CO129-590-25 Accounts of events leading up to surrender and subsequent treatment of prisoners- etc 23-4-1942 - 28-9-1943 — Page 102

With the Compliments of the

Under-Seoretary of State for Dominion

INWARD TELEGRAM

CODE

FROM: CANADA (H.C.)

TO:

D. 0.

D. 19th July 1942, 5,38 p.m. R. 20th

2.35 a.m.

20 JUL 1945

L.D.

9

102

IMPORTANT.

No. 1426.

w/reed

My telegram 10th July No. 1386.

On July 14th the Prime Minister was asked by the Leader of the C.C.F. Party whether he would table a letter written to him by Colonel Drew (who, as you know, is Provincial Conservative Leader in Ontario and was the Counsel nominated by Mr. Hanson, Leader of the Opposition, in the Hong Kong Enquiry) which contained a lengthy argument challenging Sir Lyman Duff's findings in his report on Hong Kong. Drew has long sought to establish that the Government were seriously inefficient in their despatch of troops to Hong Kong. The Prime Minister refused to table the letter unless some Member of Parliament would take responsibility for this being done. On Mr. Coldwell's undertaking responsibility the Prime Minister promised to table the letter on July 15th. Early in the proceedings on July 15 the Prime Minister stated that he wished to discuss the matter further with the C.C.F. Leader before tabling the letter. Later in the day he announced that he had thought it well to obtain legal opinion as to the propriety of the letter being

tabled. The Counsel for the Government in the Hong Kong Enquiry (who incidentally is Chairman of a Montreal Branch of the Conservative Party) had written to the Prime Minister a closely reasoned letter which concluded as follows "Mr. Drew's letter purporting to give the effect of a number of confidential communications received by the Government of Canada from the Government of the United Kingdom, the disclosure of which was only consented to by the Government of the United Kingdom subject to a specific condition that the disclosure was to be limited to the Commissioner and Counsel only, and solely for the purpose of the Enquiry; and the Commissioner was not permitted to reproduce these communications in his report. Any disclosure therefore, furniening details to the House of Commons, would in my opinion be a violation of the substance of that condition,

If therefore Mr. Drew's communication is tabled by you before the House of Commons I am of the opinion that you will violate a condition under which the Government of the United Kingdom consented to the disclosure to the Commissioner and Counsel of those telegrama" Despite protests by the Leader of the Opposition and the C. C.F. Leader the Prime Minister indicated that he would not now table the letter. Announcing the decision he stated that the worst feature of the letter seemed to him to be the doubt which it cast on the judgment and integrity of the Chief Justice as Commissioner in the Hong Kong Enquiry. He stated that he had never given the public interest as a reason for the letter not being tabled; an undertaking had been given by the Canadian Government to the United Kingdom Government, regarding the conditions under which certain communications were placed before the Commission and he did not feel that the House of Commons, representing the people of Canada, would wish to be a

party