The Clayton Knight Committee, was founded by Billy Bishop and Clayton Knight in 1940. Homer Smith and several German émigrés, who wanted America to join the war against the Axis powers, provided funding for the secret and unlawful commissioning agency. Its mission was to bring Americans to Canada in order to prepare and battle for the Allies while the US was still neutral. By Canada allowing the training to take place on their soil, it is considered the most important contribution it made to the Allied air war. This was before the US declared war on Japan and Germany. The committee was forced to defend itself from opposing forces such as, "pacifists and isolationists, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt."