Oldal 117 [117]
“THE NEw MECCA OF IMMIGRANTS”...
Esterhazy’s was not the only publication that tried to lure Hungarians to Canada
and against which Thirring raised his voice. Others were partly disguised
as advice and guidance attempting to support emigrants. The Canadian
Pacific Railway, for example, published a Hungarian-English Dictionary with
words that an emigrant needs to know when living on a farm in Canada."
While the Cunard Steamship Company informed Hungarians about how to
travel to Canada in an immigrant handbook containing practical advice on
immigration, settlement, and the voyage itself. All these pamphlets and
publications were in line with the program promoting the Canadian Prairies
as the “Last Best West” in which promotional publications were made by the
“Canadian government and distributed to potential settlers in Europe and the
United States. Designed to dispel negative climatic and cultural preconceptions
and extol the virtues of the Canadian Prairie for agricultural settlement, these
pamphlets played a significant role in the aggressive immigrant-recruiting
campaign staged by Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior from 1896 to
1905.”°° In the process of disseminating such information, rail and other
transportation companies played a major role and although the main wave of
immigration and immigration promotion took place prior to the First World
War, a similar trend was visible in the case of the 1920s as well.
THE 1920s: SAMUEL ZAGONYI’s ATTEMPTS
TO COUNTER IMMIGRATION PROPAGANDA
As previously noted, in the 1920s, immigration started again and also
included previously non-preferred countries. Like before, immigration
propaganda played a key role in disseminating information about Canada and
immigration opportunities, with the railway companies assuming a major
role. The “Railway Agreement” introduced above “authorized the two railways
to recruit and select ‘agriculturalists, agricultural workers and domestic
workers’ and settle them in Canada with the assistance of the Department of
Immigration and Colonization. Therefore, the two railway companies de facto
18 Canadian Pacific Railway, Angol (Hungarian-English) (a helyes angol kiejtés pontos
feltiintetésével): amit egy tanyán tudnia kell: a Telepítési és Fejlesztési Osztály által
előterjesztve, Budapest, Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, 1900?. Full English text available
here: http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/2490.html (accessed 10 May 2020).
Cunard Steamship Company, Kanada: hogy utazzunk a Cunard Line vöröskemenyes gyors¬
hajóival közvetlenül Kanadába, Budapest, Magyarországi Főiroda, 1910?. Full English text
available here: http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/3406.html (accessed 10 May 2020).
50 David J. Wishart, “Last Best West” in Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Available at:
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ii.038 (accessed 10 May 2020).
49