2 December 1943: Letter from Pearson to Robertson

Yet Pearson seemed unwilling to stir the pot without first knowing the full extent of censorship privileges granted to the Americans. Before initiating any kind of conversation, Pearson asked Robertson for “a copy of the note which the Department of External Affairs has presumably sent to the U.S. Embassy … informing them of the extent of their exemption from telephone censorship.”

Pearson had been conducting his own research into censorship exemptions, as he indicated that he had found a series of correspondence between the State Department and the Canadian Legation on the subject. In a circular dated March 7, 1943, the State Department had stipulated that there would be some exemption from censorship for diplomatic telephone calls, but this was to be on a “station-to-station” basis, and even then, only a limited number of clearly identified officials would be granted the exemption.

The Canadians then tried to extract further privileges from the Americans. In a reply to the State Department, the Canadians stressed both their close relationship with the Americans, and their collaborative war effort, and asked for an exemption for all listed officials at the Legation. Hearing no response from the State Department, the Canadians then assumed they were free to place calls to Ottawa without interference or monitoring.

This assumption had been made in error. Pearson expressed concern that even calls from the Legation to Ottawa were still being censored by the Americans, attaching a recent minute sheet detailing one such incident. And he once again indicated his suspicion that another American agency was also listening in on calls “for intelligence purposes.” But Pearson had little supporting evidence to support his claims, and he felt that he could not broach the subject without offending the State Department. It was a tricky situation indeed, and he closed by asking Robertson for advice on how to proceed.