June 5, 1950 (21st Parliament, 2nd Session)

Hon. L. B. Pearson (Secretary of State for External Affairs):

Mr. Speaker, I shall be very glad to say what I can to clear this matter up, as there seems to be some misunderstanding about it. When I read the reports in the press I asked for a report on the incident. My information is that Mr. and Mrs. Tremewen are Australian citizens. They are now living in Montreal, but have not yet acquired Canadian citizenship. Therefore when Mr. and Mrs. Tremewen got into difficulties with the Mexican authorities, they asked for the intervention, through the Australian high commissioner in Canada, of the United Kingdom representative in Mexico. I believe it is the custom, when a nation of the commonwealth has not its own representative in a foreign country, to use the United Kingdom representative in that country. The

Inquiries of the Ministry intervention of the United Kingdom representative was, I believe, speedy and effective, and the Australian citizens in question were quickly released, If they had been Canadian nationals it would have been our duty to intervene. If as Australians they had asked for the intervention of the Canadian ambassador in Mexico we should have been very glad to put him at their service, but they took the other and the normal course.