Preparing for War

Interviewer: Was your father, did he ever express concern to you that he feared that another war might be coming and that you might be involved?

Well, even more than that, when I went to McGill, which was in 1937, the peacenicks were controlling everything to the extent that that year the debating society in Oxford debated resolve we would not defend our country and the affirmative won. It was, and I had joined the McGill Daily as a reporter and everything was peace, peace, peace, and against war. And, in the midst of all that, my father said to me, “You’ve got to join the McGill COTC.” And I said, “Dad, everybody will laugh at me. It’s not a very smart thing to do.” And he said, “I don’t care about whether they’ll laugh. There’s a war coming. And, I was a sergeant in World War I, you’ll like being an officer much better.” And he made me join the COTC, which I did.