Sir,
I refer to my despatches No. 851 of October 29¹⁸ and 911 of December 18t and to your despatches No. 485 of November 26,¹⁹ 593 of December 16,f and 16 of January 7 &dagger concerning the exchange of information with the Soviet Union.

2. In replying to my circular note of December 16 (a copy of which was attached to my despatch No. 91 I ), a number of government departments asked whether the procedure which we suggested regarding the withholding of Canadian material until the Soviet authorities reciprocate, should also apply to requests for publicly available governmental material. We re‑examined the problem in the light of that difficulty and suggested to government departments in notes dated February 26t that the following policy might be adopted.

3. All documents destined for the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, for Soviet govern­ment departments, of for Soviet non‑governmental organizations would be chan­nelled through the Department of External Affairs, since it is desirable that we should keep under observation the various request which the Soviet authorities might make for government material so as to learn their interests and to keep track of the amount and type of material which they are receiving.

4. Documents which are not actually on any list of publicly available material (even though their subject‑matter may be publicly available in other documents) would be withheld, pending reciprocation by the Soviet authorities.

5. Documents which are publicly available would be transmitted by this Depart­ment to the Soviet authorities without any conditions being imposed, but would be accompanied by a request, whenever possible, for something in return. Thus, with­out "bargaining", we would at least make it clear to the Soviet authorities that we expected similar treatment.

6. This plan would not be effective if satellites of the Soviet Union were excluded. We suggested, therefore, that requests for material from Poland, Czecho­slovakia, Yugoslavia, and any other Communist states should be treated in the same way as requests from the U.S.S.R.

7. In line with this policy, we sent most government departments, under cover of a note, dated February 28, the list of Soviet periodicals which you forwarded to us with your despatch No. 593 of December 16, and requested the departments to inform us if there were any periodicals which they would like the Embassy to try to obtain.

8. I attach for your information a copy of my letters of February 26t and 28t to the President of the National Research Council, together with a copy of his letter of December 29 replying to our letter of December 16.²⁰ The notes to other govern­ment departments are, generally, on similar lines. Since it was agreed that the Department of National Defence would continue to deal directly with the Soviet Service Attach6s (see our despatch No. 2 of January 5)t, we notified that depart­ment of our revised policy for their information only. You will remember that we had decided (see paragraph 7 of our despatch No. 851) that the supply of "cultural" material (films, art exhibits, etc.) would be discontinued. We have left this policy open to amendment so far as cultural publications are concerned in view of our general policy of continuing to exchange information if we can ensure reciprocity. I do not think that we will at any time be able to organize satisfactorily an exchange of films or exhibits. Our policy in that field, therefore, will remain unchanged. 1 attach for your information a copy of our note of February 9 to the National Film Board. &dagger I have also informed the Departments of Mines and Resources, Agriculture, Fisheries, and the National Research Council that the Soviet publications listed in your despatch No. 16 have been bought on their behalf and that the remaining publications ordered (listed in your despatch No. 593) have not yet been accepted. As usual, the expenses for these publications should be quoted in your account to 313‑294 and shown as a charge against the department concerned.

9. We also requested the government departments concerned to give us a list of the publications which they are sending regularly to governmental or non‑govern­mental organizations of the Soviet Union and its satellites. The list for the Soviet Union will be sent to you as soon as all replies have been received.

10. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics had sent us previously a list of the publi­cations which were being transmitted to various Soviet agencies. l attach a copy of this list. &dagger The Dominion Bureau of Statistics has been requested to transmit these publications through the Department of External Affairs in accordance with our note of February 26.

11. I also attach a list of the Soviet organizations. &dagger which are on the mailing list for the Canadian Geographical Journal. We do not intend to suggest to the Cana­dian Geographical Society that we should assist in the transmission of their journal but we will propose that they might wish to ask the Soviet agencies for some simi­lar material in return in accordance with the policy dealt with in paragraph 9 of our despatch No. 853.

12. In your despatch No. 485 you raise a number of questions. The Information Division has noted your request (paragraph 5) for more contributions for the Britanski Soytuznik. The question in your paragraph 6 has been dealt with in our despatch No. 69 of February 11. &dagger Sections (i), (ii) and (iii) of paragraph 8 are being dealt with in separate despatches.t No action should be taken with regard to the Canadian Weekly Bulletin (Section (iv) until the Soviet Government answers your note. With reference to Section (v), I refer you to circular document B. I I I of June 18, 1948, &dagger in which the allotment for books for the Embassy in Moscow is set at $200. Any purchases which you may make for the Embassy will be recovered, I trust, by this authorization. Any purchases made at the request of other government departments should be charged to suspense as mentioned in paragraph 8 above. For the present, at any rate, no publication should be bought for other government departments without their prior consent, with the exception of material for the Department of Mines and Resources (Mr. Matthews' letter of December 30th, 1948, refers).†

13. The subscriptions for Soviet periodicals which you have placed for the Embassy are approved.

14. I should be grateful for your comments on the policy dealt with in this despatch.

I have, etc.,
T.W.L. MACDERMOT
for the Secretary of State
for External Affairs

¹⁸Voir/See: Volume 14, Document 1092.

¹⁹Voir/See: Volume 14, Document 1094.

²⁰Voir/See: Volume 14, Document 1095.