Wartime Amity Cemented by Song – American and English Visitors to Metis Join in Patriotic Tunes

Metis became the temporary home to hundreds of British refugee children stranded in Canada at the outbreak of the Second World War. Their parents opted to leave them in Canada rather than have them brave the North Atlantic and possible sinking by German U-boats.  

Metis was a bastion of patriotic sentiment. By August 1940, many Metisians had enrolled in the army, air force or navy and were in training and readying for combat. The Montreal Gazette reported an occasion where English children, vacationing Canadians and visitors from the United States banded together in a spontaneous outpouring of shared patriotism in one of the Metis hotels: 

…After dinner the English mother sat before the piano and began to play “There’ll Always be an England”. Before she had played the chorus, all the guests had taken up the refrain. Three encores were played before the crowd would let her stop. Then the wife of the presbyterian minister took her place and began to play the American counterpart of “There’all Always be an England”, Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”. Canadians, English and Americans joined in the chorus of the American song which has somewhat the same swing as the English tune. When it was over, the American lady inquired where she could purchase a copy of “There’all Always be an England”. The English woman immediately made her a present of the copy which she had and the American in turn promised to send her a copy of “God Bless America”. Then the American woman’s husband remarked drily. “God will bless America as long as there’s an England.