Record of an informal meeting held in Mr. Macdonnell's Office, Room 133, East Block, Friday, March' 15th, 1946, to discuss the question of reparation from Japan.

Present were:

Mr. R. M. Macdonnell, Department of External Affairs - Mr. S. D. Pierce,. Department of External Affairs
Mr. G. Harvey, Department of Trade and Commerce
Mr. A. Neal, Department of Trade and Commerce
Mr. H. S. Hall, Department of Trade and Commerce
Mr. K. Burbridge, Custodian's Office
Mr. G. Ignatieff, Department of External Affairs
Mr.. J. Maybee, Department of External Affairs - Mr. J. H. Warren, Department of External Affairs.

Mr. Macdonnell explained that the need for the meeting arose out of the desirability of giving some guidance to Mr. Pearson, Canadian delegate, and Mr. Norman, his alternate, to the Far Eastern Commission, with :particular reference to the work of the Committee on Reparations set up under the Commission which is, to meet in Washington on March 21st.

It was pointed out that as the shares of , reparation from Japan would probably be allocated on the basis of contribution to the Pacific war, the Canadian portion would no doubt be relatively modest.

Mr. Burbridge of the Custodian's Office stated that the Canadian Government holds Japanese assets to the approximate value of three million; dollars, and that claims filed with the Custodian against Japan without advertisement amount to approximately, eleven million dollars. In this connection Mr. Burbridge observed that the total of eleven million dollars probably represented an inflated figure, since the majority of the claims registered were of the nature of statements of property and assets held in Japan, or in territories occupied by Japan, before the war, and may, therefore, bear little relation to actual damage sustained. It was the tentative view of the meeting that, having regard to the excess of claims over assets held by the Custodian, no steps should be taken at this stage to waive any part of the Canadian claim to reparation arising out of the war with Japan. In this connection the meeting was told that our delegate to the Far Eastern Commission had already been advised that the Government intends to retain any Japanese assets held by Canadian Custodian.

Mr. Macdonnell informed the meeting that the question of reparation from Japan had been taken up by the United Kingdom Government with the various members of the Commonwealth. The United Kingdom Government had suggested that discussion on the allocation of Japanese reparations as between different claimant countries should not, as in the case of reparation from Germany, be based on statistical estimates of respective war efforts and war losses. In the United Kingdom view a statistical comparison would be unreliable. As an alternative procedure the United Kingdom had proposed negotiation on a political basis. However, in the case of members of the Commonwealth some prior discussion might take place using a statistical basis of comparison (i.e. on the lines of data assembled for German reparations).

It was the opinion of the meeting that a reply should be made to the United Kingdom Government to the effect that, while the Canadian Government is inclined to agree that a statistical comparison is difficult with certain countries, and that to some extent the shares of various claimant nations might have to be decided on a broad political basis; the Canadian Government is, nevertheless, of the opinion that a statistical comparison would be useful not only as between members of the Commonwealth but with other interested countries, equally capable of furnishing reliable statistics, such as the United States, The Netherlands, and France.

The suggestion that a Commonwealth discussion should be. undertaken before meeting the other countries was not favourably received by the meeting, as it was thought that such a Conference might give the undesirable impression that the • Dominions were entering negotiations as a Commonwealth "bloc", and the opinion was expressed that the Far Eastern Commission was the most suitable place to pursue this matter.

It was the view of the meeting that some of the factors which should be taken into account in the preparation of a statistical summary of Canadian contribution to the war against Japan were as follows:

1. Mutual Aid to China, Australia, India.
2. Mutual Aid to U.S.S.R. after May 7th, 1945.
3. Cost of maintaining forces in the Far East and on the West Coast of Canada.
4. Commercial losses in the East attributable to the Pacific war.
5. Relief sent to Allied nationals in the Far East during the war.

It was agreed that the Bureau of Statistics should be asked to prepare a statistical summary of the Canadian war effort against Japan, along the lines used in the preparation of a similar study regarding the Canadian claim to reparation from Germany, taking into consideration the factors noted above.