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Lithuanians in Lanarkshire |
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After a while, however the new arrivals began to fit in to their new adopted country, as their children attended local schools and as trade union involvement by the men gained them a foothold within the local communities. Lithuanians also moved out of the mines and ironworks, setting up small businesses and even founding their own newspapers, such as Iseiviu Draugas (Immigrant's Friend). The Church also made special provision for the Lithuanians and, from 1904, Father John Czuberkis became the first priest to offer pastoral care specifically for them, based at Holy Family Church in Mossend.
However this process of assimilation was to be rudely brought to a halt with the onset of the First World War. The restrictions placed on immigration during wartime under the Aliens Restriction Act of August 1914 ended immigration from Lithuania for the duration of the conflict. This act was also followed the same year by the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, which forced the Lithuanians to register as aliens, despite the fact that many had been living in Lanarkshire for thirty years or more, and many sons of Lithuanians were serving in the British armed forces.
Things became even worse when, in 1917, Britain signed the Anglo-Russian Military Convention. This document related to "the reciprocal liability to military service of British subjects resident in Russia and Russian subjects resident in Great Britain." In other words, while the Lithuanians were Poles to the ordinary Scots, they were Russians to the British government, and as such, were liable for service in the Russian army. This led to many of the Lithuanian men of working age in Scotland being sent to Russia. By the time most arrived the country was in the grip of the Bolshevik Revolution, with over 200 dependent families being left behind in Bellshill alone, facing the threat of eviction from company-owned housing. Of the 1200 or so men who had gone to Russia, only about a third ever returned to Scotland.
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Many of those who had left for Russia were not allowed to return to Britain after the war and their families were forced to leave for Lithuania after the British government suspended dependents' allowances. These families, many comprising people who were Scots-born, were faced with the choice of either leaving or remaining in Scotland with no means of support in an uncertain economic climate.
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