Inside a Canadian Triangle: The University, the CIIA, and the Department of External Affairs a Personal Record
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300104 |
| Author | F.H. Soward |
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Opinion and Policy |
F.H.
SOWARD
Inside
a
Canadian
triangle:
the
university,
the
CIIA,
and
the
Department
of
External
Affairs
A
personal
record
I
belong
to
that
group
of
whom
H.L.
Mencken
once
commented:
'Some
men
go to
University
and after
four
years succeed
in
getting
out.
Some
men
never
get
out.
The
latter
are called
professors.'
I
did
'get
out'
temporarily
because
of
two
wars,
the
first
time
when
an
undergraduate
in
modern
history
at
the
University
of
Toronto, the
second
in
the
Department
of
External
Affairs
while
on
leave
from
the
University
of
British
Columbia.
Both
were
invaluable experi-
ences.
For
the
students
of
my
generation the Great
War
was
a
catalytic
experience.
We
came
home
from
overseas
'returned
men'
in
the
parlance
of
that
day,
prouder
than
ever of
being
Canadians,
grimly
aware
of
the
price
that
had
been
paid
for
Canada's
new
status
in
the
world,
and
dubious,
if
not
cynical,
of
the
quality
of
leadership
that
had
brought
Europe
to
the
brink
of
destruction.
I
think
these
feel-
ings
in
varying
degrees were
shared
by
men
like Brooke
Claxton,
P.E.
Corbett,
Harold Innis,
Sherwood
Lett,
A.R.M.
Lower, N.A.M.
MacKenzie,
Lester
B.
Pearson,
Kenneth
W.
Taylor,
and
F.H.
Underhill
whom
I
was
to
encounter
in
ciiA
conferences
or
as
fellow
delegates
to meetings
of
the
Institute
of
Pacific
Relations
(IPR)
or
of
the
unofficial
Commonwealth
Relations
Conferences.
For
some of
us
these
views
also
meant
active
support
of
the
League
of
Nations
Society
in
Canada
founded
seven
years
before the Canadian
Insti-
tute
of
International
Affairs
(clIA).
For
twenty
years
the
Society
struggled
bravely
but
with
relatively
little
success
to
develop
a
pub-
Formerly
professor of
history, director
of
international
studies,
and
dean
of
graduate
studies
at
the University
of
British
Columbia,
long-time member
of
the
cuLA,
and
author
of
several
books
including
Canada
in
World
Affairs:
From
Normandy
to
Paris
1944-z946.
INSIDE
A
CANADIAN
TRIANGLE
67
lic
opinion
which
would
spur
the government
to give
more
than
lip
service
to
League
ideals.'
The
Great
War
created
my
interest
in
international relations
and
on
my
return
to
the
University
of
Toronto
led
to
a
study
of
the
Treaty
of
Versailles
as
a
special
subject
in
the
final
year.
While
at
Oxford
for
graduate
study
I
was
one
of
the
Canadian
delegates
to
the
first
model
assembly
of the
League
of
Nations
which
was
held
in
the
Oxford
Union.
There
too,
I
was
fortunate
enough
to
be
elected
to
membership in
the
Ralegh
Club
for
whom
its
adviser,
Reginald
Coupland,
secured
leading
specialists
or
participants
in
international
affairs
to
speak
at
private
meetings.
With
this
background
it
is
not
surprising
that,
after
I
had
set-
tled
in
at
the
Department
of
History in the University
of
British
Columbia,
I
agreed,
in
1926,
to
write
a bi-weekly
column on
inter-
national
affairs
for the
morning
newspaper.
This
column,
'The
Way of
the World,'
led
to
one
of
the
Star's
senior
officers,
who
had
been
with
Lionel
Curtis
in
South
Africa,
offering
to
propose
me
for
membership
in
the
British
Institute
of
International
Affairs.
I
was
accepted
and
consequently
was
one
of
the
twenty-five
or
so
Cana-
dians
who
were
transferred
to the
Canadian
Institute
when
it
was
established
in
1928.
I
was
too
junior
and
too
obscure
to
be
one
of
the
thirteen
founder
members
but
it
gave
me
a
pioneer
member-
ship
which
I
have
always
prized.
2
Today's
academics have
little
conception
of how
much
the
CIIA
meant
to us
in
the
early
days
of
its existence.
The
prestige
and
wis-
dom
of
leaders
like
Sir
Robert
Borden,
Newton
Rowell,
and
John
W.
Dafoe
gave
the
CIIA
a
standing
that would
otherwise
have
taken
years
to
achieve,
though
I
doubt
if
the
CIIA
attracted
much
atten-
tion
in
its
first
decade
either
in
official
Ottawa
or in
the
House
of
Commons.
The
local
branches
were well
supported
by
the
academ-
i
In
his
book,
The Writing
of
Canadian History
(Toronto
1976),
Carl
Berger
in-
duded
among
the
Society's
'most
dedicated
members'
'...
historians
like
[W.L.J
Grant,
[George]
Wrong,
[Chester]
Martin,
F.H.
Soward
of
the University
of
British
Columbia
and
A.L.
Burt
of
the
University
of
Alberta': p
39.
2
Cf
Edward
D.
Greathed,
'Antecedents
and Origins
of
the
Canadian
Institute
of
International
Affairs,'
in
Harvey
L.
Dyck
and
H.
Peter
Krosby, eds,
Empire and
Nations:
Essays
in
Honour
of
Frederic
H.
Soward
(Toronto
1969),
p
104.
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