7 May 1946: Letter from Norman Robertson to Sir Edward Travis

In this letter to Sir Edward Travis (Head of Britain's Government Code and Cipher School) Norman Robertson makes it clear that he is very interested in a Canadian takeover of HYDRA and hopes to have "more detailed suggestions on this point" soon.

Robertson then neatly fits HYDRA into larger postwar signals intelligence frameworks, referencing both the Commonwealth Signals Intelligence Conference and the United States-United Kingdom Technical Conference.

Robertson's suggested amendments to the final report of the United-States-United Kingdom Technical Conference are most likely directed towards Appendix H, "Arrangements to be Made for COMINT Communications," in which the London-Oshawa HYDRA circuit is discussed. While Robertson suggests changing the wording of the report to “London and Ottawa will control” on the basis of "consistency," he could very well also be asserting a vision of Canadian intelligence as being on a more equal, cooperative footing with its BRUSA intelligence partners.

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Hydra Communications - Policy, RG24, 1250-36 Vol. 1, Library and Archives Canada (LAC)