Advertisement

Journal of Transatlantic Studies

, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp 453–475 | Cite as

Knight Errant, Cold Warrior or Cautious Ally? Canada on the United Nations Security Council, 1948–1949

  • Hector MackenzieEmail author
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Canada’s self-image in world affairs has been as a bold internationalist, with its status and responsibility as a middle power and its role as a mediator emphasised. Assessments highlight the transformation of Canada’s international relations after the Second World War and contrast its engagement in the United Nations with its performance at the League of Nations. Curiously, these appraisals ignore Canada’s first term on the UN Security Council (1948–1949), particularly its response to crises which challenged world peace and the UN’s authority. From an examination of unpublished and published papers in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, this article contends that Canada’s performance did not correspond with the popular image of its role in world affairs, nor did the government take advantage of this exceptional opportunity to demonstrate its international commitment. Moreover, it also shied away from taking a leading part in advocating the ideals and objectives of the western alliance. Instead, it preferred to play a supporting role as the divisions of the cold war deepened. When the UN Security Council dealt with controversies and clashes, Canada followed the lead of the United States and the United Kingdom, and its priority was to maintain a common outlook and approach within the North Atlantic Triangle. Canada’s early post-war foreign policy, as evident in its first term on the UN Security Council, seems remarkably consistent with its longstanding concerns and priorities in world affairs and considerably less indicative of any significant departure in approach or policies.

Keywords

Canada United Nations Security Council North Atlantic Triangle United Kingdom United States Canadian foreign policy 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. 1.
    Escott Reid, ‘Canadian Foreign Policy, 1967–1977: A Second Golden Decade?’, International Journal XXII, no. 2 (Spring 1967): 171–181. Reid employs both terms to refer particularly to the period from 1941 to 1951. Later commentaries have shifted the attention to the immediate post-war period and/or to the tenure of Lester B. Pearson as foreign minister, from 1948 to 1957.Google Scholar
  2. 1a.
    See also Escott Reid, ‘The Revolution in Canadian Foreign Policy’, India Quarterly 24 (1958): 188–196.Google Scholar
  3. 1b.
    Among those to dispute this depiction of a post-war transformation of Canadian policy was James Eayrs, whose remarks were reprinted in Northern Approaches: Canada and the Search for Peace (Toronto: Macmillan, 1961), 57–69Google Scholar
  4. 1c.
    and Donald Barry, ‘Continuity and Change in Canadian Foreign Policy: From the Pre-War to the Post-War Experience, 1935–1957’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 1977).Google Scholar
  5. 1d.
    Also, see Hector Mackenzie, ‘The Cold War and the Limits of “Internationalism” in Canada’s Foreign Relations, 1945–1949’, in R. Douglas Francis and Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History: Post Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2002), 362–376.Google Scholar
  6. 2.
    John A. Munro and Alex I. Inglis, ed., Mike: The Memoirs of the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson, Volume 2, 1948–1957 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973), 24–33Google Scholar
  7. 2a.
    Hector Mackenzie, ‘Canada and the United Nations, Then and Now’, in Nuove prospettive per la sicurezza mondiale? / A New Approach to World Security? / Nouvelles perspectives pour la securite mondiale?, ed. Fabrizio Ghilardi (Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 1998), 51–80.Google Scholar
  8. 3.
    L.S. St. Laurent, ‘The Foundations of Canadian Policy in World Affairs’, in Canadian Foreign Policy 1945–1954: Selected Speeches and Documents, ed. R.A. Mackay (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970), 388–399. The Gray Foundation Lecture was delivered at the University of Toronto on 13 January 1947. Adam Chapnick, ‘The Gray Lecture and Canadian Citizenship in History’Google Scholar
  9. 3a.
    and Hector Mackenzie, ‘Shades of Gray? “The Foundations of Canadian Policy in World Affairs” in Context’, both in The American Review of Canadian Studies 37, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 443–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 4.
    Michael Pearson, ‘Humanizing the UN Security Council’, in Canada Among Nations 2001: The Axworthy Legacy, ed. Fen Osler Hampson, Norman Hillmer and Maureen Appel Molot (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2001), 127–151 (quotation p. 129). Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Statement 98/59, ‘Notes for an Address by the Honourable Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the 53rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly’, 25 September 1998.Google Scholar
  11. 5.
    Arthur Andrew, The Rise and Fall of a Middle Power: Canadian Diplomacy from King to Mulroney (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1993)Google Scholar
  12. 5a.
    Andrew Cohen, While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2003)Google Scholar
  13. 5b.
    Jennifer Welsh, At Home in the World: Canada’s Global Vision for the 21st Century (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2004).Google Scholar
  14. 6.
    Tom Keating, Canada and World Order: The Multilateralist Tradition in Canadian Foreign Policy (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993), 36–37.Google Scholar
  15. 6a.
    See the sources mentioned in note 5 above, as well as: Lloyd Axworthy, Navigating a New World: Canada’s Global Future (Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2003)Google Scholar
  16. 6b.
    and Yves Fortier, Canada and the United Nations: A Half Century Partnership (Ottawa: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1996).Google Scholar
  17. 7.
    Andrew F. Cooper, Canadian Foreign Policy: Old Habits and New Directions (Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon Canada, 1997), 38–39.Google Scholar
  18. 7a.
    Kim Richard Nossal, The Politics of Canadian Foreign Policy (Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall Canada, 1985), 11–12.Google Scholar
  19. 7b.
    Denis Smith, Diplomacy of Fear: Canada and the Cold War 1941–1948 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988).Google Scholar
  20. 7c.
    Don Munton and John Kirton, Canadian Foreign Policy: Selected Cases (Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall Canada, 1992), 4–18.Google Scholar
  21. 7d.
    David B. Dewitt and John J. Kirton, Canada as a Principal Power: A Study in Foreign Policy and International Relations (Toronto: Wiley, 1983), 50–52.Google Scholar
  22. 8.
    The only reference to Canada and the UNSC in one survey of Canadian foreign policy is to the Australian election, not the later Canadian term. Norman Hillmer and J.L. Granatstein, Empire to Umpire: Canada and the World to the 1990s (Toronto: Copp Clark Longman, 1994), 184.Google Scholar
  23. 8a.
    Robert Bothwell deals briefly and ably with the late 1940s, but ignores Canada’s term on the UNSC in The Big Chill: Canada and the Cold War (Toronto: Irwin Publishing, 1998), 13–34.Google Scholar
  24. 8b.
    F.H. Soward and Edgar McInnis, with the assistance of Walter O’Hearn, Canada and the United Nations (New York: Manhattan Publishing Company, 1956), 39.Google Scholar
  25. 8c.
    Escott Reid, On Duty: A Canadian at the Making of the United Nations, 1945–1946 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1983), 136–138Google Scholar
  26. 8d.
    Hector Mackenzie, ‘“Writing Marginal Notes on the Pages of History”? Escott Reid and the Founding of the United Nations, 1945–46’, in Escott Reid: Diplomat and Scholar, ed. Greg Donaghy and Stéphane Roussel (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004), 23–43Google Scholar
  27. 8e.
    John English, ‘“A Fine Romance”: Canada and the United Nations, 1943–1957’, in Canada and the Early Cold War, 1943–1957, ed. Greg Donaghy (Ottawa: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1998), especially 82–83.Google Scholar
  28. 8f.
    The mythology surrounding Canada’s involvement in the drafting of the UN Charter has been debunked in Adam Chapnick, The Middle Power Project: Canada and the Founding of the United Nations (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005), though it does not deal with Canada’s participation in the post-war development of the UN.Google Scholar
  29. 9.
    Escott Reid, Time of Fear and Hope: The Making of the North Atlantic Treaty 1947–1949 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977), part oneGoogle Scholar
  30. 9a.
    James Eayrs, In Defence of Canada: Growing Up Allied (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), chapter oneGoogle Scholar
  31. 9b.
    Geoffrey A.H. Pearson, Seize the Day: Lester B. Pearson and Crisis Diplomacy (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1993), 21–22.Google Scholar
  32. 10.
    Reg Whitaker and Gary Marcuse, Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945–1957 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), chapter 5.Google Scholar
  33. 11.
    Robert A. Spencer, Canada in World Affairs: From UN to NATO, 1946–1949 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1959)Google Scholar
  34. 11a.
    John W. Holmes, The Shaping of Peace: Canada and the Search for World Order 1943–1957, Volume 2 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982).Google Scholar
  35. 12.
    Holmes, Shaping of Peace 2, 57. ‘Statement Approved by Cabinet on September 11, 1947 for Guidance of Delegation to the Second Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations’, in Documents on Canadian External Relations [DCER], Volume 13, 1947, ed. Norman Hillmer and Donald Page (Ottawa: External Affairs and International Trade Canada, 1993), 661–666.Google Scholar
  36. 13.
    J.B. Brebner, ‘Canada in an Atlantic Triangle’, in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 25 Years of Canadian Foreign Policy (Toronto: CBC Publications Branch, 1953), pp. 12–18.Google Scholar
  37. 14.
    Spencer, From UN to NATO, 58.Google Scholar
  38. 15.
    Holmes, Shaping of Peace, 2, 41.Google Scholar
  39. 16.
    L.S. St. Laurent, ‘Statement on the Election of Canada to the Security Council’, 12 September 1947, in Mackay, Canadian Foreign Policy 1945–54, 99–103.Google Scholar
  40. 17.
    L.S. St. Laurent, ‘Statement by the Chairman of the Canadian Delegation in the General Assembly’, 18 September 1947, in Mackay, Canadian Foreign Policy 1945–54, 95–97; Spencer, From UN to NATO, 80; George Ignatieff, The Making of a Peacemonger (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 114.Google Scholar
  41. 18.
    Soward and McInnis, Canada and the United Nations, 53; Holmes, Shaping of Peace 2, 58–59.Google Scholar
  42. 19.
    I. Norman Smith, ‘Security Council Membership — A Challenge to Canada’, International Journal III, no. 2 (Spring 1948): 111–119 (quotation on 119).Google Scholar
  43. 20.
    As quoted in Spencer, From UN to NATO, 82.Google Scholar
  44. 21.
    Private Secretary to Secretary of State for External Affairs to Secretary of State for External Affairs [SSEA], 2 January 1948; Extract from Cabinet Conclusions, 13 January 1948; in Documents on Canadian External Relations, Volume 14, 1948, ed. Hector Mackenzie (Ottawa: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1994), 90–91. George Ignatieff, ‘General A.G.L. McNaughton: A Soldier in Diplomacy’, International Journal XXII, no. 3 (Summer 1967): 402–414.Google Scholar
  45. 22.
    Extracts from Cabinet Conclusions, 5 and 12 February 1948; DCER, 14, 118–120. Library and Archives Canada, W.L.M. King Papers (MG26 J13), King Diary: 5 February 1948.Google Scholar
  46. 23.
    Extract from Cabinet Conclusions, 5 February 1948; DCER, 14, 118–119.Google Scholar
  47. 24.
    Statement, 13 February 1948; DCER, 14, 120–126. There would be no repetition, it was evidently hoped, of the ‘Riddell Incident’ in 1935, when the recently elected King government had been obliged to disavow an initiative in the League of Nations undertaken by Canada’s representative in Geneva. On that episode, see R. Bothwell and J. English, ‘“Dirty Work at the Crossroads”: New Perspectives on the Riddell Incident’, Historical Papers (Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association, 1972), 265–281. Extract from Cabinet Conclusions, 12 February 1948; DCER, 14, 119Google Scholar
  48. 25.
    Noel-Baker to Machtig, 23 January 1948, Noel-Baker to Machtig, 7 February 1948, United Kingdom National Archives, Dominions Office Records [DO] 121/112 [Sir Eric Machtig’s Private Papers].Google Scholar
  49. 26.
    These questions included limitation of the use of the veto by permanent members, admission of new members to the UN, disarmament of conventional weapons, control of atomic energy, establishment of a multinational force to serve the UN and complaints about outside intervention in the Greek civil war. There is documentation on these issues in volumes 14 (1948) and 15 (1949) of the series Documents on Canadian External Relations. See also Department of External Affairs, Canada and the United Nations 1948 (Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1949), 48–50, 214–218, 224–226Google Scholar
  50. 26a.
    Department of External Affairs, Canada and the United Nations 1949 (Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1950), 32–33, 40–43, 82–84.Google Scholar
  51. 27.
    These issues included the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the crisis over Western access to West Berlin (the Soviet blockade and the Western airlift), and the supervision of developments in the Korean peninsula (where Canada participated as a member of the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea). In addition to documentation in the volumes cited above, see Spencer, From UN to NATO, 100–101; Canada and the United Nations 1948, 214–215; Eayrs, Growing Up Allied, 50–51; Leigh E. Sarty, ‘The Limits of Internationalism: Canada and the Soviet Blockade of Berlin, 1948–49’, in Nearly Neighbours, Canada and the Soviet Union: From Cold War to Detente and Beyond, ed. J.L. Black and Norman Hillmer (Kingston, ON: Ronald P. Frye & Company, 1989), 56–74; Pearson, Seize the Day, 24; Holmes, Shaping of Peace, 2, 66Google Scholar
  52. 27a.
    Denis Stairs, The Diplomacy of Constraint: Canada, the Korean War, and the United States (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974) 3–28Google Scholar
  53. 27b.
    Steven Hugh Lee, Outposts of Empire: Korea, Vietnam, and the Origins of the Cold War in Asia, 1949–1954 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995), 23–27.Google Scholar
  54. 28.
    Soward and McInnis, Canada and the United Nations, 109.Google Scholar
  55. 29.
    Minute by St. Laurent, 3 November 1947, quoted in Anne Trowell Hillmer, “‘Here I am in the Middle’: Lester Pearson and the Origins of Canada’s Diplomatic Involvement in the Middle East’, in The Domestic Battleground: Canada and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, ed. David Taras and David H. Goldberg (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989), 125–143 (quotation on page 133).Google Scholar
  56. 30.
    Ibid., 136 (quotations from Hillmer and from a memorandum by Escott Reid on 24 November 1947 recording St. Laurent’s views).Google Scholar
  57. 31.
    Evan Luard, A History of the United Nations, Volume 1: The Years of Western Domination 1945–1955 (London: Macmillan, 1982), 167–174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. 31a.
    Trygve Lie, In the Cause of Peace: Seven Years with the United Nations (New York: Macmillan, 1954), 160–167.Google Scholar
  59. 32.
    Spencer, From UN to NATO, 148; Holmes, Shaping of Peace 2, 65.Google Scholar
  60. 33.
    SSEA to Ambassador in United States [CA(US)], Despatch 283, 26 January 1948; CA(US) to SSEA, Telegram WA-390, 4 February 1948; DCER, 14, 247–251.Google Scholar
  61. 34.
    Assistant USSEA, Memorandum, 6 February 1948; DCER, 14, 252–254.Google Scholar
  62. 35.
    Luard, History of the UN 1, 174-177.Google Scholar
  63. 36.
    SSEA, Memorandum to Cabinet, 17 February 1948; DCER, 14, 254–257.Google Scholar
  64. 37.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 1 March 1948; SSEA, Memorandum to Cabinet, n.d.; Extract from Cabinet Conclusions, 2 March 1948; DCER, 14, 259–267. According to Pearson, King did ‘not think that the Canadian people are willing to participate in any force set up for the above purpose [to implement partition]; that therefore we have no right to support a resolution which would advise others, the Big Five, to provide the force’.Google Scholar
  65. 38.
    USSEA, Memorandum to Prime Minister [PM], 6 March 1948; DCER, 14, 267–269.Google Scholar
  66. 39.
    On this reversal by the United States on partition, see Lie, In the Cause of Peace, 167–173.Google Scholar
  67. 40.
    SSEA, Memorandum to Cabinet, 22 March 1948; SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 300, 23 March 1948; DCER, 14, 270–273. King again insisted on a stance more sympathetic to the British position. King Diary: 23 March 1948.Google Scholar
  68. 41.
    SSEA to CHC(UK), Telegram 418, 23 March 1948; DCER, 14, 273–274. King objected strongly to the wording of this message, which Reid had drafted. King Diary: 26 March 1948.Google Scholar
  69. 42.
    CHC(UK) to SSEA, Telegram 405, 24 March 1948; DCER, 14, 274–275.Google Scholar
  70. 43.
    SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 323, 3 April 1948; US Ambassador to Canada to USSEA, 8 April 1948; Head, UN Division, Memorandum to SSEA, 9 April 1948; USSEA, Memorandum to PM (with enclosed telegram), 16 April 1948; DCER, 14, 280–289.Google Scholar
  71. 44.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 19 April 1948; DCER, 14, 290.Google Scholar
  72. 45.
    USSEA to CHC(UK), 21 April 1948; DCER, 14, 291–292.Google Scholar
  73. 46.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 487, 27 April 1948; USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 30 April 1948; DCER, 14, 297–300.Google Scholar
  74. 47.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 30 April 1948; USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 12 May 1948; DCER, 14, 299–301.Google Scholar
  75. 48.
    SSEA to CA(US), Telegram EX-1325, 18 May 1948; DCER, 14, 301–302. King Diary: 20 May 1948.Google Scholar
  76. 49.
    CA(US) to SSEA, Telegram WA-1516, 20 May 1948; DCER, 14, 304–306.Google Scholar
  77. 50.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 25 May 1948; DCER, 14, 307.Google Scholar
  78. 51.
    Secretary-General of United Nations [UNSG] to USSEA, 18 May 1948; DCER, 14, 303–304.Google Scholar
  79. 52.
    USSEA to UNSG, 27 May 1948; DCER, 14, 308–309.Google Scholar
  80. 53.
    Head, UN Division, Memorandum to SSEA, 9 June 1948; DCER, 14, 310–311.Google Scholar
  81. 54.
    SSEA to DUNGA(P), Telegram 146, 16 October 1948; DCER, 14, 315–316.Google Scholar
  82. 55.
    SSEA to DUNGA(P), Telegram 187, 29 October 1948; DCER, 14, 316–318.Google Scholar
  83. 56.
    Annex to Memorandum, 16 November 1948; DCER, 14, 320–321.Google Scholar
  84. 57.
    SSEA to CA(US), Telegram EX-18, 4 January 1949, in Hector Mackenzie, ed., Documents on Canadian External Relations, Volume 15, 1949 [DCER, 15], 168.Google Scholar
  85. 58.
    CA(US) to SSEA, Telegram WA-28, 6 January 1949; DCER, 15, 169–170.Google Scholar
  86. 59.
    SSEA to CHC(UK), 6 January 1949; DCER, 15, 170.Google Scholar
  87. 60.
    Acting USSEA, Memorandum to Acting SSEA, 11 January 1949; PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 35, 12 January 1949; PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 50, 15 January 1949; European Division, Memorandum to SSEA, 18 January 1949; PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 122, 29 January 1949; DCER, 15, 171–179.Google Scholar
  88. 61.
    SSEA, Memorandum to Cabinet, 11 April 1949; DCER, 15, 187–188.Google Scholar
  89. 62.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 921, 12 August 1949, DCER, 15, 198–199.Google Scholar
  90. 63.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 464, 9 December 1949, DCER, 15, 217.Google Scholar
  91. 64.
    John Swettenham, McNaughton, Volume 3, 1944–1966 (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969), 149.Google Scholar
  92. 65.
    Luard, History of the UN 1, 278–280.Google Scholar
  93. 66.
    Holmes, Shaping of Peace 2, 72.Google Scholar
  94. 67.
    Extract from Minutes of Meeting of Heads of Division, 6 January 1948; DCER, 14, 232–234. For a critical appraisal of the attitude in DEA as well as the Canadian government’s approach to the Kashmir question generally, see: E.A. Kelly, ‘Reluctant Mediator: Canada, the United Nations and the Kashmir Crisis, 1947–1949’ (Carleton University, MA thesis, 1995).Google Scholar
  95. 68.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 9 January 1948, DCER, 14, 234–235. See marginal note by St. Laurent.Google Scholar
  96. 69.
    USSEA, Memorandum to PM, 20 January 1948 [with marginal note by King]; SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 26, 21 January 1948; USSEA, Memorandum to PM, 22 January 1948; USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 6 February 1948; DCER, 14, 236–239. King Diary: 20 January 1948.Google Scholar
  97. 70.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 2 April 1948 [with marginal note by St. Laurent]; DCER, 14, 241–242.Google Scholar
  98. 71.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 16 April 1948, with enclosure; PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 466, 22 April 1948; PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 476, 24 April 1948; DCER, 14, 243–247.Google Scholar
  99. 72.
    Luard, History of the United Nations 1, 283–284.Google Scholar
  100. 73.
    Acting USSEA, Memorandum to PM, 11 January 1949; Acting USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 15 January 1949; DCER, 15, 301–303.Google Scholar
  101. 74.
    UN Division, Memorandum to USSEA, 28 June 1949; UN Division, Memorandum to USSEA, 25 November 1949; DCER, 15, 304–305, 313–314.Google Scholar
  102. 75.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 13 September 1949; DCER, 15, 307–308.Google Scholar
  103. 76.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 26 July 1949; Deputy USSEA, Memorandum, 20 October 1949; USSEA, Memorandum, 26 October 1949; SSEA to CHC(UK), Unnumbered despatch, 29 October 1949; DCER, 15, 305–306, 308–313.Google Scholar
  104. 77.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 21 December 1949; PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 1263, 28 December 1949; DCER, 15, 314–315, 322–332.Google Scholar
  105. 78.
    Swettenham, McNaughton, 3, 158–160.Google Scholar
  106. 79.
    Kelly, ‘Reluctant Mediator’, 114.Google Scholar
  107. 80.
    Statement, 13 February 1948; DCER, 14, 120–126.Google Scholar
  108. 81.
    USSEA to Ambassador in the Netherlands [CA(N)], 16 January 1948; DCER, 14, 201–202.Google Scholar
  109. 82.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 9 February 1948; DCER, 14, 202–204. On the background, see Luard, History of the UN 1, 135–142.Google Scholar
  110. 83.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 293, 3 March 1948; SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 266, 9 March 1948; DCER, 14, 206–208.Google Scholar
  111. 84.
    USSEA to High Commissioner in Australia [CHC(A)], 13 April 1948; Acting USSEA to CHC(A), 1 December 1948; DCER, 14, 208–209, 220–221.Google Scholar
  112. 85.
    USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 20 July 1948; USSEA to CA(N), 23 July 1948; DCER, 14, 216–220.Google Scholar
  113. 86.
    See Luard, History of the UN 1, 144–147. Note that a more right-wing government had been elected in the Netherlands in July 1948.Google Scholar
  114. 87.
    Extract from Cabinet Conclusions, 23 December 1948; SSEA to CA(N), Telegram 170, 26 December 1948; DCER, 14, 227, 230–231.Google Scholar
  115. 88.
    Acting USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 4 January 1949; SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 18, 5 January 1949; CA(US) to SSEA, Telegram WA-27, 6 January 1949; DCER, 15, 219–223.Google Scholar
  116. 89.
    Swettenham, McNaughton, 3, 149.Google Scholar
  117. 90.
    Department of External Affairs (Australia) [DEA(A)] to High Commission in Ottawa, Cablegram 320, 22 December 1948, in Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937–49, Volume XIII: Indonesia 1948 [DAFP, XIII], ed. Philip Dorling and David Lee (Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1996), 475.Google Scholar
  118. 91.
    Hodgson to DEA(A), Cablegram 279, 22 December 1948; DAFP, XIII, 486 487.Google Scholar
  119. 92.
    Memorandum by Forde, 23 December 1948; DAFP, XIII, 488.Google Scholar
  120. 93.
    Forde to DEA(A), Cablegram 347, 24 December 1948; DAFP, XIII, 506.Google Scholar
  121. 94.
    DEA(A) to Forde, Cablegram 323, 25 December 1948; DAFP, XIII, 514.Google Scholar
  122. 95.
    Forde to DEA(A), Cablegram 350, 28 December 1948; DAFP, XIII, 536–537.Google Scholar
  123. 96.
    Jamieson to Forde, Minute, 30 December 1948; DAFP, XIII, 541–544.Google Scholar
  124. 97.
    DEA(A) to Forde, Cablegram 6, 7 January 1949, in Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937-49, Volume XV: Indonesia 1949 [DAFP, XV], ed. David Lee (Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1998), 33.Google Scholar
  125. 98.
    Beasley to Chifley, Cablegram 6, 7 January 1949; DAFP, XV, 37–39.Google Scholar
  126. 99.
    SSEA to CA(N), Telegram 6, 7 January 1949; DCER, 15, 226.Google Scholar
  127. 100.
    Acting USSEA, Memorandum to PM, 11 January 1949; Acting USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 15 January 1949; DCER, 15, 226–228.Google Scholar
  128. 101.
    SSEA, Memorandum to Acting USSEA, 17 January 1949; DCER, 15, 229. See also Pearson’s telegram based on a further meeting, at the Prime Minister’s request, SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 102, 22 January 1949, ibid., 239–241.Google Scholar
  129. 102.
    SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 69, 17 January 1949; SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 72, 17 January 1949; DCER, 15, 229–232.Google Scholar
  130. 103.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 79, 20 January 1949; SSEA to PDUN, Telegram 88, 20 January 1949; DCER, 15, 235–236.Google Scholar
  131. 104.
    SSEA to CA(N), Telegram 15, 21 January 1949; DCER, 15, 237–238.Google Scholar
  132. 105.
    SSEA to CA(N), Telegram 23, 27 January 1949; DCER, 15, 247–248.Google Scholar
  133. 106.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 125, 29 January 1949; DCER, 15, 253–255.Google Scholar
  134. 107.
    See Alastair M. Taylor, Indonesian Independence and the United Nations (Ithaca, NJ: Cornell University Press, 1960), 203–210; Luard, History of the UN 1, 149–150.Google Scholar
  135. 108.
    Extract from Minutes of Meeting of Heads of Division, 14 March 1949; DCER, 15, 266–267.Google Scholar
  136. 109.
    SSEA to CA(N), Telegram 40, 7 March 1949; DCER, 15, 262–263.Google Scholar
  137. 110.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 327, 19 March 1949; DCER, 15, 271–273; Luard, History of the UN 1, 151–153.Google Scholar
  138. 111.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 353, 24 March 1949; DCER, 15, 276–279.Google Scholar
  139. 112.
    PDUN to SSEA, 24 March 1949; Deputy USSEA, Memorandum to SSEA, 26 March 1949; Deputy USSEA to CA(N), 29 March 1949, with enclosure; DCER, 15, 279–286.Google Scholar
  140. 113.
    Extract from Minutes of Meeting of Heads of Division, 13 May 1949; DCER, 15, 286–287.Google Scholar
  141. 114.
    Extract from Minutes of Meeting of Heads of Division, 7 November 1949; DCER, 15, 287.Google Scholar
  142. 115.
    PDUN to SSEA, Telegram 421, 2 December 1949; DCER, 15, 288–289.Google Scholar
  143. 116.
    PDUN to SSEA, Unnumbered despatch, 15 December 1949; DCER, 15, 297–301.Google Scholar
  144. 117.
    Swettenham, McNaughton, 3, 149, 151–152.Google Scholar
  145. 118.
    Holmes, Shaping of Peace 2, 73.Google Scholar
  146. 119.
    Forde to Burton, Departmental Dispatch 8, 11 February 1949; DAFP, XV, 214–215.Google Scholar
  147. 120.
    Holmes [UN Division], Memorandum to USSEA, 22 December 1949; DCER, 15, 446–448.Google Scholar
  148. 121.
    John Holmes, The Changing Nature of International Organizations: The Canadian Perspective (London: Canada House Lecture Series Number 8, 1977), 4; English, ‘Fine Romance’, 80.Google Scholar
  149. 122.
    Soward and McInnis, Canada and the United Nations, 101–103; ‘Statement by the Chairman of the Canadian Delegation, Mr. L.B. Pearson, in the General Assembly, September 26, 1949’, reprinted in Canadian Foreign Policy 1945–1954, Selected Speeches and Documents, ed. R.A. Mackay (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970), 153–156.Google Scholar
  150. 123.
    Holmes, Shaping of Peace 2, 69.Google Scholar
  151. 124.
    Spencer states that Canada’s term on the UNSC ‘coincided with two years of continued frustration for the Council’ in spite of ‘great activity’ as measured by frequency of meetings. Spencer, From UN to NATO, 116. Soward and McInnis, Canada and the United Nations, 101.Google Scholar
  152. 125.
    Linda Goldthorp, ‘Reluctant Internationalism: Canadian Approaches to Unesco, 1946–1987’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 1981). See also English, A Fine Romance’, 73–89.Google Scholar
  153. 126.
    Barry, ‘Continuity and Change’, 145–154.Google Scholar
  154. 127.
    Adam Chapnick, ‘The Canadian Middle Power Myth’, International Journal LV, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 188–206 (quotation from 205).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Board of Transatlantic Studies 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Foreign Affairs and International TradeCanada

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options