https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/0de80a473a57681f933167c166b0a188.pdf 29b541dff9663322267364ba21568e9b PDF Text Text Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a f information arxfcis? OTTAWA, l!arch 1 9 t h , 1947. lxzmtiamu FOR G/C emit Eoreuith aro oovcn oopioo of tho ad hoc oomittco'o report on tho question of tranonlttloc all eoveriiEont teloGraph traffio oot\7ocn Canada and the United KlnGdcn and tJithln Canada by Oorvico cireuito* sould you please piaco those boforo tho Chiofa of Staff Gosnittoo for their eonoidoration, E/J.2. Gill 000195 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a f information t SECRET J-MVIORANDUM FOR CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE: Use'of Service facilities for government telegraph traffic 'J: I Submitted herewith is the report of 'the ad hoc committee appointed to study the possibility of sending all government telegraph traffic over the communication facilities of the Department of National Defence. 2. The committee saw serious objections to making it mandatory that all government traffic should be handled by Service networks. On traffic to the United Kingdom it would require special distribution arrangements, some new installations and increases in Service personnel, and would conflict with existing agreements with the U.K. and other Commonwealth governments. On internal traffic the Services are not in a position to handle all. government traffic without increases in personnel and without either extending their present system or working out somewhat complicated accounting procedures with the commercial telegraph companies. 3. The committee was not able to-present the financial implications of the scheme. They were of the opinion that it could not be justified on the grounds of economy since the corporation operating external services is to be government owned and one of the two commercial telegraph companies in Canada is now government owned. The diversion of traffic from these organizations would not, therefore, result in a direct saving to the government. 4. The committee noted that in present conditions a fair volume of civilian government traffic is carried over the Service circuits and they see no reason why this practice should not be continued or even extended where such an arrangement offers mutual advantages. The problems raised, however, in making this practice mandatory are out of all proportion to the benefits that would accrue therefrom. ' 5. The conclusions in the attached report lead the committee to recommend that- the transmission of civilian government telegraph traffic over the Service circuits be not obligatory but continue to be a matter for interdepartmental arrangement. ;.W.T. Gill P r i v y Council O f f i c e , March 1 7 t h , 1947. \%% 000196 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a f information t m SECRET USE OF SERVICE FACILITIES FOR GOVERNMENT TELEGRAPH TRAFFIC v I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Chiefs of Staff Committee at their meeting of February 4th appointed a committee to examine and report on the possibility of using Service communication facilities for handling all government telegraph traffic: v (a) between Canada and the U.K. (b) within Canada. 2. This committee, composed of the Director of Signals of each Service, Mr. Crean of External Affairs and Mr. Gill of the Privy Council Office, has-met and considered in a broad way the two distinct questions, and they report as follows. II. CANADA-UNITED KINGDOM Description of Service facilities 3. According to present plans the following facilities will be operated by the Services between Canada and the U.K.: (a) Oshawa to Foreign Office, U.K. - 8 channels multiplex 100 KW. Canadian end operated by Army. United Kingdom end operated by Foreign Office. (b) Ottawa to Air Ministry, Stanbridge, U.K. 6 channels single side band, 20 KW, Canadian end operated by R.C.A.F. (c) Halifax to the Admiralty, U.K. - single channel teletype",. 10 KW. Canadian end operated by R.C.N. 4. • Of these facilities the wireless station at Oshawa is to be transferred on April 1, 1947, from United Kingdom ownership (Foreign Office) to Canadian government ownership, and is to be operated by Army. The terms of this agreement are that the station should handle U.K. Foreign Office traffic, External Affairs traffic with the Canadian High Commissioner's Office in London and with the Dominions Office, and traffic between the Office of the United Kingdom High Commissioner in Ottawa and the Dominions Office. Its main purpose, however, is to . carry special Foreign Office traffic, i.e., Signals Intelligence between Washington and London, and between Ottawa and London, The terms of the transfer do not include its use for other traffic. While the eight channels, )0 000197 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a f information - 2 which will be available when the- new transmitter is installed, might, at first sight, appear excessive, the standardization of cypher facilities, which is taking place between the interested United States and United Kingdom authorities, will, it is estimated, ensure full use of the eight channels for Signals Intelligence traffic and traffic between the users outlined above. 5. In view of the anticipated volume of Signal Intelligence traffic, U.K. authorities have pressed for the use of two of the six channels listed in (b) and it is the present intention to reserve these for this purpose. In addition, one is needed for maintenance and general reserve purposes. All facilities listed in (c) are required for Naval Services and are unsuitable for general traffic. This leaves three channels available for general government traffic.. These three channels have a combined capacity of approximately 40,000,000 groups per year, in each direction. Estimated volume ,6. estimated Services) 7,000,000 and plain From figures available to the Committee it is that the government traffic (excluding Armed between Canada and the U.K. might perhaps total word groups per year, made up of cypher, code languages messages. 7. Of this volume approximately 525,000 groups comprise the cypher traffic from External Affairs to the Dominions Office and the Canadian High Commissioner's Office. This represents the total cypher traffic to London originated by civilian departments. arrangements are being made to carry this traffic over the OshawaForeign Office circuit. Effect of scheme on plan to nationalize. external'communications services 8. As part of a re-organization of Commonwealth telecommunication services the Canadian government has agreed to nationalize their external services by acquiring the assets (excluding manufacturing) of Canadian Marconi Company and the facilities, in Canada, of Cable and Wireless Limited. This plan, it is expected, will be carried out within the next two years. t 9. The plan involves the pooling of surplus revenues, by the Canadian corporation with a Commonwealth Telecommunication Board and after Canada's share of the upkeep of the Board and any deficit arising from the operation of the cable system is borne, the net surplus would be returnable to the Canadian corporation. 10. The chief considerations which the Canadian government had in mind in agreeing to participate in this re-organization was to remove the causes of friction between the U.K. and the U.S. in connection with telecommunications and thus avoid a rate war which otherwise appeared likely. It was generally agreed that this type of re-organization would achieve this object and at the same time preserve flexibility in the transmission of messages, which ensures the greatest advantages during peace and war. �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a (information - -o 11. The proposal to use Service facilities for all government traffic would divert some traffic from the national system but it is difficult to estimate the effect. There is no doubt, however, that the scheme would be regarded by the other Commonwealth governments as contrary to the spirit of the agreement made by all Commonwealth governments with regard to the re-organization. Operational arrangements 12. Canadian government traffic destined for the U.K. would be handed into the Joint Signals Office at Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, This would be done either by domestic telegram transmitted over commercial or Service facilities or In the case of messages originating in Ottawa, by runner. 13. The traffic would be received in the U.K. at the Air Ministry Signals Centre, Stanbridge. From there arrangements would have to be made for Its onward transmission or delivery to the addressee. This might possibly be done by: • . (a) relay to any point in the U.K. over their defence teleprinter network; (b) terminate one channel at Canada House, London, in lieu of Stanbridge; (c) terminate one channel in the proposed Services Joint Signals Office, London. 14. Arrangements such as those described in (a) above would require concurrence of the U.K. authorities and would probably be opposed as that circuit is at present restricted to military traffic only. The second alternative outlined in (b) above would require additional space at Canada House to accommodate the equipment as well as operating and distribution personnel, The committee understands that this space is not presently available and would be difficult to secure. The third alternative outlined in (c) would require additional personnel to permit distribution of local messages and possibly some additional space in the new quarters of the Canadian Joint Liaison Officers. Either (b) or (c) involve financial accounting arrangements where messages are passed to civil telegraph company for delivery outside the London area. Conclusions 15. In the light of the above considerations, the committee concludes that: (a) . the equipment capacity of the Service system would be adequate to handle all government traffic; (b) adoption of the scheme would require: �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a f information • - (i) (ii) 4 minor increases in Service establishments in Canada and substantial personnel increases in Joint Service Signals Centre, London; concurrence of U.K. authorities who .operate terminals in U.K.; and, (iii) arrangements for the distribution of messages in the U.K. end; (c) the scheme would divert some traffic from the "national corporation" which the government proposes to set up, and it would be contrary to the spirit of the agreement made with the other Commonwealth countries; III. (d) the financial aspects of the problem cannot be reported upon without undertaking a detailed study; it should, however, be pointed out that when external communications are nationalized, any saving which might be brought about by the present scheme would be largely nullified since the government would own the company operating the external telecommunications services; (e) the scheme offers advantages to the Services in peacetime by increasing the volume of traffic handled and thereby improving the training value and general efficiency of their system; however, these advantages might be offset by disadvantages to the civilian departments since in the event of emergency their traffic would inevitably be accorded a low priority in ' relation to Service traffic and they might have to fall back on commercial circuits; and, (f) the principle of having the Department of National Defence provide services for civilian departments or to undertake activities which could be carried out under civilian auspices is one which appears contrary to government policy and the provision of funds for non-Service activities in the Defence Department estimates-might well conflict with the interests of the Armed Services. . . TRAFFIC WITHIK CANADA 16. The Department of National Defence is planning to operate facilities within Canada which will serve the . Northwest Territories and the-following principal cen-tres: Summers id e Goose Bay Sydney Halifax Dartmouth Greenwood Moncton Aylmer, On t, Trenton Winnipeg Churchill Rivers Shilo ' Regina ,SM 000200 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a {'information t - 5 Fredricton Quebec City Montreal Ottawa Kingston Toronto Oakville London Camp Borden Clinton Centralia Edmonton Calgary Fort St. John Vancouver Victoria Fort Nelson 7/atson Lake Chilliwack Whi tenors e. (Washington," D.C.) 18. The following places having a population in excess of 20,000 will not be served by the system: Chariottetown Three Rivers Sherbrooke Shawinigan Falls Oshawa Peterboro Niagara Falls St. Catharines Hamilton Guelph Kitchener Windsor Sudbury Timmins Sault Ste. Marie Fort William Port Arthur Moose Jaw Saskatoon New Westminster. Traffic over Service circuits 19. . There were some 626,000 messages transmitted over Service circuits in 1946, of which 469,000 were from the Department of National Defence and some 157,000 from other departments. A reasonable estimate of the volume, if all government traffic (to points served by the system) were put over these circuits, is about 2,000,000 messages per year which is well within the 'capaciti^ of the system. Operating arrangements 20. General government traffic is now accepted for transmission over the Service network if the point of destination is served by it. If not, it is turned over to one of the commercial landline companies at the point of origin. Government messages addressed to non-government organizations are permitted over the Service system but the latter may not originate a message. 21. To provide a more complete service throughout the country it would be necessary:, (a) to integrate operations with the landline companies so as to permit the Service system to accept traffic to the point nearest the destination and to turn it over to the landline companies for onward transmission; this would call for a complicated accounting arrangement and agreement of the commercial companies; or, (b) to extend the system to give more complete coverage; this would tend to build up a competitive system to the landline companies, and this could not be justified on traffic considerations. ^ 000201 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act - V Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a {'information* I - 6 Conclusions 22. In the light of the above considerations, the committee concludes that: (a) the equipment capacity of the Service system would be adequate to handle all government traffic to points served by the system but complete coverage is not provided; (b) the Service system is well suited for handling certain types of government traffic and is, in fact, doing so at the present time; (c) the scheme would require either an expansion of the system to give complete coverage or a closer integration with commercial companies for the transfer of traffic between the Service • and commercial systems; IV. (d) the financial aspects of the problem cannot be reported upon without undertaking: a detailed study; it should, however, be pointed out that one of the two landline companies is government operated and diversion of traffic from C.N.T. would not result in a direct saving to the government; (e) the scheme would require increases in Service manpower at various centres across Canada, the extent of which could not be estimated without further detailed study; unless these increases were permitted over and above present manpower ceilings, they would not appear to be in the general interests of the Services; and, (f) the principle of having the Department of . National Defence provide services for civilian departments or to undertake activities which could be carried out under civilian auspices is one which appears contrary to government policy and the provision of funds for non- Service activities in the Defence Department estimates might well conflict with the interests of the Armed Services, . . y / ' , i * RECOMMENDATION . t h & ^ef°r (.L.«. u\ / 2 3 , It is apparent f r o m the above,that some c i v i l i a n government traffic is being carried over Service circuits and t h e committee sees n o reason w h y this p r a c tice should n o t be continued or even extended in i n d i v i dual cases where it is of mutual b e n e f i t . T h e committee d o e s , h o w e v e r , see serious objections to m a k i n g it m a n dator y that all government traffic be handled by t h e Service s y s t e m s , and they recommend strongly against such a policy . E.W.T . G i l l , Chairman. Privy C o u n c i l Office, March 17th, 1947. iS' 000202 � 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/. Title A name given to the resource Hydra 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 HY00029 Title A name given to the resource Memorandum for Chiefs of Staff Committee: Use of Service facilities for government telegraph traffic [final] Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 03/19/1947 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Hydra Communications - Policy, RG24, 1250-36 Vol. 1, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Department of National Defence Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource Canadian takeover of Hydra, DND, External Affairs, Oshawa Wireless Station, SIGINT, signals intelligence, government communications Description An account of the resource Letter and report from E.W.T. Gill (Privy Council Office). Enclosed report is final draft of Committee report on feasibility of using Service telegraph facilities for all government telegraph traffic. 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