During the enquiry into Soviet activities in Canada, we began to give consideration to the status of an office opened in Vancouver by the Soviet Commercial Counsellor, in the summer of 1944, to facilitate the loading, repair and supply of Soviet ships carrying Mutual Aid stores from Canada to Vladivostok. So far as I know, no information came out during the enquiry pointing to the use of this office for improper activities. Formal permission was never given for its establishment as a branch of the Soviet Embassy and, as I recall the circumstances, it was regarded as a temporary arrangement only. The Soviet Ambassador discussed with me, at about the time this office was opened, the possibility of their establishing a Consulate in Vancouver, but he failed to follow this up.

We were recently surprised to learn that a property in Vancouver had been bought by the Soviet Government to accommodate the office and to furnish living quarters for some of the office staff. We heard of this first from local solicitors, but later received a formal request from the Soviet Embassy that the property should be exempted as diplomatic property from the payment of local taxes. In accordance with our regular practice with respect to property acquired by foreign governments outside the Ottawa district, we have informed the Soviet Embassy that we cannot accord tax exemption, and took this opportunity to express some doubt about the continued existence of the office. No reply has been received.

Two questions are thus raised:

(1) Should we ask the Soviet Government to close the office now that its functions (which were useful in wartime) have disappeared?

(2) Should we follow a common practice in other countries by asking all diplomatic missions which maintain "branch offices" outside Ottawa to concentrate themselves in Ottawa?

I gave Mr. Robertson the attached note about a fortnight ago, which summarizes reports from the R.C.M.P. and other Departments on the work of the Soviet office in Vancouver and on current traffic with the U.S.S.R. through that port. I am inclined to recommend that we should invite the Soviet Embassy to close the office, while leaving open, for the present, the continued maintenance by other countries of certain diplomatic officers in Montreal.¹ You may care to glance through the attached copy of a report of September 3rd† from the R.C.M.P. on the Vancouver office, before reaching a decision.

[PIÈCE JOINTE/ ENCLOSURE]

Mémorandum du sous-secrétaire d'État associé aux Affaires extérieures au sous-secrétaire d'État aux Affaires extérieures
Memorandum from Associate Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs to Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs

SECRET

[Ottawa,] September 14, 1946

We have now acquired fairly full information on the status and activities of the Soviet office in Vancouver and are in a position to decide whether we should request its closing. We have not yet had any reply from the Soviet Chargé d'Affaires to our note of August 20th,&dagger concerning his request for exemption of the premises from local taxation. In the final paragraph of this note we took the opportunity of pointing out that the maintenance of the office was "an unusual arrangement which it would be difficult to justify on a permanent basis" and asked for information on the present status and functions of the office.

It would appear from the replies received from other departments that no Soviet ships have been in Vancouver since June 1st, and according to the R.C.M.P. none are expected. Only six Soviet ships have cleared from Vancouver this year, four in the first quarter and two in the second quarter. According to the R.C.M.P. all but one of these ships cleared to load at Seattle and Portland, taking very small consignments of Canadian goods. (It is a little difficult to reconcile this information, based on the reports from the R.C.M.P. and the National Harbours Board, with the statement of the Department of Trade and Commerce that Canadian exports to the U.S.S:R. in the first six months of this year were about fifteen and a half million dollars; much of this traffic, however, may have passed through U.S. ports). The position seems to be that the original reasons for opening the office in 1944 no longer possess any validity.

According to the R.C.M.P. the current staff consists only of two Russian officials and a Canadian Secretary of Russian origin. The same report expresses the belief that very little business is now transmitted by the office. The two Soviet officials still in Vancouver are: Lukianov, described as "Representative of the Commercial Counsellor" and Gavrilov, described as "Port Engineer". The former and the Canadian Secretary are said to take a considerable interest in the Vancouver Branch of the Canadian Soviet Friendship Council, and Lukianov, who is a Ukrainian, has been concerned with the affairs of the Ukrainian Canadian Association. The information about the personnel and activities of the office contains nothing, however, in any way sinister and it is quite likely that the decision to maintain the office and to purchase premises for it was taken when the Soviet authorities confidently expected to secure a loan from Canada to finance their orders here.

I am inclined to think that we should reach a decision on this particular matter as part of a general decision on the maintenance of miscellaneous diplomatic offices outside Ottawa. The trouble about asking for the closing of all these offices is that the housing conditions here are so difficult. According to the current Diplomatic List, there are now situated in Montreal: the Belgian Counsellor's Office, the French Commercial Attaché's Office and the Office of the Norwegian Minister and Civil Air Attaché. I think that this is not a complete list and it may be that we shall find that more representatives with some title such as "Civil Air Attaché" are stationed in Montreal in order to give them diplomatic immunities while they are actually serving as representatives of their governments on the Council of PICAO. We can differentiate between the Soviet office in Vancouver and the other ones mentioned on the ground that the office was not established with our formal consent. We can also cite the action of the Soviet Government itself in closing certain offices maintained by Foreign Governments during the war outside Moscow, including two American Naval offices in Vladivostok and, I think, Leningrad.

¹ Note marginale:
¹ Marginal note: I agree. Sr. L[AURENT]