In Pictou, N.S., black men gather at the headquarters of No. 2 Construction Battalion, a Canadian Expeditionary Force unit recruiting "coloured" men. It has taken nearly two years of hard lobbying to get black men into the army. They see war service not only as the great adventure of their life time, but also as their right and responsibility as citizens. Major-General Willoughby Gwatkin in Ottawa does not share this opinion, however; only a few weeks ago, he wrote in an official memorandum "...the civilized negro is vain and imitative; in Canada he is not being impelled to enlist by a high sense of duty." Under fierce pressure, MGen Gwatkin finally backed down enough, as he put it, "to allow them to form one or more labour battalions. Negroes from Nova Scotia, for example, would not be unsuitable for the purpose."

All but one of the battalion's 19 officers are white. The exception is the chaplain, Honorary Captain William A. White, who will be the only black person in this war to hold the King's commission. Built around a nucleus of Nova Scotia-born railway workers, the battalion's rank and file also include men from New Brunswick, Ontario and western Canada. At full strength, No. 2 Construction Battalion totals 605 all ranks.

After basic training and a stint in N.B. loading rails for the Grand Trunk Railway, the battalion embarks for Liverpool on March 28, 1917, in the transport SS Southland. This deployment requires sharp staff work in Ottawa, as white soldiers refuse to share the cramped accommodations of a troopship with the black soldiers. In May, the battalion arrives in France to serve with No. 5 District, Canadian Forestry Corps. The soldiers of No. 2 Construction Battalion spend their war building roads, railways, bridges and defences, often on terrain studded with unexploded ordnance in areas dangerously close to the front line. Many are injured and some lose their lives to artillery fire and poison gas as well as to construction accidents.

"Fourth Dimension" is a regular feature written for the Canadian Forces
newspaper The Maple Leaf, published by the Department of National Defence.