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absence, at all events, of some over-riding necessity. This convention is so well recognized that disregard of it might possibly be considered as in the nature of a breach of faith.
The responsibility of securing the necessary replacements, as well as "first reinforcements," belonged to the Adjutant-General's Department. task was in the hands of Colonel P. Hennessy, the Director of Organization in the Adjutant-General's Department, who afterwards became the senior admin- istrative officer of the Hong Kong expeditionary force. Under his immediate direction additions to the Royal Rifles were obtained from Military District No. 2, with headquarters in Toronto, and additions to the Winnipeg Grenadiers were obtained from Military District No. 10, with headquarters in Winnipeg. Colonel Hennessy was an officer of great experience and he was, of course, most anxious to obtain the best men possible for the expedition of which he was to be second-in-command.
There were added (150 as first reinforcements) to the Royal Rifles 154 men from Military District No. 2, of whom 52 came from the Midland Regi- ment, 15 from Advanced Training Centre No. 10 at Camp Borden, and 87 from Advanced Training Centre No. 11, also at Camp Borden. To the Winnipeg Grenadiers were added (156 as first reinforcements) 282 men and 12 officers; of these the 12 officers and 189 men came from Advanced Training Centre No. 15 at Winnipeg, 30 men from the Advanced (Machine Gun) Training Centre at Dundern, Saskatchewan, 40 from the No. 10 District Depot at Winnipeg (includ- ing 23 men formerly on the strength of the 18th Reconnaissance Battalion), and 23 men from the Basic Training Centre at Portage la Prairie.
Additions to the Royal Rifles
On October 16, Colonel Hennessy spoke by long distance telephone to the Commandant at Camp Borden (Brigadier-General McCuaig) and asked him to obtain, if possible, 150 volunteers from A10 and All Infantry (Advanced) Training Centres for transfer to the Royal Rifles of Canada which was proceeding to service outside Canada. General McCuaig instructed the officers commanding the training centres to ascertain what volunteers could be obtained at their several centres. Fifteen men volunteered from A10 and A11. General McCuaig then advised the Officer Commanding Military District No. 2 at Toronto (Major- General C. F. Constantine) that approximately 100 volunteers were available from the centres at Camp Borden. General Constantine then made arrange- ments to obtain 52 volunteers from the Midland Regiment, which was then stationed at Niagara and was over strength. A few hours later, General Con- stantine was advised that the desired number of men from the Midland Regiment had volunteered, and he so advised Colonel Hennessy.
In this way 154 men-102 from Camp Borden and 52 from the Midland Regiment--were transferred to the Royal Rifles and proceeded with that unit to Hong Kong. These men were sent to the District Depot at Toronto on October 18th and were there medically examined, inoculated and re-equipped with new uniforms and personal equipment. They were granted leave until October 23rd when they entrained at Toronto and joined the Royal Rifles while en route to Vancouver. The details of the procedure followed in obtain- ing these men were discussed with Colonel Hennessy.
Colonel Hennessy reported to Major-General Browne, the Adjutant- General, that he was obtaining 52 men from the Midland Regiment and 102 from Camp Borden, and both General Browne and Colonel Hennessy expressed themselves as gratified in their good fortune in obtaining these men from these sources, and took steps to assure that places were made for them in the expedi- tionary force.
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On October 22 two officers and three sergeants from the Royal Rifles, representing Lt.-Col. Home, the officer commanding the regiment, came to Toronto and checked over the documents of each of the 154 men. These docu- nts disclosed the particulars of service of each of the men. On October 23, men were paraded and all details were finally checked. The two officers from the Royal Rifles expressed themselves as well satisfied with the volunteers provided by Military District No. 2.
The Midland Regiment was organized in July, 1940, and was recruited in the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Victoria and Haliburton in Ontario. The several companies of the regiment were stationed in various towns and cities of eastern Ontario until January, 1941, when the regiment moved to barracks in Ottawa where it remained until April, 1941. It then undertook duties in the defence of coastal and other vital points within Canada.
All the 52 men from the Midland Regiment who volunteered for the Hong Kong expedition had joined that regiment prior to March, 1941. All these men, therefore, had at least six months training with their unit before embarking for Hong Kong, while a great many of them had probably a full year's train- ing. Accordingly, some idea of their state of training may be formed by a reference to the training and qualifications of this regiment as a whole. On this topic, I had the evidence of the officer who has commanded this unit since October, 1940, and also the evidence of the officer in charge of training in Military District No. 3 (Colonel Grant), who had the regiment under his observation from October, 1940, until April, 1941. There was also produced an inspection report, dated February 20, 1940, dealing with the Midland Regi- ment, by an Inspector-General, and the evidence of General Browne of the result of his observation, as Adjutant-General, of the unit covering the period in 1941 when it was stationed at Ottawa.
From this evidence, I have reached the conclusion that the Midland Regi- ment is and was in October, 1941, an efficient, well-trained unit. The Officer Commanding (Lieutenant-Colonel Gamey) impressed me with his own com- petence, and was described by others as an officer who placed exceptional emphasis on training and exacted a high standard from his unit. The other officers were reported as satisfactory and acceptable by the Inspector-General. General Browne stated that he was particularly pleased with the sergeants of the Midland Regiment. Perhaps some general notion of the calibre of the men in the Midland Regiment may be drawn from the fact that when, in October, 1941, a request for approximately 50 volunteers was made, practically every man in the regiment offered his services.
The men in the Midland Regiment did not pass through a training centre, but obtained all their training with the unit. A regular program of training was, however, followed and records of this training were available in Military District No. 3 for the period between October, 1940, and April, 1941. The District Officer in charge of Training (Colonel Grant) compared these records of actual training with the lengths of time prescribed for each of the items of training in the syllabi used in the training centres. It is unnecessary to set forth this comparison in detail. The regiment was far ahead of the prescribed syllabi in drill, marching, rifle training, and bayonet training. It had been fully instructed in the mechanism of the light machine gun, to the extent that the men were handling the gun while blindfolded; they were, in April, 1941, well advanced in their firing practice at the ranges, although they had not completed the full period of time set forth in the syllabi. They had spent more than double the time prescribed in their practice with dummy grenades. They had spent a total of 127 periods (of 45 minutes each) in platoon and section training, and a total of 78 periods in company and battalion training. The reports of training and of the observations of officers indicate that the men of the Midland Regiment were hardworking and interested in their training and, moreover, that they "possessed initiative and self-reliance beyond the average".
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