On February the 19th† you attached to a personal letter written by the Ambassa­dor to China to the Minister, an enquiry as to whether I thought the Minister might raise in Cabinet the question of the present prohibited entry of German citizens to Canada. I learned the other day that the Minister of Mines and Resources is raising this question himself. It seems to me, however, that the whole matter should be approached with caution.

2. German citizens are at present debarred from entry into Canada by Order‑in­Council P.C. 4850 of November 27, 1947, which prohibited the entry or landing in Canada of enemy aliens. The Order‑in‑Council, however, provided that exceptions could be made in cases of people who had been opposed to the Nazi regime. Rela­tively few such exceptions have been made.

3. I am told that there are large numbers of people in this country of German origin who are pressing for the admission of near relatives from Germany. Under the present law, of course, the Immigration authorities can only refuse to do any­thing with their applications. On the face of it this seems a little inhumane at this stage of the post‑war developments. I suppose it must be presumed that, but for the differences which have arisen between the Allies, a peace treaty would by now have been negotiated with Germany and some reasonable steps might by now have been taken to bring German individuals back into the human family. How long the present situation can continue and whether the Western Allies will not have sooner, perhaps rather than later, to make some settlement separate from the Eastern group, is a matter of high politics. Presumably the decision would have to be taken in concert with all the Western Allies.

4. Apart from any other consideration, if there is to be any hope of trade reviving between Germany and the rest of the world it is obvious that there must be ade­quate interchange of people who are conducting trade matters in the two countries. At present our commercial people can be granted permission to visit Germany but there is little or no traffic in the other direction. All this seems to be rather absurd and getting a little out‑moded by the march of events.

5. On the other hand, there are very real and practical aspects of this matter which suggest the wisdom of taking no very hasty action. There are, for example, large numbers of refugees who still have not been moved under the I.R.O. scheme. There are also large numbers of non‑German close relatives still waiting to come. There might be a very loud outcry against any movement of German nationals proper until it was clear that non‑Germans had been dealt with.

6. From the purely domestic political standpoint it seems to me to be a question of weighing the popularity among a group of people of admitting their relatives and the unpopularity amongst other sections of admitting Germans.

7. While the principle of "magnanimity in victory", so often the path of common sense, seems to dictate the pulling down of this barrier, it is my own personal view that this is not the moment to do it.

L[ESLIE] C[HANCE]

⁵Reid envoya cette note 'a Pearson le I I mars 1949.
Reid forwarded this memorandum to Pearson on Much 11, 1949.