June 26, 1947 - Netherlands Ambassador Dr. J.H. van Roijin and Mrs. van Roijin greeting Dutch immigrants arriving by ship in Montreal.

Photo by George Hunter: National Film Board of Canada

In the news.....

Ottawa Journal, June 3 1947

1000 Dutch Coming to Ontario For Farm Work

CHATHAM, ONT June 2. (CP)

Farm worker emigrants from Holland, totaling 1,000 including their families, are expected to arrive at Montreal June 27 to work in the fields in Kent County, it was announced tonight by V. G. McGuigan, chairman of the Kent Federation of Agriculture's Labor Committee.  The Kent Federation has been working on this movement with co-operation of the association known as Immigration Foundation Netherlands and the Federal Government for some time. This is the largest mass immigration in the history of Kent County.  The movement includes expert dairymen, fruit and vegetable farmers, beet workers, greenhouse men and herdsmen. Mr. McGuigan said tonight he had been informed by John Vellinga, local representative of the 1FN, that the group would arrive at Montreal aboard the SS Waterman, reaching Chatham June 28. The Federation has collected many applications from Kent farmers for, these workers and it is expected the greater part of the applications for single men at least can be filled. The Ontario Sugar Beet Producers Association is also connected with the movement and believes the Dutch immigrants will help materially in alleviating the farm labour shortage.

Few Hundred on Way. An Immigration Department spokesman said last night that "a few hundred" farm worker emigrants, from Holland are due to arrive in Canada shortly and will go to the sugar beet fields of the Chatham area of Ontario where they have been requested by sugar beet farmers.

Ottawa Journal, June 7 1947

100 DUTCH COMING

HAMILTON,  ONT June 6 (CP)

John van der Vliet, secretary of the Immigration Foundation of the Netherlands, announced today that between 200 and 300 immigrants from The Netherlands will arrive in the Hamilton-Niagara district by the end of June to locate on farms. The contingent is part of a group of 1,000 immigrants due to arrive at Montreal, June 27, he said.

Ottawa Journal, June 27 1947

1000 Netherlanders Reach Montreal

MONTREAL, June 26. (CP)

In sunshine and with a cool breeze blowing across the harbor, the troop carrier Waterman arrived here today bringing 1,000 Netherlanders to new homes in Canada. Largest immigrant ship to come to the Dominion since before the war, the big liner was greeted by the whistles of other Ships choking the harbor. At the shed to greet the immigrants, most of them bound for farms in Ontario and Western Canada, were Dr. J. D. van Royden, Netherlands Ambassador to Canada, and other Dutch officials. About 100 brides of Canadian servicemen were in the group of new Canadians.

Richard Bedford Bennett, the eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (August 1930 - October 1935) died on June 26, 1947 in Mickleham England.

Troop transport ship Waterman first of many to drop off immigrants

A landmark in the Dutch Canadian experience

The story of Dutch immigration is an part of community history in many town and cities across North America.

In the history of the national Dutch-Canadian communities there are a number of dates and occasions important for everyone to know. High on the list ought to be June 17, 1947, when the Dutch troop transport ship Waterman made a special trip to Canada with the first party of 1,100 post-WWII Dutch immigrants. Arguably, Dutch-Canadians could opt to highlight June 26, 1947 when newspapers across the country echoed the Montreal Star headline “1,100 Happy, Cheering Hollanders Arrive En Route To New Canadian Farm Homes.”

Both 1947 dates given above were part of a process that had started a few years earlier when some pre-WWII Dutch immigrants started to raise suggestions with Canadian officials for attracting Dutch farm workers to repopulate farms across the country. Their efforts paid off when Canada and the Netherlands found common ground on the issue of farms workers. Canada sent an immigration officer to the Netherlands in late 1946 to prepare for the resumption of its immigration program (and cope with the immediate issue of resettling the fiancées and dependents of Canadian soldiers. Canada amended its immigration regulations to provide for the admission of sponsored farm workers on January 30, 1947. Soon after, Prime Minister MacKenzie King went public with his government’s intention to develop an ambitious immigration program.

The Dutch Canadian community had not been sitting idle either. For example, on April 30, 1946 eleven members of the Christian Reformed Church struck a committee to lay the groundwork for an anticipated influx into Ontario. The committee included two members from Chatham, four from Hamilton and five from Sarnia. (The committee members from Sarnia most probably included; Martin Banninga, Jacob De Bliek Sr., Isaac Esser, John Joosse and John Terpstra.) The CRC Synod that year formed the Immigration Committee for Canada which soon after appointed fieldmen. These fieldmen would prove to be instrumental in guiding the settlement process of their constituency. The fieldman for south western Ontario was John Vellinga.

Dutch groups all replicated the concept and became part of a Dutch Canadian umbrella for contact with immigration officials nationally and regionally.

In addition to the Waterman in 1947, the ship Tabinta also is closely linked with the Dutch immigrant vanguard. The ship which had departed from Rotterdam on September 8, 1947 also docked in Montreal, rounding off the 1947 quota of 2,000. A small number traveled on the Veendam, docked in New York and arrived in Canada by rail. On November 26, 1947, the Canadian and Dutch governments in a joint release announced that Canada would take in 10,000 farmers and their families in 1948. The Dutch chartered the Kota Inten and the Tabinta for a total of thirteen Atlantic crossings, each with 770 passengers (no passenger lists were issued for these Kota Inten (1948 and 1949), Tabinta (1947 & 1948), Volendam (1949, 1950 & 1951) and Waterman (1947) trips.