speech van Majoor Carp in 1959 in Stratford
Rekrutering
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I consider it a great privilege and a great honor to say a few words on the occasion of the commeration of the stationing of Netherlands troops in Canada during the last war.
The more so as General Van den Bergh, once an officer with these troops and now Minister of Defense and some other officers wanted their gift to be placed in Stratford, the town where the Netherlands Troops kept garrison for about 2 years and whose inhabitants encountered these troops during their stay in a most friendly and hospitable way.
To limit myself today to some historical facts, I wish to start by reminding you of the German attack on the Low, Countries, which started on the 10th of May 1940 and after heavy fighting our small country had to surrender. Only a few of our troops had a chance to escape and to reach England together with our Government which with Queen Wilhelmina was determined to continue the struggle in close collaboration with our allies. To make this possible and to take an active part in the fighting for freedom The Netherlands needed troops. After a first draft of Netherlanders was called up in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands Government decided to send a Military Mission to Canada to call the Netherlands subjects living here to the colors. With the consent of the Canadian Government it was agreed that they would be trained for two clear that neither Canada nor the U.S.A. held many Netherlands subjects since most of them already had become citizens in their new homelands. As a result within this early period the recruiting had to spread from Canada and the U.S.A. to become world-wide.. From that moment many young men of many different parts of the world came together in Stratford and many foreign languages were heard in the barracks. Dutch lessons became a necessity but it may be said that the girls of Stratford at that time had much better results with their English.
On February 12 1942 Lieut.Col. Sas was called back to England and I was selected to take over his command. Shortly thereafter it became obvious that the building in Stratford was too big to be used as barracks and too costly to heat in winter. So, in October 1942 the Winter Fair Building in Guelph was made available and the troops left Stratford following a little ceremony in front of the City Hall at which time the Mayor received the flags that flew over the barracks during the time the Netherlands Troops were stationed here.
In Guelph the troops were lodged in a much smaller building. However it could be considered to have been quite satisfactory for its purpose.
In September 1943 it was decided that Netherlands troops should no longer remain in Canada and that the recruiting from then on should be handled via the Consuls in Montreal and New York.
Concerning the troops trained in Canada, most of them were send to Great Britain where they were enlisted in the Prinses Irene Brigade, a Netherlands Brigade that took part in the invasion of the continent and the liberation of the homeland. However several were send to the Netherlands West Indies (Curacao), to the navy on motor torpedo boats build in Montreal, and to Jackson Mississippi, where Netherlands pilots were trained.
They all were of high spirit. For several it had not been easy to free themselves from their family and the place in their respective adopted country in which they had just started to build a home but when they came, they came with a high morale. To keep this morale up great help was received from H.R.H. Princess Juliana who lived during that time in Ottawa and always came to visit the troops which were leaving for overseas. The words she spoke on those occasions went right to the heart of the men and her words moved many of the men to tears. We were very grateful for those visits but we were also very grateful for the great help and understanding we were given by the local population who had taken us into their midst. By inviting us into their homes and giving us something like that we had left behind, they did much more for the war effort than they realized and it became true what so often was seen in the show-windows at that time: "We are all in the frontline now".
Ladies and Gentlemen of all those Dutch troops who came to Canada, many of them are no longer with us. They all loved their country but as a result of their stay here they all loved your country too.
May I ask you for a short moment of silence for those who are no more....
Thank you.