The 1939 British and Canadian ‘Empire Air Training Scheme’ negotiations

Abstract

This article focuses on events surrounding the Ottawa mission led by Lord Riverdale. Between October and December 1939 the mission met the Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King, his Cabinet and a number of Dominion representatives, its goal to agree on arrangements for the British Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). This plan would ultimately play a vital role in the British and Dominion war effort, training over 100 000 men for air duties in a variety of theatres of conflict. But, although the negotiations were hailed at their conclusion as having been a great success, the reality was that they were dominated by considerable tensions not just among those present but also between elements within Whitehall and the Canadian leadership. On repeated occasions it appeared that the talks might even collapse and at one stage a constitutional crisis loomed. Far from the success that has since been portrayed to have been the case, the negotiations in fact demonstrated that considerable potential problems existed with regard to the wartime Anglo‐Dominion relationship.