Sir:

I have read with much interest your despatch No. 245¹ of December 13th, commenting on views expressed by the Right Honourable Vincent Massey as to the desirability, or undesirability, of Canada's joining the Pan-American Union.² You deal with Mr. Massey's arguments against joining point by point. I am taking the liberty of making certain comments on your points not through any desire to support Mr. Massey's arguments, but to give you the other side of the question.

I think that what Mr. Massey had in mind when he stressed that membership in the Pan-American Union would detract from our status was possibly that participation in the meetings of the Union and in the differences, that sometimes ensue, would jeopardize that position of superiority that we now hold because of our aloofness from petty Pan-American affairs and our concentration on more important international matters. Or perhaps he may have thought that we would so often support the United States position in Pan-American questions that our prestige with Latin American countries, now so high, would be prejudiced. You will, I know, be the first to agree that one reason for our present high position is our separation from United States attitudes and policies, sometimes unwise and sometimes unpopular, toward Latin American countries. I think Mr. Massey may have had this in mind also when he stated that membership in the Pan-American Union might embarrass us more than membership in the United Nations. As long as differences in the Pan-American Union tend to result in the United States versus the rest, we would he in a difficult position. As a North American English and French speaking country so closely related to and cooperating with the United States, it would be difficult for us to oppose her openly in hemispheric questions, but if we were ever considered as normally inclined to support United States policies vis-à-vis the Latin American countries, then our position and prestige with those countries would suffer. This, of course, need not happen, but there is a danger that it might.

It is true, of course, that we already take part, as you state, in numerous technical organizations which are part of the Pan-American system, but Mr. Massey, and those who feel like him, might reply that we have very little indeed to show for our membership in such organizations, many of which are governed by considerations of prestige more than of service.

Your explanation of the differences between a permanent Secretariat for the British Commonwealth and a permanent Pan-American accord in so far as the effect on Canadian foreign policy is concerned, has a certain validity based on our own past experiences. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a part of the Canadian people would support Mr. Massey's position and contrast our opposition to the establishment of Commonwealth machinery with our hearty acceptance of apparently similar machinery through the Pan-American Union. They would say that with the independence of the members of the Commonwealth now recognized on every side, there would be no greater danger of a centralized foreign policy from such consultative machinery than from membership in the Pan-American Union.

I think myself that the most important argument against joining the Pan-American Union is that air transport has completely altered Canada's geographic position vis-à-vis other countries. We are now, of course, closer to Holland and Denmark and Norway than we are to Chile and the Argentine, and our political affinity is certainly as great with those countries as with Latin American dictatorships. It might well, therefore, be argued that for Canada a northern union of democratic states would be of greater value and interest than association with Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, etc. I do not, of course, unreservedly accept this argument myself, but it is one which, I think, has some force behind it. In actual fact it is at least arguable whether membership in the Pan-American Union would confer any very real advantages or disadvantages on Canada.

I have etc.
L.B. PEARSON
for Secretary of State for External Affairs

¹Voir le volume 12, document 704./See Volume 12, Document 704.

²Massey, chancelier, Université de Toronto, prit la parole devant le Canadian Club de Winnipeg le 4 novembre.
Massey, Chancellor, University of Toronto, addressed the Canadian Club of Winnipeg on Noventber 4.