As you may know there is at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, a joint R.C.N.-U.S.N. sound surveillance station, and the Cabinet Defence Committee has approved (on September 27, 1955) the negotiation of an agreement with the United States for the construction of two additional stations, one in the Cape Canso area of Nova Scotia and the other near Windsor Harbour on Vancouver Island, roughly in accordance with the conditions governing the establishment and operation of the station at Shelburne.⁹⁵

2. The negotiation of this agreement was undertaken but has been in abeyance for a year for technical reasons. Meanwhile the two Navies have continued with a programme of hydrographic and other surveys designed to collect the data necessary for the establishment of the stations. A necessary preliminary to such surveys is the establishment of navigational aids on shore by which the survey ships can fix their positions.

3. The attached Note No. 246 of April 23, 1957? from the U.S. Embassy requests permission for the U.S.N., in co-ordination with the R.C.N., to conduct on-site surveys in the vicinity of Estevan Point, Vancouver Island, designed to find suitable locations for the establishment of LORAC (navigational aid) stations for use in connection with proposed hydrographic operations this summer under Project Caesar (the establishment of the two proposed stations). The attached Note granting this request has been prepared for your signature, if you agree, in consultation with the Departments of National Defence and Transport.

4. The R.C.N. and U.S.N. have been rather slack in initiating the submission by the U.S. Embassy of diplomatic requests for this and previous surveys in the same series. In this case the R.C.N. attempted to persuade Mr. Macdonnell after working hours last Thursday to authorize informally the commencement of the surveys on Monday, April 22, subject to the subsequent submission of a diplomatic request. Mr. Macdonnell insisted however that the surveys be properly approved before they began. As a result, the present proposal of the U.S.N., as mentioned in our Note? is for the surveys to commence on Monday, April 29. We should therefore like, if possible, to give our Note to the U.S. Embassy today or tomorrow.

5. You will note that paragraph 4 of our Note in effect turns down the request for blanket permission for similar surveys which may or may not be necessary on the west coast of Vancouver Island between now and the summer of 1958. I consider that the granting of such an indefinite request would be undesirable in the light of the past slackness to which I have referred above and of the present state of public opinion with respect to our general relations with the United States. Furthermore, I think it would simply be bad practice.

K.C. BROWN