Two cases of French collaborators now living in Canada, [Georges Benoît] Montel [alias Gaston Ringeval] and [André Charles] Boussat [alias Alfred Bordes], have recently been brought to your attention, as the question of their deportation to France, where they have been sentenced for collaboration, has arisen. You will recall from Mr. Reid's memorandirm to you of July 8th † that Montel and Boussat were condemned in absentia to forced labour for life, confiscation of all property, and national degradation. We have asked our Embassy in Paris whether they think that Montel and Boussat were guilty of more than ordinary sirpport of the Petain regime. We have not yet had a reply to our despatch of August 12th. †

2. A third and much worse case is that of Jacques de Bernonville. He has been sentenced to death in absentia for a whole series of crimes of collaboration, including giving information to the enemy which led to the death of Frenchmen engaged in the Resistance, and there has even been a suspicion that he was involved in the murder of a Canadian paratrooper - at any rate he entered Canada illegally with the papers of a Canadian paratrooper who was killed in France before the liberation.

3. The French Embassy has confirmed the desire of the French Government to have him returned to France if the Canadian Government decided to deport him, and the French Ambassador has offered the assistance of the French Vice-Consul in Montreal where de Bernonville is now living.

4. In spite of the circumstances of the case with which they were fully familiar, the Immigration Branch told de Bernonville early in July that he could leave this country voluntarily any time before the 2nd of September. So far as we know, he has not left and may be hoping to appeal for permanent landing. In a letter of August 9th, † I suggested to the Acting Deputy Minister of the Department of Mines and Resources that he might like to review his decision in this case in view of the French and Canadian interests involved. I think that de Bernonville should have been arrested and deported to France rather than allowed to leave the country voluntarily before September 2nd.

5. Mr. Keenleyside has now repliedt that he does not see his way clear to changing their decision but if de Bernonville has not left the country he will be arrested on September 2nd. The French, at the same time, conveniently proposed that deBernonville be placed on board the French frigate, l'Aventure, which will be in Quebec and Three Rivers between the 7th and 17th September.

6. Do you agree to the course of action proposed by Mr. Keenleyside to effect de Bernonville's arrest on September 2nd, the date on which his permission to leave the coirntry voluntarily expires, and to deport him to France by placing him on board the French frigate l'Aventure, which will be at Quebec and Three Rivers between the 7th and 17th September? It was the French Embassy in Ottawa that proposed that de Bernonville be placed on board this French ship.⁸

L.B. PEARSON

⁸ Le document porte l'annotation suivante :
The following was noted on the document:
The Minister returned the memorandum with the following note: "Council discussed these cases and decided that Montel and Boussat should be allowed to remain and de Bernonville be returned to France.⁹ St. L[aurent]

⁹ Le Cabinet a pris cette décision le 1er septembre.
Cabinet reached this decision on September 1.