Department of State Atomic Energy Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of British Commonwealth Affairs (Foster)
Subject: Exchange of Information Between Canada and the United States Relating to Atomic Energy
During the trip of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense1 to Churchill, Manitoba, last week, General A. G. L. McNaughton, Chairman of the Canadian Section of the Board, told me informally of his responsibilities as Chairman of the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board. He said that he was deeply disturbed over the present legal situation in the United States which prevented American officials and scientists concerned in atomic energy matters in this country revealing information to him and his Canadian Board. He said that before the McMahon Act there had been free interchange in both directions and each side had obviously benefited enormously. Now, however, it was a “one-way traffic” of information from Canada to the United States and he personally was very fed up. He added that this situation was not going to do Canadian-American relations any good and that he personally was indignant about it. He said that some of his fellow Board members in Canada, and other Canadian officers and scientists concerned, were advocating retaliation, but he had given them orders [Page 798] that they were to continue to give information without restriction to the Americans. He said that a number of Americans who had come to Canada to gain information had expressed themselves as “ashamed” to be in a position of asking without being able to give anything in return.
General McNaughton said that he hoped the Senate would make up its mind about Mr. Lilienthal or somebody to head the American Board2 and he added that within 24 hours of the new Chairman’s confirmation he, the General, would be on his doorstep to urge a change in the unfortunate situation relating to the exchange of information.
General McNaughton is of course a man of deep conviction but he spoke with extra feeling about this problem and he ended up by saying “I wish you would tell your State Department how strongly I feel about this”. It is worth recalling that General McNaughton is very close to Prime Minister Mackenzie King and may be assumed to have made his views known to the Prime Minister.
- For documentation on military cooperation between the United States and Canada, see vol. iii, pp. 104 ff., passim. ↩
- Reference is to Senate consideration of the nomination of David E. Lilienthal as Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission; the Senate confirmed the appointment on April 9.↩