Adding some context to Christian Science work in WWI

The Siberian Expeditionary Force gets a mention on pages 285 and 286 of Christian Science Wartime Activities (WW1)! The 200-strong members of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force were all supplied with “a sleeveless jacket and two pairs of socks, on 10 days’ notice, just before [embarkation]” (p. 286).

[Ed. An entry in Wikipedia explains that “In 1918, Canada sent troops to Russia as part of an Allied intervention to support Russian government forces against Bolshevik revolutionaries”.

The Wikipedia article continues: “In late 1917, the Bolsheviks proclaimed a socialist government in Russia under Vladimir Lenin. Although Russia had been an ally of the Western powers against Germany (see First World War), one of the reasons for the revolution was a strong desire among many Russians to end the war. On 3 March 1918, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and her allies, ending Russian participation in the war. With Russia’s withdrawal, the Allies’ Eastern Front collapsed.”]

At war’s end the Christian Science Comforts Forwarding Committee also contributed to filling France’s great need for clothing in a big way.

[Ed. There are not many references to Australia or New Zealand in the book. However, our intrepid researcher, Joyce Voysey, always reads “around” the topic at hand in order to gather a wider context. As part of that wider reading, Joyce discovered a previously unknown fact (to her and probably to many readers) regarding the role of Japan in WW1.]

Of interest to Australians and New Zealanders is the following snippet from Empires at War: 1911-1923 edited by Robert Gerwarth and Erez Manela, p. 205: “Japanese ships played a key role in the mobilization of the British Empire between 1914 and 1918, conveying Australian and New Zealand troops from the Pacific through the Indian Ocean to Aden in the Arabian Sea. And, following attacks on Japanese merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, three Japanese destroyer divisions and one cruiser (thirteen ships in all) in February 1917 joined the allied fight against German submarines there.”

Joyce Voysey

[Ed. Readers might also find the article “Anglo-Japanese Naval Cooperation, 1914-1918”, published in the Winter 2000 edition of Naval War College Review (Vol 53. No. 1) by Timothy D. Saxon helpful.]