TORONTO TELEGRAM
28 August 1918

COLORED MEN ARE BARRED

ROYAL AIR FORCE RESTRICTS

Were Applicants Numerous Enough to Form a Company Their Enlistment Might Be Entertained.

That colored men are barred from the Royal Air Force in Canada is admitted by Capt. Seymour, of the Headquarters staff. "Were colored volunteers numerous enough to make up a company of their own, their applications might be entertained, " he said, "but as they are few, it has been considered advisable to refuse all applications for enlistment."

The question was raised by the non-acceptance of Harold Leopold Bell, a Jamaican 24 years of age, with wife and two children. He voluntarily enlisted in Boston, Mass., and was sent to Camp Sussex, N.B., last July. On August 21 he vas given his discharge to come to Toronto to become a mechanic with the R.A.F. On his discharge paper he is described, "Complexion — Dark." He claims to be an expert machinist of seven years experience, and to know gas engines, yet when he reported to the recruiting depot at George and Duke streets with an inexperienced French- Canadian, the latter was accepted and he was rejected.
NOT BOUND BY M.S.A.

Transportation back to Camp Sussex was offered him, but as he has been discharged from that unit, Bell has secured employment in a munition plant.

The Military Service Act drafts colored men, but the Royal Air Force does not come within the scope of the act. The R.A.F. are exercising the greatest care when applicants come from the States claiming they are British subjects, and now will not accept any evidence other than the birth certificate.