Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-12-15
CANADIANS Getting
The BRUNT OF THE
WAR AND ARE SORE

Dover, Me-, Dec. 12.-Walter J. Sar-
gent, who claims to belong in Pitts
field, Mass, passed through Dover
Foxcroft Friday morning, en- route to
his home in Massachusetts after hav-
ing served nearly a year in the trench
eS in Europe as a member of one of
the Canadian battalions engaged in
great conflict. Sargent. who wore
parts of British army uniform, came
through from Montreal on the Cana
dian Pacific railway and considers
himself a deserter from the British
army. He says that he went across
the water last December with one Of
the Canadian overseas expeditions,
having enlisted at Sherbrooke, Que, as
a teamster. Upon the arrival of the
troops in London he was. he claims.
placed in the ranks as a private and
forced to fight for England as such.
Sargent told the Commercial reporter
that he was threatened with summary
court martial if he refused to accept
the duties of q private, notwithstand-
ing the fact that he was enlisted as a
teamster which position carries addi-
tional pay and less danger from being
bored by German bullets. According
to Sargent, several other Americans
were enlisted with the same under
standing and are now serving SEN
fences in British prisons because of
the fact that they refused to enter the
trenches as privateS. Two of these
Americans, according to Sargent, be-
long in Boston and one is Buffalo, N.
Y. boy. The two Boston boys enlisted
after reaching Liverpool as horse
tenders on steamships sailing from
Boston to Have, France, carrying
horses consigned to the French army.
Sargent was wounded on the Somme
battle front, and was first sent to Lon
don for surgical treatment and later
sent back to Montreal where he says
he was slated to enter the recruiting
service in American cities and towns
near the Canadian border. He was
directed to secure recruits in Jackman
and other Maine towns close to the
border and to send them to Sher-
brooke and Montreal for their physical
examinations.
Leaving Sherbrooke on the 1890
train Thursday evening, bound for
Jackman, he decided that the U. S. A.
was plenty good enough for him and
as a result of his reckoning, he decided
to quit the European war for good and
to return to his home in Massachu-
sets, where after a short visit, he in
tends to enlist in the regular army.
Sargent claims that the Canadian
forces are being sent into the most
dangerous positions in the war zone,
while thousands upon thousands of
British troops are being held back.
What is true of the Canadians, he
claims, is also true of the Australians,
who, with the Canadians, are standing
the brunt of the fighting in Europe as
far as England and her colonies are
concerned.
While Canada agreed to furnish
100000 troops to assist England,
scarcely more than 250,0O0 have actu-
ally gone across the waters and the
work of recruiting in the Canadian
provinces is now practically at a
standstill. Sargent says, because of the
fact that the British evidently intend
to sacrifice the men of the colonies in
stead of sending the standing British
army into action.
Men by the hundred from the So
called American legion being recruit
ed near Montreal, are deserving and
are making their way into the States
as best they can" declared Sargent.
"The so-called American legion was
supposed to embark for Liverpool the
first of November but it is still in
camp on the outskirts of Montreal,
waiting for suckers like myself"
why. to show you the sentiment
in Canada at the present time, I will
state that last Tuesday night was in
a moving picture show in Sherbrooke
when a picture showing the arrival of
Canadian troops in Europe was shown.
The British flag was in evidence and
the audience Kissed. The next reel