I am happy to learn that you will be willing to head the Canadian delegation to the Ninth Session of the Executive Committee and the Seventh Session of the Gen­eral Council of the International Refugee Organization which will take place in Geneva commencing April 4 and April 9 respectively.⁴ The other members of the delegation will be Mr. Berlis, who has attended a number of IRO meetings and is well acquainted with the background of the subjects to be discussed, Mr. Boucher of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, who will be in a position to convey to you detailed views of the interested Departments in Ottawa, and a representative of the Department of Labour, who has not as yet been named but who will probably come from one of the European Missions.

2. The most important subject which is likely to come up for consideration is the continuance of IRO operations beyond September 30, 1951, the cutoff date previ­ously established by the General Council. The reason for the proposal to continue operations beyond this date is that the movement of eligible refugees to the United States has been much slower than anticipated because of administrative difficulties under the newly amended United States Displaced Persons Act and the United States Internal Security Act. According to the DirectorGeneral "the United States programme would fall at least 30,000 short on June 30, 1951, of the number for whom visas are authorized". Increased resettlement of IRO refugees in Canada will probably offset this decrease to some extent, but by no means altogether. A further difficulty is that the provisions of the United States Displaced Persons Act lapse on June 30, 1951. We have been given to understand by the United States Embassy that Congress may advance the date of expiration of the Act from June 30, 1951 to January 1 or July 1, 1952, "in order to give more time for processing the full numbers admissible under the Act. For this reason the United States Government favours action at the forthcoming meeting of the IRO General Council in April 1951, continuing IRO operations after September 30, 1951, until such date as one of the following conditions may arise which would necessitate final closing of IRO operations: (a) that all refugees in Europe available for resettlement have been resettled; (b) that receiving governments are no longer able, or willing, to accept further refugees; (c) that IRO funds have been exhausted".

3. The Canadian delegation may vote in favour of an extension of IRO's activities beyond September 30, 1951, provided that a reasonable case for doing so is presented by, the DirectorGeneral and no further contributions will be required from member governments to finance the additional period of operations. In partic­ular, the DirectorGeneral should be asked to provide satisfactory evidence that the continuance of IRO's activities will ensure the resettlement of sufficient numbers of additional eligible IRO refugees to justify the cost of retaining the administrative services of the Organization. The delegation should not support any proposal to include additional classes of refugees within the mandate of IRO unless the Direc­torGeneral gives assurances that their inclusion can be financed from the Organi­zation's present resources. In any event, IRO should cease operations as soon as it has expended the funds which are available at the present time.

4. Another question which will probably be considered during the Geneva meet­ings in the disposition of the socalled institutional "hard core", the persons under IRO care who because of old age or disability must be treated in institutions and cannot therefore qualify for immigration under normal schemes. We have recently been approached by the representative of the IRO in Canada to ask us to consider a proposal for contributing to solving the "hard core" problem. The details of this proposal, which would cost approximately $1,500,000, are under consideration in Ottawa. If necessary, you may say that the Canadian Government is considering the problem, but you should be very careful to make no commitment nor even to imply that there are reasonable grounds to expect that Canada will accept this proposal. I will not in this despatch outline the details of this problem or the contribution we have been asked to make, as Mr. Berlis has been kept fully posted. If any further decisions on this matter are taken before the Council meeting in Geneva, we shall of course let you know.

5. Another question with which the Executive Committee will be asked to deal is the appointment of Mr. Kingsley, the DirectorGeneral of IRO, as AgentGeneral for Korean relief. Mr. Kingsley accepted the appointment as AgentGeneral for Korean relief several months ago, subject to the approval of the Executive Commit­tee of the International Refugee Organization. The Executive Committee therefore will be asked to say in fact that it has no objection from the point of view of IRO to Mr. Kingsley's accepting the other appointment while still carrying on as Director­General of IRO. We have had considerable doubt as to the wisdom of this double appointment, primarily because we did not think that so difficult an operation as Korean relief could well be directed from Geneva during the next few months. Our principal objection has been due to our concern over the administration of Korean relief rather than our concern over the direction of the IRO, and it might therefore be more appropriate to register our objections in those bodies in which Korean relief is considered. Nevertheless, you should, during the meetings, seek an oppor­tunity of querying the feasibility of Mr. Kingsley's carrying both jobs. I do not suggest, unless you receive further instructions, that you should press these objections to the point of opposing Mr. Kingsley's appointment as AgentGeneral for Korean relief, but you should press your enquiries until you have received assur­ances that the two positions can be held simultaneously without harmful effects on the operations of either programme. You should insist, in any case, that the question of whether Mr. Kingsley should carry on as DirectorGeneral of IRO should be examined again at the next IRO meeting, which will presumably take place in Sep­tember, after we know whether IRO will extend its operations beyond September 30, and after a six months' "trial period" has elapsed during which Mr. Kingsley will have held both positions. You will find that on this subject as well Mr. Berlis has been kept fully posted and has at our request discussed the question with officials of the IRO.

6. If any further instructions should prove necessary, we shall send them by tele­gram to the Geneva office.

A.D.P. HEENEY
for Secretary of State
for External Affairs

⁴ Le chef de la délégation était Victor Doré, ministre en Suisse
The Canadian delegation was led by Victor Doré, Minister in Switzerland