711.42157SA29/1429
The Minister in Canada (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 11.]|
Sir: With reference to the Department’s telegram No. 118 of November 18, 7 p.m.,58 regarding the prospective visit to Ottawa of Mr. Frank P. Walsh, Chairman, Power Authority of the State of New York; Mr. Leland Olds, Executive Secretary of the Power Authority and Mr. Basil Manley, Vice Chairman of the Federal Power Commission, accompanied by Mr. J. D. Hickerson, Assistant Chief, Division of Western European Affairs, I have the honor to inform the Department that the gentlemen in question arrived in Ottawa at noon on Friday, December fourth.
That afternoon a meeting was held at the Legation at which, in addition to the above named, the Counselor of the Legation and myself were present. At this time the various phases of the waterways question were discussed and the method of procedure to be followed at the meeting which had been arranged for that evening with the Prime Minister and certain members of his Cabinet was gone over.
In general the presentation by Mr. Walsh and the other members of the delegation followed the lines set forth in the Department’s instruction No. 262 of February 25th last, the substance of which was, as the Department is aware, brought to the attention of the Prime Minister by me in a personal interview on February 26th last.
That evening the above-named dined with the Prime Minister informally at his house. As Mr. King had previously told me he had planned to do there were also present at the dinner the Minister of Justice, Mr. Lapointe (who in the absence of Mr. King acts as Prime Minister); the Minister of Finance, Mr. Dunning; the Minister of Transport, Mr. Howe, the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Cardin; the Postmaster General, Mr. Elliott; the Minister of Labor, Mr. Rogers; and Dr. Skelton, Under Secretary of State for External Affairs. Mr. Palmer and myself were also invited to attend.
After dinner we all adjourned to Mr. King’s library where the whole question was informally discussed along the lines indicated above.
The following day, Saturday December 5th, Dr. Skelton asked Mr. Walsh and his associates, as well as Mr. Palmer and myself, to attend a meeting in his office, at which he had arranged for certain of the technical experts to be present. At this meeting, in addition to Dr. Skelton himself and Mr. Laurent Beaudry, his assistant, [Page 846] there were present Mr. Loring C. Christie, Counselor of Legation, Department of External Affairs; Mr. J. T. Johnson, Controller of the Dominion Water and Power Bureau, Department of Mines and Resources; Mr. D. W. McLachlan, Engineer of Design and Capital Construction, Department of Transport; and Mr. Guy Lindsay, Engineer in charge of General Engineering, Department of Transport. Here again the question was gone into from various angles, the more technical aspects of the work being discussed. After Dr. Skelton had sketched the discussions of the evening before for the benefit of those who had not been present, the various phases of the question were presented by the experts; Mr. Olds for the American side and Mr. McLachlan followed by Mr. Johnson for the Canadian side.
I think that Mr. Walsh and his associates felt that the visit accomplished the purpose for which they had come up, namely, to explore the various possibilities and to ascertain in a general way the reaction of the Canadian Government to reopening the whole question on a broader basis to include the whole St. Lawrence basin.
I should state in conclusion that in all the conversations with Canadian officials Mr. Walsh and his colleagues stressed the entirely unofficial nature of their visit and the fact that they were in no way speaking for the President or our Government.
Respectfully yours,
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