I attach? for your information an advance text of a joint statement which will be issued at 4 o'clock Monday, January 19 in the names of the Minister of National Defence and the United States Secretary of Defence.⁴⁷⁹ This Department was not consulted in the drafting of the attached statement. I thought, however, you should be aware that the statement is to be released, in the event that the subject matter should become the object of questions in the House. A brief outline of our understanding of what is to take place is set out below.

2. We understand that on October 8, 1958, Mr. Pearkes raised in Cabinet the question of "Canadianization of the DEW Line." Cabinet's decision is recorded in the following terms: "Steps should be taken to replace USAF operators at the four main DEW Line stations by RCAF operators." It is to be recalled that the former government informed the United States authorities through the PJBD in January 1957 that the Canadian Government believed that the USAF should continue to man and operate that portion of the DEW Line in Canada until 1963, subject to the understanding that Canada would be free to review this decision if conditions were to change. As a result of Cabinet's decision on October 8, the Minister of National Defence authorized the RCAF member of the PJBD to inform the Board at its October meeting of the Canadian Government's intentions. The RCAF member's statement indicated that whereas at the present time at each of the four main DEW Line stations in Canada there were five USAF officers and one RCAF officer, the Canadian Government believed that this situation should be reversed and that there should be five RCAF officers and one USAF liaison officer. The Canadian Government believed that the commanding officer at each main base should be a Canadian. It was indicated that there was no intention of suggesting a change in the existing contractual arrangements for the operation of the line, i.e. the maintenance and operations contract between the Federal Electric Company and the USAF would remain unchanged. It was for this reason that the Canadian proposal envisaged the stationing of one USAF officer at each site.

3. The attached statement, we believe, must reflect the agreement which has now been reached between the RCAF and the USAF on the basis of the Canadian proposals put forward in October. If that is the case, it would mean that some twenty RCAF officers will gradually take over operational responsibilities from USAF officers at the four main stations of the DEW Line which are situated in Canada.

N.A. R[OBERTSON]

⁴⁷⁹Voir/See Canada, Department of External Affairs, Canadian Weekly Bulletin, Volume 14, No. 4 (January 28, 1959), p. 6.