Report of the Council for Social Service
http://archives.anglican.ca/en/permalink/official6554
- Date
- 1927 September
- Source
- General Synod. Minutes
- Record Type
- Resolution
- Mover
- Canon Vernon
- Seconder
- Bishop of Toronto
- Text
- Resolved, That the Section "Development of Directed Immigration" be adopted. [See pages 272-274 in the Council for Social Service report.]
- Notes
- [The Development of Directed Immigration
- Pages 272-274 of the FOURTH TRIENNIAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL SERVICE TO THE GENERAL SYNOD OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
- During the winter of 1925 application forms for single men, for domestic servants and for married men to work on farms were sent to the clergy. These were accompanied by an explanatory circular issued by the Council, and in most cases by a covering commendatory letter from the bishop of the diocese. During the past winter a similar plan was adopted, the nomination forms used being those supplied by the Department of Immigration at Ottawa.
- As these nominations for workers are received, copies are at once sent by the Council to its British representative, the Church of England Council of Empire Settlement, which at once seeks to fill them from Churchpeople who are recommended by their clergy in the Motherland.
- After being approved by the Council of Empire Settlement these prospective settlers have to satisfy the British representatives of the Canadian Government's Department of Immigration and Colonization in England, by whom warrants enabling them to secure the reduced rates on ocean and railway journeys are then issued.
- The date of sailing of the accepted settler is then cabled to the office of the Council at the Church House, Toronto, which in turn notifies the prospective employer and the port chaplain, who meets the newcomer at the Atlantic port and wires his employer when he may expect him.
- The office of the Council keeps in touch with the newcomer, with his employer, and with his clergyman by correspondence, and endeavours to arrange that by visits and otherwise everything possible shall be done to enable the new settler to fit in happily and successfully in his new environment.
- Thus far the plan has in the main been working well and many letters of congratulations and thanks have been received by the office from the clergy, from employers, from the newcomers themselves and, in several instances, from their relatives in England.
- Of course, everything does not always work smoothly. Sometimes the Church of England Council of Empire Settlement is unable to fill the nomination. Sometimes a prospective migrant decides at the last moment not to come or to defer his sailing date. Sometimes the employer is disappointed in the worker who comes to him, and sometimes vice-versa. Second and third placements have therefore sometimes to be made.
- Those who have met the newcomer under this plan of directed migration speak of them as in the main good, sound and sensible people of British stock.
- There are two points that the office of the C.S.S. would like to call to the attention of the parochial clergy, many of whom have been doing splendid service to the Church, to Canada, and to the Empire in furthering the good work:
- 1. Early applications for workers is most desirable. At the best it takes six weeks to two months to fill a particular requisition, after it has been received at the Council's office in Toronto. Moreover, while the Council of Empire Settlement is doing its best to fill all requisitions sent forward by the C.S.S., it is not in all cases successful in doing so.
- 2. Inexperienced workers are more easily secured than experienced. The British Isles have been and are being pretty well combed by government and by other agencies for experienced farm workers to come to Canada, and in many parts of England there is an actual shortage to meet the local demand for agricultural workers. On the other hand there are thousands of older lads and young men entirely without farm experience but with good physique, alert minds and eager to make good, who should be anxious to come to Canada and gain their experience on the land in this country while working at a moderate wage.
- Of course this whole piece of work is yet in its infancy and therefore in the experimental stage. Progress to date has convinced the Council's workers that it is very distinctly worth while. It is interesting to note that other Churches have since adopted similar plans for promoting directed British immigration.]
- Subjects
- Canada - Emigration and immigration
- Canada - Emigration and immigration - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Great Britain - Emigration and immigration
- Church work with immigrants - Anglican Church of Canada
- Church of England in Canada. Council for Social Service
- Church of England. Council of Empire Settlement