The Letter

Gordon Churchill, 64, Defense Minister in John Diefenbaker's defeated Conservative government, was rambling through what seemed to be an expectable Opposition speech in Parliament. Then, with Diefenbaker sitting near by and without changing his tone, he threw a bomb that reverberated across the country. He read a letter supposedly written last January to Liberal Leader Lester Pearson by U.S. Ambassador W. Walton Butterworth Jr., blatantly siding with Pearson's Liberals in the political campaign.

The letter extravagantly praised Pearson's speech in favor of accepting nuclear arms for Canada's defense forces, promised him that no other Canadian politician "has gained as many devoted friends in my country as you have." As for the Conservatives then in power, they were "narrow-minded" in their policy, "unfit" to run the country, and would now be forced to echo Pearson's statements. "At the first opportune moment," concluded the letter, "I would like to discuss with you how we could be useful to you in the future. You can always count on our support."

March Mailing. The "letter" was no surprise to political insiders. Photostatic copies of it started turning up last March toward the end of the election campaign. Some went to newsmen, others to politicians. All originated in London, were in envelopes stamped airmail, and seemed timed to influence the elections. But if that was the purpose, the senders bungled: most of the copies came by sea and arrived too late to cause a campaign stir.

Few Canadian newspapers bothered with the letter then, because a little checking made it look like a clumsy forgery. The original was probably put together from three photographs: a letterhead from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, the text, and a facsimile of a Butterworth signature. The type in the text did not match the typewriters of the ambassador's secretaries, and the scale was out of proportion with the letterhead. Pearson's Rockcliffe address was misspelled "Rockliffe," and the occasion of Pearson's nuclear policy speech was misstated. Beyond this, the letter simply did not read like Butterworth. While the Kennedy Administration was clearly unhappy with the Diefenbaker government, hardly anyone thought that skilled Career Diplomat Butterworth would have so clumsily intervened in the Canadian political situation. And he would hardly have used the awkward phrasing of the letter ("I was delighted with the timing, which I considered perfect, announcing the stand taken by your party"), or addressed his friend Mike Pearson with the formal "Dear Mr. Pearson."

But Who? Once again last week, both Butterworth and Prime Minister Pearson wearily denied that any such letter was ever written or received.

While the Liberals did not accuse the Opposition leaders of creating the letter ("They would have done a better job," said one Liberal dryly), they and many other Canadians were shocked at the Conservatives' attempt to make a parliamentary issue of it in the effort to show that the U.S. conspired to topple Diefenbaker. That attempt seemed almost as irresponsible as the act of the letter's creators--whoever they were.

Amid all the furor about the letter, more substantial fuel was added last week to the Liberal-Conservative controversy about U.S.-Canadian defense policy. This time, it was reports that the U.S. might base eight squadrons of jet interceptors in Canada.-Pearson's Defense Minister said he has had "in formal intimations" of such a proposal, but both Pearson and the Pentagon denied that any official request had been made. In any event, the new storm brought fresh Conservative charges of a Pearson "surrender" to the U.S.

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