Forty Years On: Reflections on Our Foreign Policy

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a series of essays on some aspect of Canada's foreign policy with which they were personally connected, with the focus on the early years of Canadian foreign policy under the leadership of King and Skelton.

Abstract: I have been asked to contribute to this series of essays my reflections on some aspect of Canada's foreign policy with which I was personally connected. This should not be too difficult, for since 1928 I have been associated in one form or another with most of the moves that have been made in this area of Canada's political development. It was in the period when Mr. Mackenzie King and Dr. O. D. Skelton were dominant in the realm of Canadian foreign policy one was dominant in policy, the other in advice which often determined policy that my association with External Affairs began, through my position as one of the three Secretaries in that Department. In the field of policy, and apart from routine and clerical chores, which seemed to take up a lot of time for one who felt so proud at having just qualified as a very important Diplomatic Officer, my role was confined largely to research and analysis. Most of this was to support Mr. King's resolve to avoid any commitments of any kind which would involve Canada in the consequences of British Imperial policy or of French efforts to bring about effective collective security through the League of Nations. The fact that Mr. King, in this attitude of cautious, but resolute, negativism, was inspired by essential considerations of Canadian unity compels a greater respect now than seemed to me to be obvious at the time. I recall my impatiencewhich grew when I was transferred to London in 1935over the cautious attitude of the Government on every international issue where it was not possible to avoid any attitude at all. This mood was accompanied by, and in part caused by, suspicion of "Downing Street", the political and official residents of which would, if we were not very careful, trap innocent Canadians into participation in the discharge of British Imperial responsibilities, with which we should have nothing to do for a variety of reasons.