Dear Mr. MacKinnon,
Thank you for sending me a translation and the original of the letter† which you received from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As you suggested, I was particularly interested in the Minister's references in the fourth and fifth paragraphs of his letter to the intention of his Government "To accredit a diplomatic and consular representation in Canada sufficient in number and prestige to realize with the maximum benefit the desired economic and cultural interchange." We have been discussing, on several occasions, with Colombian diplomats the problem of an exchange of missions. They are undoubtedly most anxious to effect an exchange at the earliest possible moment and, under instructions, their Ambassadors have raised the question with our Ambassadors in Peru and Brazil, while the question was previously raised at their request with the British Ambassador in Colombia. On each occasion, the most recent being in January of this year, we have been obliged to express our deep regret at being unable to open the mission at the present time. At the same time, we pointed out to our own Ambassadors that we recognize Colombia's position as being important in Latin America and have rated it and Uruguay as being the two countries which should next receive consideration in Latin America. Up to the present, we have not had any recent overtures of the kind suggested by the Foreign Minister in his letter to you.

For your information, I should perhaps explain that the chief difficulty impeding our exchange of missions is the problem of meeting our prior commitments in Europe. During the war, we could accredit a single Minister to the Allied Governments then resident in London. With their return to their home countries, that became impossible. We have been able, as you know, to meet our obligations to France, Belgium, Holland, Greece and Norway. We have still to send missions to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Poland, while three neutral countries, Sweden, Turkey and Switzerland have missions here and are naturally expecting reciprocal action on our part as soon as possible. Although we have added over forty officers, chosen from the Armed Services, to our departmental strength since April, 1944, we are still handicapped in providing junior personnel for existing missions with increased duties and for new missions as they are opened. There is also the question of securing the best possible type of representation to head these missions. At the present time we must find heads of missions or High Commissioners for the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Chile.

I have written at some length on this question because I appreciate your interest in the expansion of diplomatic representation abroad, and because of your visits and contacts in Latin America you are liable to be asked on more than one occasion the position of this Department.

Yours sincerely,
N. A. ROBERTSON