842.20/197: Telegram
The Minister in Canada (Moffat) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:38 p.m.]
218. For Secretary and the Under Secretary. Department’s mail instruction No. 574 of July 30.12 The Prime Minister, in saying good-by before starting for London tomorrow, told me that there is only one matter in the field of Canadian-American relations that is seriously troubling him at the moment: namely prolonged refusal to allow Canada to have her own military mission in Washington. Mr. King felt that our decision was probably based on service considerations but in his opinion much more is involved. I have sensed for some time here the feeling that Canadian contacts with American military and naval authorities are more and more being funneled through British channels coupled with an unfortunate suspicion that the British in Washington had been consciously sidetracking the Canadians.
In any event Mr. King believes that Canadian relations both vis-à-vis the United States and the United Kingdom would be on a sounder basis if a Canadian military mission were accepted in Washington and that public opinion in Canada would have greater confidence if Canadian military mission representation in the United States were on as direct and as independent a basis as would be implicit in the sending and receiving of such a mission. He urged with great earnestness that the American Government reconsider its rejection of the Canadian request and that in the reconsideration at least as much weight be given to the political considerations involved as to service considerations.
- Not printed.↩