Letter from National Research Council - 1941

National Archives of Canada

OTTAWA, July 24, 1941.

Office of the President

SECRET

Captain FL Houghton,
Secretary, Chiefs of Staff Committee,
Department of National Defence (Naval Service),
Ottawa.

Dear Captain Houghton:

At a recent meeting of the Interservice RDF Committee the matter of lack of protection at our RDF Field Station was brought up and I was requested to write you in connection with the matter. I may say that we have attempted to obtain adequate protection for this station, which in our opinion is badly needed, but without success.

Sometime ago we approached the military authorities for a guard and were informed that it was the duty of the RCMP. The RCMP have given us one guard at night. They informed us that they were having great difficulty in obtaining men and that they were consequently unable to comply with our request for additional staff. They suggested that we should have a fence erected and arrangements have been made to construct a fence, but in the meantime we have a prototype of equipment at the site on which we have spent about $200,000 and which is the only source in the world from which Research Enterprises Limited can build equipment on order from the United States to the amount of twenty-six million dollars. One man on the site at night is absolutely inadequate and in fact we have proof that it is very easy for anyone to gain access to the site, and sabotage of the prototype would be a very simple matter.

The Council feels that after having made adequate representations for protection it does not care to take responsibility for the protection of the site until the fence is erected.

Yours sincerely,

(Sgd) CJ Mackenzie

Acting President.