710 Consultation (3)/12–1841

The Under Secretary of State ( Welles ) to President Roosevelt 24

My Dear Mr. President: I am sending you for your information a brief memorandum of a conversation I had this morning with the Chargé d’Affaires of Canada concerning the suggested participation of Canada in the consultative meeting to be held in Rio de Janeiro.

Believe me,

Faithfully yours,

Sumner Welles
[Enclosure]

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)

The Canadian Chargé d’Affaires called to see me this morning.

Mr. Wrong stated that he had been talking this morning on the telephone to the Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, in connection with the statement I had made to Mr. Wrong yesterday on behalf of the President with regard to the suggestion that Canada might participate in the consultative meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics to be held in Rio de Janeiro on January 15 next.

Mr. Mackenzie King desired that the President be informed that he fully appreciated the validity of the reasons advanced by the President for believing that it was impossible, under existing inter-American agreements, for Canada to take part in that meeting; that he greatly appreciated the frankness and the friendly nature of the President’s message; and that he felt sure that the President would understand that, in following up the initiative taken by the Dominican Government, the Canadian Government believed it was adopting a policy which would be helpful to the United States in its relations with the other American Republics.

I said to Mr. Wrong that I should be very glad to transmit this message to the President. I added that I felt sure it was unnecessary for me to say anything further with regard to the President’s desire to cooperate in every way possible with Canada since the President [Page 131] had made this policy so clear on repeated occasions during the past nine years. I said that in accordance with the President’s wishes I would consult the representatives of the other American Republics, who would meet in Rio de Janeiro, in an unofficial way in order to find out what their feeling might be with regard to the participation by Canada in the regular Pan American conference which would take place in 1943.

Mr. Wrong then said that he felt it was desirable for this Government to know that, in the event the other American Republics desired Canada to participate in any inter-American conference as a member of the Pan American Union, the Government of Canada would be glad to do so.

I replied that I should be very glad to communicate this information to the President.

  1. Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.