CO129-590-25 Accounts of events leading up to surrender and subsequent treatment of prisoners- etc 23-4-1942 - 28-9-1943 — Page 97

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the House the Prime Minister read a letter from Mr. Campbell and announced that in view of its terms he would not, repeat not, lay the Drew letter. The relevant passage in Campbell's advice was as follows:- "Mr. Drew's letter purports 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 Goverment of the United Kingdom subject to specific condition that the disclosure was to be limited to the Commissioner and Counsel and solely for the purpose of the enquiry, and the Commissioner was not permitted to reproduce these communications in his report. Any disclosures, therefore, even to the House of Commona, 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 opinion that you will be violating a condition under which the Government of the United Kingdom consented to the disclosure to the Commissioner and Counsel of those telegrams." Campbell added as an additional reason against tabling the letter that it purported to contain extracts from evidence and reference to exhibits which do not appear in the published report of the Commissioner or its appendix, and that tabling the letter would therefore be condoning a violation of the order of secrecy with which the enquiry in camera was conducted.

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This refusal to table the letter has caused protests both in Parliament and the press. By this time in the expectation that the document would be laid on the table of the House, the press had secured copies of Drew's letter with a view to publication. There have in fact been some comments in various newspapers indicating various points contained in that letter, and following the publication of Campbell's advice to the Prime Minister there have been general references to the communications which passed between the U.K. Government and the Canadian Government, and to the fact that the U.K. Govt. had placed a prohibition on the publication of these. But I am not aware of any specific reference to the telegram of October 24th or its contente, though this may have been made in one or other of the numerous local newspapers published thoughout the Dominion. But generally the voluntary guidance of the censor here has led newspaper statements purporting to give the contents of the Drew letter to be rather guarded.

8. I understand that Colonel Drew or others acting for him have now circulated copies of his letter to large numbers of Members of Parliament. So that precise contents of his letter are very widely known,

Copy to:-

Part 2 follows.

W.O. (M.0.2)

F.0. W. C.0.

Coo.

(M. 0.12)

Lt.Col.Spurling (4) Col. Dinwiddie Mr. Ashley-Clarke Sir E. Bridges Lt.Col. Stirling

Mr. Monson.