Dear Mr. Chance,
I refer to General Pope's dispatch No. 657 of 19th June, 1947,† and to later dispatcnes on The general subject of the documentation of Canadians in this country. These dispatches contained suggestions concerning the execution of our general policy towards Canadians who have spent the war years in Germany but did not touch upon policy itself.

2. The essence of departmental policy as it exists today appears to provide for protecting and assisting Canadians who have spent the war years in Germany only in so far as they can show that they have prized and protected their status as Canadians. This policy is logical in the sense that it provides governmental assistance to the individual in the measure in which the individual concerned showed loyalty to Canada: the loyal Canadian is repatriated at Government expense if necessary; the lukewarm Canadian stays in this country without travel documents until he can complete his own travel arrangements; and the citizenship of the patently disloyal Canadian is revoked, assuming he is a Canadian citizen by naturalization, or all Missions are advised not to give him protection or assistance if he is a natural born Canadian.

3. There are, however, three possible defects in our present policy which have become apparent in the handling of the Consular work here during the past five months.

4. The first is that we are depreciating Canadian citizenship by refusing to provide travel documents to persons whom we recognize as Canadian citizens in this country. As nationals of a victorious power, these Canadians are being administered by German authorities just like any other German national, and I have had indications from several persons whom we have recognized as Canadians but who are not in a position to pay their passage to Canada, that the German official, when he can do so without risk, tends to enjoy making things difficult for these people.

5. In addition, our present policy of refusing to grant travel documents to Canadian citizens who are not in a position to complete travel arrangements to return to Canada, will not, I think, increase The future loyalty of these persons to Canada or make them better citizens if and when they eventually return. I have on the other hand recently had positive examples of a potential danger to Canada of having such persons here in Germany, should they become embittered against our country. The Russian G.P.U.⁴⁰ are attempting to make an espionage agent out of one [...], who resides in the Russian Zone (our dispatch No. 193 of February 20th, 1947,† refers). [...] was assigned low grade espionage work which he apparently agreed to do under duress and reported to us immediately afterwards. [...]

6. The basic problem is, I think, posed by the fact that we are combining a "soft" revocation policy with a "hard" policy with respect to the issuance of travel documents. If it is decided that persons like [...] (your dispatch No. 274 of 2nd May, 19474 refers) and [...](your dispatch No. 291t of 13th May, 1947, refers) who have served in the German army against Canada, should remain Canadian citizens, it is understandable that we should not go out of our way to repatriate them or to assist them in this country. On the other hand, as long as they remain in this country without travel documents and are treated in the same way as nationals of a defeated power, the status of a Canadian citizen is debased to a certain degree and there is a danger, although admittedly very slight, of Canada's being harmed by such persons.

7. The British are not faced with the problem to the same extent that we are, in that they have relatively fewer. naturalized citizens. Their revocation policy is, I understand, soft like ours, but they are far more liberal in granting passports to British subjects and in facilitating their return to the United Kingdom. South African policy is almost identically the same as our own. Australia has a hard revocation policy, but once it has been decided not to revoke naturalization, to Australian nationality is able to obtain a British passport.

Yours sincerely,
JAMES M. WELD

⁴⁰OGPU; les services secrets de l'Union soviétique. OGPU, Secret Service of Soviet Union.