https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/c51ec47601599acd2f848e344e4f7bed.pdf 54ce20a71c51ccfcaa1d777989bdbd08 PDF Text Text ♦ Docume nt dis clos e d under the Access to Inform ation Act Docume nt divulgue e n ve rtu de la Loi s ur I'acce s a.l'lnform atlon / 1954. C hairm an,C hiefs of staff CHS CG S CAS J a n 27 UufW e rg •7- fi£i C abinet C oncluaion3 of January 11. 1954. Korea: reduction i n C om m onw ealth forces The M inister of national D efence, referring to discussion at the m eeting of Septem ber 27th,1953, reported thatU .3. arm ed forces i n Korea w ere being reduced at a fai rl y rapid rate. This had obvious im plications for al lC om m onw ealth countries w ith troops in Korea. I thad previously been suggested that, pending a fi nal settlem ent of the Korean problem ,C om m onw ealth troops m ight be reduced to one infantry brigade, to w hich C anada, the U nited Kingdom and Australia w ould each contribute one battalion. The form er C om m ander of the C om m onw ealth D ivision i n Korea had now apparently expressed the view that thi3 w as im practical and that effi ci ent operation dem anded that the sam e country furnish the three battalions to m ake up the proposed brigade. I tw as anticipated that this view w ould be accepted i n the U nited Kingdom and con sideration should now be given to the sort of contribution C anada could best m ake to the U nited H ations farces rem aining i n Korea for the tim e being. I Perhaps the best solution w ould be for C anada to m aintain i ts mi l i tary hospital i n the Korean theatre as long as required and, i n addition, provide certain engineering and ordnance faci l i ti es for Coim onw ealth troops. The R oyal C anadian N avy also had three ters and these could be kept there for destroyers i n Korean som e tim e w ithout any di ffi cul ty. The Secretary of State for external Affairs fel t that C anada should w ithdraw i ts troops from Korea as rapidly as possible, keeping i n m ind the needs of the U nited N ations Co. juander. The U nited States obviously, w ould, have to m aintain troops i n Korea for a longer period than other U .N . countries because of the bilateral defence arrangem ents i thad entered into w ith the R epublic of Korea. The prisoners of w ar w ho did not w ant to return to thei r country of origin presented, of course, the m ain im m ediate di ffi cul ty. At the present tim e they w ere under custody of Indian troops. There w ere approxim ately 23,000 C hinese and N orth Korean prisoners and a few hundred South Korean and U nited N ations troops w ho did not w ant to return to their respective countries 000449 �♦ Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document drvulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a /'information >* 2 - of origin. The question as to w hat should be done w ith the 23,000 form er C om m unist soldiers, w hen released, created a real problem w hich w as aggravated by the fact that India had asked to be relieved of i ts guardianship functions on January 22nd* The C abinet noted the reports by the M inister of N ational D efence and the Secretary of State for External Affairs on the progressive dem ilitarization of South Korea, and agreed that the totalnum ber of C anadian m i l i tary personnel i n that area should be gradually reduced, provided this w ere done consistently w ith C anadian obligations to the U nited N ations* w . k . v/r1 gilt C hief Secretary 000450 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDKW00684 Title A name given to the resource CDKW00684 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Korean War - Reaction by Canada," RG24-B-1-a, vol. 20811, 7-10-5, part 3, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource Korean War Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en