army personnel in 1943, but this figure does not, of
course, include the thousands of seamen in the naval convoy duty
operating out of St. John's and the airmen stationed in Gander and
Goose Bay. These airmen were part of the Atlantic Ferry Command,
which flew needed aircraft to Britain from North America.
American military involvement in Newfoundland resulted from the
signing by the United States and Britain of the Leased Bases
Agreement of 194041. Under it, the United States received
permission to establish military bases in Newfoundland for a tenure
of 99 years. Major facilities built by the Americans included an
army base at St. John's, a naval base at Argentia, and an air force
base at Stephenville. At Argentia, in what Peter Neary has
described as "what must surely be counted the ultimate act of
resettlement in Newfoundland's long twentieth century experience of
this experience," not only was the entire community of people moved
to nearby communities, but the remains of 625 individuals were
exhumed from an Argentia graveyard and moved to a new cemetery in
nearby Freshwater (Neary, Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World,
1929-1949, p. 155).
The Americans also shared with the Canadians use of the Gander and
Goose Bay installations. American expenditures for construction
purposes by 1943 totalled $105,000,000, while the number of
military personnel stationed in Newfoundland peaked in 1943 at
10,900. At the height of the American and Canadian military
construction boom in September 1942, there were 19,752 Newfoundlanders employed earning high wages, which represented an average
annual income of $1,500 as compared to $333 to be had in 1933 in
the fishery. There was now employment for all who wished to work;
there was such a shortage of labour that the Island's paper mills
at Grand Falls and Corner Brook had to reduce newspaper production
in 1943 and 1944 for several months. At Bell Island the iron ore
company in 1943 temporarily reduced the size of its labour force
and likewise reduction in production. The Newfoundlanders working
on the bases never received wage parity with their American
civilian counterparts, because the Commission had decided not to
allow wages to be driven up in other industries as a consequence.
The Commission also banned labour strikes and lockouts and imposed
compulsory arbitration on the labour scene. In 1942 the Commission
organized the Labour Relations Office to set up a national
employment registration scheme. This office subsequently proved
especially effective in protecting the interests of labourers
recruited by Canadian businesses for mainland wartime employment,
the Canadians agreeing to terms of employment set by the office.
Increased demand for exports and foreign military expenditures
during the 1940s ended the Commission's budget deficits, which
reached its peak at $4,800,000 in the 19391940 fiscal year. After
1940 budget surpluses enabled by the end of the 194546 fiscal year
totalled $28,669,000 and enabled the Commission to give interest
free loans totalling $12,300,000 to Britain. Additional revenue
also enabled the Commission to undertake further public service
improvements. These included salary increases for teachers, the
establishment of 25 regional libraries, the institution in 1944 of
free and compulsory education, and the setting up of an adult
education programme. The Commission increased the number of
cottage hospitals and added a 270-bed wing to the St. John's
sanitorium. It successfully encouraged the growth of local
government outside St. John's through a system of grants and
incentives to communities having a limited revenue base. By 1948,
18 communities were incorporated under this system. In St. John's
the Commission combined with the City Council in 1944 to organize
the St. John's Housing Corporation. Between 1944 and 1950 the
Corporation received from the Newfoundland government a total of
$6,500,000 to construct a planned suburb outside city limits that
doubled the physical area of St. John's (later known as the
Churchill Park area).
In the early 1940s the Island's new financial strength prompted
many Newfoundlanders, especially some St. John's community leaders,
to think in terms of their constitutional future. Ironically, in
view of his later political beliefs, Joseph Smallwood, as editor of
the short-lived newspaper The Express in 1941 satirized the
Commission of government in a series of articles that drew the ire
of the Commissioners. Among the newspaper's financial supporters
was F.M. O'Leary, the sponsor of Smallwood's "Barrelman" radio
program and later a strong anti-confederate as president of the
Responsible government League. In June 1942 the St. John's Board
of Trade, for instance, called on the Commission to recognize the
need for it to consult, in governing the country, a public body of
representative citizens. Expressed in vague and general terms, the
Board's proposal called for some kind of formal procedures to
debate public opinion. This view was endorsed by St. John's
businessman and journalist, Albert Perlin, a member of the Board's
governing council, in his Daily News "Wayfarer" column. Perlin
wrote that Newfoundland could sustain itself financially as an
independent country if the government would accept having expert
advisers in economics and finance.
Following a visit in September 1942 by the Secretary of State for
the Dominions, Clement Attlee, and the June 1943 fact-finding visit
of a Parliamentary mission--the so-called Goodwill Mission--on
December 2, 1943, the British government announced that after the
end of the war the Newfoundland people would be permitted, through
some democratic means, to express their views concerning the
Island's constitutional future.
On December 11, 1945, Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee informed
the British Parliament that the following year Newfoundlanders
would elect a national convention of delegates, who would have to
be a resident for two years in the district in which they would
seek election. This convention would examine and debate the
changes that had taken place in the financial and economic
situation of the country since 1934, and second, make recommendations to the British government concerning the various forms of
government that could be put before the people in a national
referendum. The convention would have strictly an advisory role
despite the elective nature of this representative body, the first
Newfoundlanders had been elected since 1932.
One delegate selected was 45-year old Joseph R. Smallwood, a pig
farmer from Gander who was, at various phases of his life, a labour
leader, journalist, and radio host (see Neary, Newfoundland, pp.
281284 for details of Smallwood's life). It was on a business
trip concerning a piggery he operated at Gander since 1943 that
Smallwood, in late 1945, read in the Montreal Gazette of Britain's
proposed plans for Newfoundland's constitutional future. Walking
the streets of Montreal for hours on December 11, an excited
Smallwood debated what political options Newfoundlanders should
adopt. He was determined to be part of the forthcoming political
campaign--"all of my work and my training up to that moment made my
entry inevitable"--but he was not sure of what he preferred other
than it was not to be a continuation of government of government.
Memories of a conversation with Gordon Bradley in 1930, in which
the latter claimed that Confederation was the only salvation for
Newfoundland, prompted Smallwood to consider Confederation as a
viable political option for his beleaguered country.
Returning to Gander the following day on a RAF bomber, he immediately wrote the Canadian prime minister and the nine provincial
premiers for information on federal-provincial relations having
decided that he would stand as a candidate for election to the
National Convention. The materials poured in with Smallwood
assiduously mastering the workings of the Canadian federal system.
In March 1946 he wrote a series of 11 articles to the Daily News
arguing the merits of Confederation. To raise funds for his
forthcoming election campaign, he borrowed $3,000 from Ches Crosbie
and bought from the Canadian government 3,000 grey woollen blankets
which he resold to the Bowater paper company for $6,000. With his
share of the profit, he financed his campaign for Bonavista Centre
in which Gander was situated. A requirement the British government
placed on all candidates was that they had to be resident in the
district in which they ran, a requirement designed by the British
to prevent St. John's residents from monopolizing elective office
as they had in the past. Smallwood won the district with 2,129
votes as compared to 277 for his opponent, becoming the only avowed
confederate elected openly to the Convention. Smallwood's move to
Gander had indeed been fortuitous.
Election to the National Convention took place on June 21, 1946 and
voters returned 45 delegates on the basis of the pre-1934 electoral
representation system. Among the 45 delegates was a representative
from Labrador, the first time that region ever had its own
representation in a local elected body. A minority in the
Convention, the Confederates quickly gravitated to the dynamic
leadership of Smallwood. He had grasped the idea of Confederation
with Canada as the only means of giving outport Newfoundlanders "a
half decent chance in life" consisting of "North American standards
of public services" which would be available through the Canadian
welfare system. Through the Convention's broadcasting of its
proceedings over the public radio system, Smallwood continuously
emphasized these benefits, which found sympathetic hearing in
poverty-stricken and cash-poor outport communities.
There remains a popular view, widely held in some scholarly circles
as well, that Smallwood was privy to the secret behind-the-scenes
planning of the British government in its efforts to deliver
Newfoundland after the war into the Canadian Confederation. Some
of his political opponents have subsequently argued that as early
as 1943 Smallwood was a frequent visitor at the St. John's
residence of the Canadian High Commissioner. There is no strong
substantial evidence for this view, and these visits to the
contrary must be regarded for now as a most likely part of
Smallwood's efforts to establish a piggery at Gander and the talks
involved commercial transactions with Canadian businessmen.
Smallwood did not evidently see himself initially as the leader of
a pro-confederate party. Prior to his election campaign in
February 1946 he had suggested to Bradley that a member of the St.
John's elite, Sir John C. Puddester (Commission of government for
Public Health and Welfare and a former cabinet minister under Prime
Minister Alderdice) be made leader. Bradley discouraged Smallwood
of this notion believing that the time was not right to form such
a party (see James Hiller, "The Career of F. Gordon Bradley,"
Newfoundland Studies, vol. 4, 1988, pp. 163-80). There were
other Convention delegates who shared Smallwood's support for
Confederation, but who were prepared to go slow on publicly pushing the
issue. These delegates included Gordon Bradley who agreed, prior to
the opening of the Convention, that should Confederation be
successful then Smallwood would be premier and he a federal
minister. Despite the cautionary advice from Bradley, Smallwood
quickly made Confederation a matter of constant debate at the
Convention and the leader in the public's mind of the confederate
cause. With the experience gained from his Barrelman radio days as
well as the oratorical skills refined over 30 years of public
debate and speech making, he was able to appeal directly to outport
Newfoundlanders to extol the virtues of Confederation.
Unlike the Confederation forces, those wanting the restoration of
Responsible government never coalesced around one central leader.
In fact, as their chief protagonist, Smallwood later noted they had
"many leaders, but not one whose leadership they were all prepared
to follow. Their cause was thus never a united front, and they
never had united strategy...." The most popular Anti-Confederate
was the political maverick, Peter Cashin, a member of pre-Commission of government cabinets, but a leader lacking the confidence of
the Water Street merchants. Cashin viewed the British action in
setting up the Convention as a breach of faith; the British
government should have restored Newfoundland to its pre-1934
constitutional status of responsible government once the war had
ended in 1945. Cashin and his supporters used the Convention to
embarrass the Commission of government and to agitate for the
restoration of responsible government (Hiller, "Newfoundland
Confronts Canada," in E.R. Forbes and D.A. Muise, eds., The Atlantic
Provinces in Confederation p. 458).
The Responsible government League itself (formed in late 1946) was
a loose organization of people united by their common opposition to
Confederation, and, during the referenda campaigns of 1948, never
had the strong organizational and financial support of their
confederate counterpart (see Jeff A. Webb, "The Responsible
government League and the Confederation Campaigns of 1948,"
Newfoundland Studies, vol. 5, 1989, pp. 203-220).
For St. John's businessman and journalist Albert Perlin and many
other anti-Confederates, opposition to Confederation meant more
than refusal to support a political union with Canada. Responsible
government meant the opportunity to determine one's own destiny in
one's own way, the democratic way. "It gives to us, the people of
Newfoundland," he commented on April 22, 1948, "the means to suit
our policies to our needs and even to change the form of government
to suit those needs...." To achieve this goal, it was important to
Perlin and others of like mind that the Convention, especially its
Finance Committee, report that Newfoundland had the natural
resources to be self-supporting. "The Convention represents the
last chance to get the kind of information," he optimistically
noted on June 29, 1946, "on which alone the people of Newfoundland
can make up their minds soundly and wisely about their future
government and their prospects of advancement economically and
socially...." Confederation with Canada, they argued, could only
be brought about after the restoration of Responsible government
and should not, therefore, be a constitutional option to be
considered by the Convention. Rather, negotiations with Canada
could only be undertaken after the restoration of Responsible
government and the holding of a general election on the issue. If
the Confederates won the election, then, they could commence
negotiations with Canada and submit the terms of union to both the
Canadian and Newfoundland legislatures for their approval.
The national convention met on September 11, 1946 and dissolved on
January 30, 1948. The convention on September 18, 1946 had divided
into nine committees to study various aspects of Newfoundland
affairs. The subjects studied were fisheries, public health,
education, agriculture, finance, forestry, local industries,
mining, transportation, and information. The convention sought
broad powers of investigation from the Commission, including the
right to examine both the papers and personnel of the Commission.
Not wishing to subject itself to a witch-hunt by the Convention
delegates, the Commissioners refused their request, but offered to
provide the committees with what information they were able to
give. In the hands of delegates such as Peter Cashin, the
committee system often became an instrument to criticize the
Commission at every opportunity. As for the Confederates, they
shied away from attacking the Commission and, instead, emphasized
the positive features of Confederation and equated the restoration
of Responsible government with the poverty and political corruption
of pre-1934 Newfoundland.
On October 28,1946, Smallwood made what was later termed by fellow
delegate Michael Harrington a speech that was a "turning point in
the Convention." Smallwood unsuccessfully attempted to have the
Convention approve a resolution that would send a delegation from
the Convention to Ottawa to ascertain what terms of union Canada
might be willing to offer Newfoundland. In February 1947 Smallwood
had more success with his resolution. On this occasion Smallwood
agreed to support a suggestion from Robert B. Job that the
Convention send a delegation to the United States to find out what
economic and fiscal relationship the Americans might be willing to
offer Newfoundland in a special tariff arrangement. In return, Job
agreed to support a Smallwood-sponsored resolution that Convention
delegates be sent also to Britain and Canada to see what economic
and fiscal relationships could exist between Newfoundland and
Britain and between Newfoundland and Canada. Thus, the Convention
on February 4, 1947, passed a resolution that delegates be sent to
Britain, Canada, and the United States for these purposes. The
Commission, however, refused to sanction the resolution's provision
that a delegation be sent to the United States on the basis that
the question of a tariff agreement with the Americans lay outside
the Convention's terms of reference.
While the Convention's delegation to London found the British
government unwilling to commit itself to any future financial obligations
if the Newfoundlanders were to eventually decide to either remain under
Commission of government or adopt the restoration of Responsible
government, the delegation to Ottawa found a warm reception and the Canadians well-prepared to negotiate
proposed terms of union. Smallwood took the lead in the discussions with the Canadians and the delegation ended up staying for
ninety-nine days, despite the protestations from the other Convention
members in St. John's (by contrast, the London delegation left St. John's
on April 24 and stayed approximately two weeks in London). The Ottawa delegation arrived back in St. John's on
October 4 and the following month Smallwood introduced Canada's
preferred terms of union to the National Convention for debate.
Debate over the question of Confederation would dominate the
Convention's deliberations until that body was dissolved in January 1948.
On January 23, 1948 Convention delegates by a vote of 29 to 16
defeated Smallwood's motion that Confederation with Canada be put
on the ballot paper in a referendum to decide Newfoundland's
constitutional future. Despite this setback, Smallwood quickly
took the offensive charging that the 29 delegates were "twenty-nine
dictators" who denied the people the right to choose the form of
government they wanted. Smallwood's fellow delegate supporter, F.
Gordon Bradley who represented Bonavista East in the Convention,
appealed to the population through a radio broadcast that they
immediately demonstrate their protest against the dictators by
petitioning the governor to have Confederation included as an
option on the ballot paper. The response was immediate and within
14 days of the broadcast Smallwood announced on February 14, 1948,
that 49,769 citizens had signed the petition, while noting that
only 47,724 people had voted for the election in 1946 of delegates
to the National Convention. Smallwood's appeal to the British
government through the governor found a receptive audience; in
fact, the British government had already decided Newfoundland
should become part of Canada and its policy behind-the-scenes the
past few years had been to encourage however possible this
political union without appearing publicly to be doing so. It's
decision in 1947 to the London delegation from the Convention not
to give financial government to Newfoundland, if the people were to
choose the restoration of responsible government, was made with
this purpose in mind. On March 2, 1948, the British government
informed the governor of Newfoundland that Confederation would be
a third choice on the referendum paper.
The Confederates on February 21, 1948 formed themselves into the
Newfoundland Confederate Association to prepare for the forthcoming
referendum vote. Bradley was its president and Smallwood its
campaign director, but it was the latter who provided the populist
appeal to attract voters to the confederate cause. On March 20
those opposed to Confederation divided into two groups with the
formation by St. John's merchant Chesley Crosbie of the Economic
Union Movement. The remaining anti-confederates organized under
the Responsible government League favoured the restoration of
Responsible government.
The confederates stressed expectedly the social benefits union
with Canada: the family allowance, unemployment insurance, better
pensions, and a general higher standard of living. The Confederate
newspaper on May 31, 1948 appealed to voters to "give yourself a
chance. Give the Children a chance. Give Newfoundland a chance.
Vote for Confederation and a healthier, happier Newfoundland." To
Newfoundland mothers, the confederates promised that "Confederation
would mean that NEVER AGAIN would there be a hungry child in
Newfoundland. If you have children under the age of 16, you will
receive EVERY MONTH a cash allowance for every child you have or
may have" (Neary, Political Economy of Newfoundland, pp.
140-141).
And benefits there would be after 1949. The Commission of
government in its last year of governing Newfoundland paid out a
total of $374,000 in old age pensions; by the end of 1950 over
12,000 Newfoundlanders over seventy years of age would receive $5.3
million, and this amount, combined with family allowances and
unemployment insurance, injected over $24 million into the local
economy (see Raymond Blake, Canadians at last: Canada Integrates
Newfoundland as a Province, Toronto, 1994, pp. 70-93).
The anti-confederates had the support of the Roman Catholic Church
and the business community of St. John's. The former argued that the
"material attractions of Confederation should be subordinated to other
values. What was best for the country, stated the Monitor, the newspaper of the
St. John's archdiocese, was that option which would allow Newfoundlanders
to continue `to live decently, soberly and honestly, continuing to
recognize that there has grown up with us during the past four and a half
centuries a simple, God-fearing way of life which our forebears handed
down to us, and which we must pass untarnished to posterity.' Water
Street feared for the future of its local industries under Confederation,
it also feared a loss of economic dominance and the prospect of increased
taxation. The antes could also play on the traditional, ingrained
antipathy to Canada, and they made appeals to local patriotism, presenting
themselves as the true Newfoundlanders (Hiller, "Newfoundland Confronts
Canada," p. 460).
There were three options on the ballot paper for the referendum
held on June 3, 1948. The result of the referendum was the
following: for Responsible government (69,400) 44.5%; for
Confederation (64.066) 41.1%; and for Commission government
(22,311) 14.3%. Since the British government stipulated that one
of the options had to have a clear majority for a victory, a second
referendum was necessary with the Commission government option this
time being dropped from the ballot paper because it received the
smallest number of votes among the three. In the second referendum
vote held on July 22, 1948, the Confederation option won a small
majority over the Responsible government choice, the former winning
by 78,323 votes or 52.3% over 71,344 or 47.4% over the latter.
Eight days later the Canadian government announced that it would be
willing to proceed with the final negotiations of the terms of
union on the basis of the referendum vote.
In the autumn of 1948 the Commission of government sent a delegation to Ottawa to negotiate the terms of union. The delegation's chairman was Albert Walsh (Commissioner for Justice and Defence and a St. John's lawyer), who was aided by Gordon Winter, a St. John's businessman, Philip Gruchy, the manager of the Grand Falls paper mill, J.B. McEvoy, a St. John's lawyer and former chairman of the National Convention, Chesley Crosbie, the leader of the Economic Union Movement, Joseph R. Smallwood, and Gordon Bradley. While these negotiations were being successfully concluded in Ottawa, the die-hard anti-confederates in November made unsuccessful appeals to the British House of Commons and Privy Council to have the result of the second referendum vote over-turned. In the end, on March 31, 1949, Newfoundland entered the Canadian Confederation as the tenth province of the Dominion, thus fulfilling Sir John Macdonald's 1867 vision of forging one British North American nation from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Under the leadership of Joseph Smallwood, the Province's first Premier, Newfoundland entered upon a new phase in its historical and constitutional development. (Source: Melvin Baker, "History 3120 Manual: Newfoundland History, 1815-1972", Division of Continuing Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1994, revision of 1986 edition)