VI. Canada

25. I doubt if the Soviet authorities had any policy toward Canada except in the context of our membership in N.A.T.O. and our relationship to the United States. We received a good deal of attention, all derogatory, from the Soviet press. The theme was usually the increasing dependence of Canada on the United States and American encroachment on Canadian sovereignty. We were accused regularly of turning the Canadian north into a springboard of United States aggression against the U.S.S.R., and of simply acting as a faithful satellite of Washington. United States economic interest in Canadian industrial development was frequently pointed out, as well as the decline of United Kingdom political and economic "control". In general the Soviet authorities probably consider that Canada is too closely linked with the United States and the Western powers to permit its detachment from this bloc or even the exercise of an independent policy.

26. Relations between Canada and the U.S.S.R. continued to be correct but cool. The dispute about the payment of compensation for the Petsamo Nickel Mines dragged on with a series of notes. The Soviet authorities clung tenaciously to their original theory that payment of instalments of a debt does not have to be in the same currency as stipulated for the final liquidation of the debt. The last instalment was due on December 31, 1951, and the U.S.S.R. was in default to the amount of U.S. $2,916,625. Several approaches have been made since then to the Soviet authorities, so far without success. In spite of repeated requests for talks concerning the reimbursement of the Canadian Government for the industrial equipment shipped to the U.S.S.R. in 1945 after the end of Mutual Aid, the Foreign Ministry had not even acknowledged receipt of our notes.

27. The Soviet Union has still not taken any step to appoint an Ambassador to Canada. Personal relations with Russians in Moscow are non-existent though two members of the Foreign Ministry took the unusual step of dining at the Canadian Embassy. Further travel restrictions were imposed in January on all foreigners in Moscow and the Canadian Government along with a number of other western governments retaliated. So far there have been no incidents though the Military Attaché was stopped in a zone near Moscow supposed to be open.

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