Following upon telegrams from Canada House and our Embassy in Washington⁵⁸¹ that disturbing political events - both internal and external - were taking place in Laos, I received the visit of Mr. D.R. Carlson of the American Embassy who came to inform us of the military situation on the Lao-North Vietnamese frontier and to express the hope that Canada would do what it could to "forestall" any attempt to use the present situation to try and reconvene the International Supervisory Commission in Laos.

2. According to the American Embassy in Vientiane, a North Vietnamese company has been entrenched 5 kilometers inside Savannakhet Province near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, since December 14 and has rebuffed attempts by Laotian officers to parley. On December 31 Pham Van Dong sent a letter to Phoui Sananikone, the Laotian Prime Minister, complaining about violations of the North Vietnamese territory by Laotian aircraft and military units. Phoui replied forcefully, denying all the allegations, and has had a list of North Vietnamese incursions into Laos prepared, to be sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for distribution.

3. The Laotian Foreign Minister told the American Ambassador that the North Vietnamese movements of troops were probably intended to help the Neo Lao Hac Xat during a critical period when the possibility of an Army coup, which would presumably dispose summarily of the NLHX, is rumoured in Vientiane, and also to create a situation requiring the return to Laos of the International Commission.

4. It is in this latter connection that Mr. Carlson requested assurances that the Canadian Government would "forestall" any move in this direction. I repeated to him our basic stand on the matter: that the Laos Commission having been adjourned sine die, it could not be recon-vened unless, as our Commissioner in Laos put it at the time of the dissolution, the rights of the Government of Laos were taken into account. The recent developments in Laos did not, in our preliminary view, warrant a reconvening of the Commission and we have no intention of agreeing that the Commission become involved with border disputes. It would not seem appropriate or useful, however, for us to take the initiative and approach any other party (i.e., the Indians) at this time in an effort to forestall a possible request.

R.E. COLLINS

⁵⁸¹London telegram 11, January 2,? and Washington telegram 7, January 2.?