When Dr. Zuleta, the Foreign Minister of Colombia, called on the Minister on Monday afternoon, July 18, he raised with him the question of the establishment of direct diplomatic relations between Colombia and Canada. Colombia has raised this previously in 1942, 1946 and 1948. Mr. Menzies, who was present at the interview, is preparing a note for you on the subject. The Minister informed Dr. Zuleta that, if he wished to pursue the matter further, he might take it up with me. As a result, Dr. Zuleta called on me this morning at 10:00 o'clock. He first of all expressed his very great gratitude to the Canadian Government for the assistance which had been given him in arranging for a group of Canadian officials to visit Colombia to assist the Colombian Government in its efforts to improve their electoral system. I replied that the Canadian Government had been happy to assist in putting him in touch with the Canadian officials concerned and that we appreciated very greatly this demonstration of esteem for Canada which Colombia had shown in turning to Canadians for this purpose.

2. Dr. Zuleta then went on to raise the question of diplomatic relations. He referred to his conversation with the Minister. He recalled that previously we had been unable to agree to Colombia's proposal because of the shortage of personnel and budgetary difficulties. He had understood from the Minister that shortage of personnel was no longer so great an obstacle. He stressed how important he consid¬ered the establishment of closer relations and particularly closer diplomatic rela tions was to both countries. During the past few years, the United Nations and a very large number of international organizations have been established. In view of the sympathy between Canada and Colombia and of Canada's importance, Colom¬bia wished to make even more effective in future the exchange of views between our two countries on the problems which arise in the organizations. He mentioned in particular, questions of elections to the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council and the governing bodies of other international organizations. Colombia had found that the establishment of direct diplomatic relations facilitated greatly these useful exchanges of views with other countries. Dr. Zuleta hoped that it might be possible for Canada within the next year to open a mission in Colombia. He suggested that further discussions on this matter might be pursued through our Embassies in Washington.

3. I said that as both the Minister and Mr. Claxton had already assured him we in Canada are very conscious of the great importance to Canada of closer relations of all kinds with Colombia. We regretted, for the reasons which he had mentioned, that it had not been possible for us hitherto to establish a diplomatic mission in Colombia. I said that I could assure him that the Minister hoped very much that it might be possible for us to make arrangements for the establishment of a diplo¬matic mission in Colombia in the near future. The Minister had mentioned to me his conversation with Dr. Zuleta on the subject; since he was about to leave Ottawa for two weeks it had not been possible for him to discuss the matter at length with me before his departure. We would, however, raise the matter with him immedi¬ately upon his return to Ottawa and he would, no doubt, wish to discuss it with his colleagues in Cabinet. I expressed my great regret that, in the absence of the Minis¬ter, it was not possible to be more specific than this, but I reiterated the hope of the Department that in the near future we could establish direct diplomatic relations with Colombia. Speaking personally, I said that I thought that his suggestion that this might be done during the year 1950 might well prove to be practicable³

4. During the discussion, I commented on his remarks on the desirability of exchanges of views between our two countries on matters coming before interna¬tional organizations. I said that he, like us, must have been impressed by the fact that the democratic group of countries had, in the past, suffered in the United Nations from the fact that there had not been effective enough preliminary discus¬sion of questions among them. We felt it was important that efforts should be made in future by the democratic countries to work out between them general agreement on common policy on important issues. We have been very happy in the past with the excellent relations between our Delegations and I shared his hope that these relations will be even more intimate in the future.

5. Dr. Zuleta, who had been President of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations and Chairman of the Headquarters Committee spoke in glowing terms of his colleague on these two bodies, Mr. Wilgress. I said that I knew that Mr. Wilgress reciprocated his feelings and that I would be most happy to inform Mr. Wilgress of Dr. Zuleta's kind remarks.

E[SCOTT] R[EID]

³Note marginale/Marginal note:
Mr. Reid. My feeling is that the government will not be enthusiastic about a recommendation to open a Mission in Colombia in the near future nor indeed any new Missions anywhere with[out] pretty specific reasons based on pretty evident, tangible and immediate Canadian inter¬est shown. They are already committed to Pakistan which is a special case, but any other propos¬als will be very sceptically received. The memo to the Minister sh[oul]d state the case for C[olombia] in concrete terms with special reference to any commercial aspects A. H[eeney]