842.00/4–2347
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of Protocol (Woodward)
| Participants: | Mr. President |
| The Prime Minister of Canada | |
| The Chief of Protocol |
The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Mackenzie King, called on the President today at 12:00 Noon.
After an exchange of courtesies, the Prime Minister said that he looked forward with great pleasure to the President’s visit to Canada in June, and that he was especially happy June 10th was to be the date of the President’s arrival in Ottawa as that was his own twentieth anniversary as Prime Minister. The President said that he would make [Page 109] every effort to be there on schedule, and that only the Congress could interfere with his plans. Against this eventuality he preferred to make no announcement concerning the date of his Canadian visit for another week or two.
The Prime Minister then congratulated the President on the result of the Greek-Turkish aid vote in the Senate and said that in stating his approval he expressed the sentiment of all Canadians. The President thanked the Prime Minister for his endorsement of the American position.1
The Prime Minister then referred to the International Trade Conference now meeting at Geneva2 and said that he hoped for important results. The President agreed and said that we had a strong and well qualified delegation at Geneva and that he too hoped for the best. Mr. King said that Canada was very much interested in its trade relations with the world in general and with the United States in particular, and that there was a growing shortage of American dollars in Canada, which he hoped might be corrected. What he feared was restrictive action on the part of Canada with respect to imports from the United States.3 A subject not immediately urgent but one which was beginning to give him concern. He thought that the United States might like to increase its reserve supply of aluminum for example. The President said he knew we needed lead, zinc and copper and that he was sure the “financiers” of our two countries could sit down and work out a solution to this problem. The President added that we had in this country quite a stock of aluminum producing plants which had been greatly expanded during the war.
The Prime Minister then referred to Senator Vandenberg’s recent speech advocating that Canada join the Pan American Union. Mr. King declared this to be a fine gesture on the part of the Senator but hoped that the subject would not be pressed at this time. He said that to do so would certainly give rise to misunderstanding in the rest of the British Commonwealth if nowhere else, and that the inference would be drawn that Canada was giving up its ties with the Commonwealth for the sake of its neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. The President agreed that Canada had an important role to play in both the British Commonwealth and the Americas and said that he understood the Prime Minister’s position.
Before leaving the Prime Minister referred to the position taken by the United States with respect to the peace treaties and thanked the President for our insistence upon the participation of all cobelligerents in drafting the terms of the peace. He admired General Marshall’s [Page 110] firm stand at Moscow which he declared to be splendid.4 To this President Truman responded that we had tried everything else with the Russians and that we were left no choice but to be firm.
- For documentation on United States Economic and Military Aid to Greece and Turkey, see vol. v, pp. 1 ff.↩
- For documentation on this subject, see volume i .↩
- See pp. 116 ff.↩
- For documentation on the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers at Moscow, see vol. ii, pp. 139 ff.↩