British-american Conference on Refugees May Not Be Held in Ottawa

Failure to inform the Canadian Government of Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s proposal to hold an Anglo-American refugee conference at Ottawa appeared today to have delayed plans for the talks. There is now some doubt whether the representatives will meet in Canada at all.

Canadians here said that their government felt slighted at having been designated as a conference ground without having been invited to send representatives, and without even prior consultation. The failure to consult Canada was explained here as a slip. No one doubted that Ottawa would be glad to receive the conferees, whether invited to send its own representatives or not.

Canadian Premier William Mackenzie King told the House of Commons that his government had not been consulted in advance regarding the projected conference. “If we are invited to attend the conference,” he said, “I have not the least doubt that our government is prepared to accept. But I do not think it would be either right or proper for Canada to extend an invitation to the United States and Britain to meet in Canada in regard to a matter about which they themselves are conferring at this time.” The Canadian Premier further disclosed that the British and Canadian governments had also been conferring on the refugee problem.

Details are now being worked out between the British Foreign Office and the State Department with regard to the projected British-American conference. But the date and place of the meeting remain undecided, nor have the names of any proposed conferees been publicly mentioned. Since the British have accepted the proposal, it is not believed that the conference itself will be discussed during Eden’s current visit here, although the refugee problem in general may well be on his agenda.