Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Western Europe and Canada, Volume XXVII

377. Letter From the Secretary of State to the President¹

London, July 29, 1957.

Dear Mr. President: I had an immensely interesting two days at Ottawa. I met with Diefenbaker three times at the Embassy reception on Saturday, at his residence on Sunday afternoon and at the Embassy dinner Sunday evening.²

He is, I think, the kind of person we can get along with although I suspect that before he becomes fully aware of the perplexities of today’s problems and until he has developed an adequate staff, there will be difficult moments. He has a sense of his power as Prime Minister, but I think is still inadequate in his understanding of the problems and in any staff organization.

There is no doubt but that they are much more Commonwealth minded than was the prior administration, but Diefenbaker shows a real awareness of the vital importance of working closely with the United States.

At the dinner Sunday evening the two other leading Ministers were present and they started out in a rather belligerent vein to the effect that “you had better know once and for all that we intend to work in the Commonwealth with the UK and that will be the premise of all of our action.” However, as we talked frankly and vigorously a good deal of the belligerency disappeared and we were talking realistically about practical problems. I told them about the oil arrangement³ and they are grateful that it will not hurt Canada. Their principal peeve is our wheat surplus disposal program, and arrangements such as with Brazil which bind it for years to come to purchase wheat in the United States as a condition to getting PL 480 wheat. They also talked at length about lead and zinc.⁴

They worry about the huge volume of United States capital which is acquiring control of their natural resources. They seem to have in their mind some possibility of a preferential tariff arrangement within the Commonwealth but recognize that this cuts athwart the UK plan for a European “free trade area”.

They said Sunday night that they felt that only you and I really believed in liberal trade policies and that the Congress, the country as a whole and any future administration would probably go toward increased protectionism. This frightens them because of their already serious adverse balance of trade with the United States.

I feel that my visit accomplished a great deal principally in enabling the leading members of the new government to blow off steam in a friendly congenial atmosphere, and I believe that Livie and I in the course of the conversations did a good deal to enlighten them and to make them realize that some of their offhand thinking called for deeper study.

We arranged to have a meeting of the Cabinet committee in Washington the first week of October,⁵ and this was pleasing to them. It will probably be a somewhat rougher meeting than any heretofore. I think they feel that C.D. Howe was too soft with us.

I spoke to Livie about the possibility of your visiting Canada quite privately. He felt that the Canadians would resent it if you did not at least have one day of official doings. Therefore, I did not discuss this with Diefenbaker.

Too bad.

I dictate this enroute to London. We were somewhat delayed by engine trouble at Argentia.

Dulles⁶

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 110.11–DU/7–2957. Secret. Transmitted in Dulte 2 from London, July 29, which is the source text, with the notation: “Eyes Only Acting Secretary for President from Secretary.”
2. July 27 and 28.
3. A Special Cabinet Committee To Investigate Crude Oil Imports had been studying plans for limiting imported oil. Following its recommendation, however, Eisenhower decided on July 29 that U.S. restrictions did not apply to Canada.
4. In order to assist the domestic lead-zinc industry which was facing falling prices, the administration proposed to increase lead-zinc import taxes on a sliding scale. Congress, however, took no action in 1957.
5. The Joint U.S.-Canadian Committee on Trade and Economic Affairs met in Washington, October 7–8. Meetings with Cabinet Ministers, however, did not take place until 1958.
6. Dulte 2 bears this typed signature.