Office of the Historian

600.0012/1–1854

The Canadian Ambassador (Heeney) to the Department of State1

secret
[Washington,] January 18, 1954.

The Preliminary Views of the Canadian Government on the Proposals for the Development of the Peacetime Uses of Atomic Energy Made by President Eisenhower on December 8, 1953 Before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City

The Canadian Government endorses the general idea of an international agency to facilitate the development of the peacetime uses of atomic energy, as suggested by President Eisenhower in his speech of December 8, 1953, to the United Nations General Assembly, and in doing so accepts the implicit obligation to make contributions to the agency on a basis to be negotiated when the requirements are known.

2.
It would seem desirable for the proposed international agency to be associated with the United Nations, probably as a “specialized agency”. It will be important, however, to insure that in determining its policies and programme, the views of the important contributing powers have appropriate weight. One way of accomplishing this would be to follow the precedent set when the International Monetary Fund was established and include some system of weighted voting. Another method might be to have an executive council composed of permanent members representing the important contributing nations, and elected members representing the other countries.
3.
The following suggestions on the scope and nature of the proposed agency are submitted for the consideration of United States authorities:
(i)
The agency should secure uranium and fissionable material from countries supporting and contributing to it; should itself hold only small stocks of such material, but be in a position to draw upon the stocks held by contributing nations up to the amounts pledged. Such stocks held for it by contributing countries would be segregated and subject to its inspection.
(ii)
The agency should supply on a rental or sale basis, but subject to its continued inspection and control, uranium and fissionable materials for the establishment of power and research reactors by countries willing and able to establish and operate such reactors with the help of the agency.
(iii)
The agency should be given the duty, in addition to furnishing of materials, of arranging for the provision of professional and [Page 1345] technical services in the construction and initial operation of power and research reactors to those countries capable of making effective use of such services.
(iv)
The agency should, in due course, in co-operation with other agencies assisting in the development of under-developed countries, make available atomic materials and technical assistance for the building of atomic power plants in under-developed countries, when the technology of such plants has advanced to the stage where this is practical.
(v)
The agency should be enabled to finance the sale on credit or rental of uranium and fissionable materials provided to recipient countries as described, but should not provide other capital required for the construction of reactors, leaving this role to the recipient nation itself or to other institutions, including the International Bank and any agencies engaged in assisting economic development of other types. Payment by recipient nations might be in materials of use to the Agency in lieu of money.
(vi)
The Agency should not itself construct, own or operate atomic reactors, but might conceivably undertake certain key processing work if this contributed to the more effective control of fissionable materials furnished to recipient nations.
4.
It is important for a clear understanding to be reached between those likely to be the principal contributing powers (other than Russia) before getting involved in discussions with other countries or in the Disarmament Commission; for this reason it would be desirable for informal discussions to commence forthwith between the countries represented on the Combined Policy Committee that deals with atomic energy matters (i.e., the United States, United Kingdom and Canada); in any event, Canada, as an important potential contributor, would wish to be consulted before any firm proposals were put forward to countries other than those represented on the Combined Policy Committee.
  1. A handwritten notation on the source text indicates that this note was handed to Bowie of S/P by Ambassador Heeney on Jan. 20.↩