In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence - Ukrainian Canadian Civil ...

In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence
State-sanctioned censures
Restrictions were imposed on freedom of speech, association and movement
for “enemy aliens.” Municipalities received instructions to “keep a watchful eye”
on all Germans and Austrians domiciled within their jurisdictions, lists being
drawn up to ensure that the whereabouts and travels of these foreigners could be
“checked in a systematic fashion.” [13] The latter’s state-sanctioned misery was
compounded by the actions of those employers who, out of patriotic zeal,
however misplaced, dismissed their “Austrians” from work, furthering their
distress. [14] All “enemy aliens” were prevented from leaving the country,
ostensibly so as to prevent those of military age from being able to return to their
homelands, there to serve in the ranks of the Central Powers. Those who had
suddenly found themselves out of work, their modest resources insufficient to
keep body and soul together for more than a few months, who therefore
attempted to cross the international border to find work in the as yet neutral
United States of America, were often apprehended attempting to do so. Being so
caught, in direct violation of the prohibition against leaving the country, they
were interned. Regulations even prevented some “enemy aliens” from accessing
their own bank accounts. [15] Efforts made by many recent immigrants to
secure their naturalization papers, to thereby avoid confinement as “enemy
aliens” were stymied. [16] As for those whose conditions were precarious enough
as a result of the pre-war economic depression many of them were sometimes
interned simply because they had become, or were made, “destitute,” a rather
illiberal means for dealing with the unemployed. [17]
On the road to Castle Mountain
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