I thought we should be extremely careful in becoming a party to any course of action which would link the government of Canada up with this matter in a manner which might cause Russia to feel that we had performed an unfriendly act. That to seek to gather information in any underhand way would make clear that we did not trust the Embassy... My own feeling is that the individual has incurred the displeasure of the Embassy and is really seeking to shield himself.
Quote #5: When we look at the negative view of Prime Minister Mackenzie King during the Gouzenko affair, we can see that he thought that Gouzenko’s defection was an inconvenience to the “perfect” relationship between the Soviets and the Western countries. He did not want to ruin this relationship and so at the beginning he stuck to his opinion that Gouzenko was drunk or was crazy when he suggested Soviet espionage and even said that Gouzenko was trying to fabricate evidence for his own selfish motives.