711.56342/7–1451

The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Canada

restricted
No. 9

The Secretary of State refers to the Department’s instruction No. 134, dated February 19, 1951,1 regarding the request of the United States Air Force for the use of sites for global communications facilities near Ernest Harmon and Pepperrell Air Force Bases in Newfoundland. Reference is made also to the Embassy’s despatch No. 1098, dated February 26, 1951, and to despatch No. 1126, dated March 1, 1951, on this same subject.2

The Department transmits two copies of a letter dated July 14, 1951, from the Secretary of Defense,3 giving further details about the communications facilities and their operations, in accordance with the request contained in the Embassy’s despatch No. 1098. The letter also states that the draft note attached to the Embassy’s despatch No. 1126 is acceptable to the United States Air Force with three exceptions which are noted in detail.

The Air Force states that 180 acres of land are now desired at the Flat Rock site near Pepperrell Air Force Base in lieu of the seventy-two acres previously requested.

The United States Air Force also requests that efforts be made to have the Government of Canada bear the expense of the acquisition of land areas necessary for the project, inasmuch as these communications facilities are of importance to the mutual defense of the North Atlantic region, and since they will be acquired and owned by the Canadian Government and merely made available to the United States for a period of twenty years.

With respect to jurisdiction and other privileges and immunities, the Department requests the Embassy to seek the Canadian Government’s agreement that United States personnel on the communications sites shall receive the same privileges as those accorded to United States personnel on the Leased Bases.

The Officer in Charge is requested to seek the approval of the Canadian Government for the use of the global communications sites by the United States Air Force, on the basis indicated, and to inform the Department as soon as possible of the reply.

  1. See p. 870.
  2. See pp. 871 and 874.
  3. Not printed.