CDFB00045. 22 December 1964. Memorandum to Inspector L.R. Parent Regarding Featherbed.

This memorandum summarized and analyzed the history of Communist affiliation and/or sympathies of numerous individuals. Notably, Robert Broughton Bryce, the deputy minister of finance, had previously denied in 1957 being a member of a Communist study group during his time at Harvard University, saying instead that he had been in a “[John Maynard] Keynes Group.” He also said he did not remember Herbert Norman’s presence at the group’s meetings. Although both Prime Ministers Louis St. Laurent and John Diefenbaker accepted his explanation, this memo denounced it as a lie. Testimony before the United States Un-American Hearings revealed that the study group was headed by a member of the Communist Party of Japan, and that Bryce and Norman were two of the group’s key instructors. Although suspected individuals were those in senior government positions, the personal files of government employees were inaccessible to the RCMP once those officials reached a certain level of seniority. The reason is unclear. But as a result, Featherbed’s approach should be to look into earlier histories of suspected individuals, as that information was still available, to determine whether they harboured Communist sympathies.