bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1986) — Spring/Summer 1986 // Printemps/Été 1986, pp. 11–14
Bruce Rankin joined the Foreign Service in 1945 after serving with the Royal Canadian Navy in the Pacific and the Atlantic during the Second World War. He served in Sydney, Shanghai, Canberra, Bombay, Madrid, Berne, New York, Caracas and Tokyo. In the latter postings, he was either consul-general (New York) or ambassador (Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, United Nations, Japan). Born in Brandon, Manitoba, he was educated at the University of Alberta and Princeton University. Awarded the U.N. Medal of Excellence in 1972, he was recently honoured with the Order of Canada During a recent meeting he talked with Bob Grauer about the Foreign Service, his experi ences in Shanghai, Tokyo, Berne and Caracas.
bout de papier: Bruce, congratulations. I know that I speak for all foreign service officers in saying how happy I am that you have just been awarded the Order of Canada. Would you tell us a little bit about how it all started?
RANKIN: I suppose the one thing I was certain of, when I was serving in Naval Headquarters in Ottawa at the end of the war, was that I did not want to work for the government when it was all over. But things have a way of turning around. A great friend of mine in Ottawa convinced me that the Foreign Service had something very special to offer. I retired 36 years later having spent all of that time, except for one year in Kingston, on duty abroad.
When you asked your question I was quickly reminded of the virtual lack of any departmental training in 1945 when I joined the Trade Commissioner Service. There just was not any. I was very quickly selected from the group I was with and shot off to Sydney, Australia, in February 1946. I was the sole Canadian presence in Sydney – a one-man office. I went with the strange sort of thought that I was there to do the best I could on behalf of Canada, regardless of what it might be. I do not think that attitude ever changed. I suppose I was lucky in the long run because that pretty well prevailed in my second posting to Shanghai from 1947 to 1949. Then I had a short period back in Australia before going to Bombay. These were posts relatively detached from the Ottawa scene.
bout de papier: 1947 to 1949 was a pretty eventful time to be in China.
RANKIN: Indeed it was. The departure itself was interesting in that I realized that I had been watching history in the making We were so damn busy you did not dwell on it while you were there. You did what had to be done. There was more in retrospect than on the spot recognition of the history-making era that we went through in Shanghai. My work as trade commissioner virtually disappeared forwards the end and I became “the” Consul in Shanghai. I was the evacuation officer for all the Canadians in China. I think that is an important point about being in the Foreign Service – you have to take on responsibilities that go beyond anything that might be written in a job description in Ottawa. It never struck me as unusual that we should do this in the field. In China, the revolution was well and truly on, and promoting trade was not the priority of the day.
bout de papier: Would you tell us the story of your departure from Shanghai?
RANKIN: Yes. Well it all really began when I read the headline in my Sunday paper “Nationalists Threaten to Bomb British Ships in Liberated Ports”. This indicated a renewal of the policy of the Nationalist Government of China to prevent the entry of vessels to Communist-held ports. I had missed my booking on the previous day on a vessel chartered by the International Refugee Organization, and I fell back on a contingency plan to leave Shanghai aboard the British vessel “Wo Sang”, which was owned by Jardine Matheson and Company. I left taking nothing with me but my clothing.
We were all aware, passengers and crew, that our chances of getting beyond the mouth of the Yangtse estuary were doubtful. A Nationalist Chinese destroyer-escort, the “Tai Ping” was patrolling this area and had intercepted a British ship that previous Friday. We decided to try and slip by this guard ship in the dead of the night but were discovered. The “Tai Ping” ordered us to stop, and as we were complying, opened fire on us with 20 and 40 mm guns. We did not sustain any damage, and I believe the Chinese action was to emphasize their orders, rather than to sink us.
We were boarded and searched by a group of Nationalist naval officers and armed seamen. At the conclusion of this we were instructed either to return to Shanghai and remove all cargo and Chinese passengers, or dump the cargo and our Chinese passengers into the sea! We refused to comply, and a Mexican stand-off ensued that lasted eight days. During that time we organized ourselves into a captain’s advisory committee, established contact with the British warship HMS “Alacrity” which was standing by in international waters, and played a tremendous amount of very good quality bridge. We were fired on several more times by the “Tai Ping” primarily to remind us of her presence.
We finally made good our escape through a device — a promise by the ship’s captain not to enter Shanghai again while it remained a closed area. Our arrival at West Point wharf in Hong Kong, 10 days later, was marked by a rousing welcome by many old Shanghai friends who had preceded us on the journey. I should mention that during our eight days anchored in the Yangtse estuary we remained in contact with Canadians in Hong Kong by transmitting messages via HMS “Alacrity”. ’. Our spirits were excellent during the whole period and we were well fed and well looked after during the whole time.
bout de papier: The conditions of foreign service have changed in several respects.
RANKIN: I think that I was terribly lucky to be in the foreign service at the time I was. In Sydney in 1946 and 1947 communication with Ottawa was almost non existent. I used commercial telegrams and waited for a bag that came in irregularly and with very few instructions. We were much more on our own and we had to make decisions and live with their results. We set our own priorities and I think that that was a good thing. I think our “service” was better from our being able to exercise initiative at the post without tedious consultations with Ottawa. You will remember from our experience together in Japan and New York that I consider this an important approach to managing the mission. I refused to read telexes in draft form – I wanted the younger officers to have some of the discipline that results from having to live with their own decisions. Another favourite approach of mine, even after communications became very good, was to start a telex to Ottawa by noting that unless I heard to the contrary I proposed to take action in the following way. The desk officer in Ottawa often seemed to appreciate that he did not have to reply. In those early years in places like Sydney, Shanghai, and Bombay we just ran our own shop and learned a lot in the process. I hope I did not make too many mistakes. I think it was very good training, a very good way to start.
bout de papier: Your last foreign posting was Ambassador at Tokyo. That was a critical period in our commercial relations with Japan. There were major coal deals concluded and we had to negotiate with the Japanese on their auto exports. What are the challenges to a country like Canada marketing in Japan? What sort of observations do you have about what we can do to improve our performance in the trade field with the Japanese?
RANKIN: It is not easy. I have been saying that around Toronto and elsewhere. Penetrating the Japanese market calls for a lot of time and a lot of money. There are not that many firms in Canada that are prepared to devote both the time and money to penetrating that market. It also requires that they have a pretty detailed knowledge of the market they are entering and the non-tariff barriers that may be in their path. The various Japanese market-opening pronouncements always sound good but it is always a bit like peeling an onion. You take the outer peel off and there is another layer just like it underneath.
Certainly those things that they need from us, particularly in the natural resource areas, I think we will continue to sell. But the manufacturing end is not going to be simple. Indeed, I gave a speech in Vancouver at the Canadian Institute of Metallurgy recently, just after Prime Minister Nakasone had spoken, and I cautioned firms that in Asia the place to start is in Malaysia and Singapore and smaller Pacific Rim markets, in particular where language is not a barrier. Stop in Tokyo and develop your contacts, get the view of the market for your particular product and work up to Japan. Do not just say you are going out on the next plane and crack this market because you cannot do it. So it is not easy.
bout de papier: Do you think the focus on seeking an enhanced trading relationship with the United States risks diverting attention away from the Pacific and elsewhere?
RANKIN: It might. I think that is certainly a risk as our exports are highly concentrated in the United States. It gets down to almost a one market relationship. The Japan market, God knows, is not unimportant. But even though it is our second largest market it is miniscule compared to the U.S. I am on the board now of three coal companies. In the last three or four years when steel production sagged, the Japanese were awfully tough with us on how much they were prepared to take, and what price they were prepared to pay, despite the contract we had with them. It was a very difficult time to be in business with them. They like to play it their own way. We could have taken them to court but that would have eliminated us from the Japanese market forever. Realism suggested we find some sort of compromise, which we did.
bout de papier: You had a long and very lively association with the United Nations.
RANKIN: That goes back really to my time in the Embassy in Berne, Switzerland, from 1956 to 1959 when I would frequently get a telex instructing me to go to Geneva and cover some committee or another — no instructions by the way. Then in 1966 when I was Ambassador to Venezuela, I was asked to represent Canada at ECOSOC at the U.N. in New York. I participated in those meetings and at the General Assembly for seven years.
I have always been appalled at the hours and hours wasted at the U.N. because of a general lack of concern about punctuality. I started my first meeting of the Second Committee by saying I had a little booklet on how the chairman was supposed to run the committee. There were 135 or 140 countries involved. I said that I did not propose to read the book. Since they had elected me chairman, I was going to run it my way, and that we were going to start on time. We did. Twice a day for three months we started the proceedings precisely on time and we made a few other rules.
I never varied a minute regardless of who might not be there, because if you ever give up a minute you are sunk. It is two minutes the next day and so on. Eventually all the delegates would show up on time. They thought initially that I would give it up but after a week they realized I was serious, so they used to break up luncheons saying they had to get back. We did very well. It was a very good, active committee and a lot of fun.
That year we put through a great number of resolutions.
bout de papier: 1he United Nations is the subject of varying criticism and views.
RANKIN: That is true. And there is also a problem of a lack of public awareness of the good the institution has achieved. In fact, I have often wondered if there is not some way we could do more in this area. There are all sorts of people who are at odds with one another but who nevertheless come to some kind of an understanding simply because they do meet at the U.N. each year, and they do resolve lots of matters that could grow into major problems. I think one of the first security council resolutions ordered the Russians to get the hell out of Northern Iran for example, and they did. It was an achievement in itself but I do not think you would find one person in a thousand who even remembers that such a resolution was passed. And there are lots of those that are overlooked. Resolution 242 on Israel still is there and people still cling to it.
bout de papier: You were unconventional at the U.N. When you were Ambassador to Venezuela you also took an unorthodox, for a diplomat, approach to the problem of traffic congestion.
RANKIN: Yes, I can remember that well. We were driving home at the end of the day. I was with Mona and our two younger daughters. We got caught in a total traffic impass, bumper to bumper. We were not too far from our house at this point so I said “Oh to hell with this. I am going to walk home”. I got out of the car — we had a chauffeur of course — and in due course walked past the intersection that was fouling the traffic flow. It was literally a case of cars coming from four directions and all meeting in the middle of the intersection so that nobody could pass. Nobody was willing to yield the right of way. So I stood and looked at this for a minute or two and thought it was ridiculous, cars piled up in all four directions. I went out into the middle of the road and I got a woman to back up enough to let a truck through from the east and somebody else to back up enough to let someone through from the west and eventually got the traffic moving. Many waved and expressed appreciation as they drove by. In due course my own car arrived, so as it pulled into the intersection I simply stepped into it and went home. My daughters were down on the floor of the car dying of embarrassment at the spectacle of the Canadian Ambassador standing out in the middle of the intersection directing traffic.
bout de papier: What do your colleagues in the business community say about the “service” of the foreign service?
RANKIN: 1am a little concerned a bouta feeling in the business community that it is very difficult to make contact in Ottawa. I am astounded at the big companies that I work with that literally do not know where to go in government. There is reluctance to develop a good working relationship with the government and I think that this is bad. From the time I arrived in Sydney I always felt that the taxpayer was there to be served and I still feel that way. The foreign service enjoyed one of the world’s great reputations. I think it was because we were outgoing and taken in hand. That is our cornerstone. That is our strength.
Something I wanted to say and certainly will say so now if I may, is that I was singularly blessed with an extraordinary good staff in most of my posts and particularly in Tokyo. That was a great team we had. God, everybody was full of enthusiasm and overloaded with initiatives. The Commercial Section of the Tokyo Embassy provides a tremendous – a unique – service to the Canadian business community, because of the difficulty foreigners have in operating in that environment.
bout de papier: You seemed to be able to “build” a post, in terms of human resources.
RANKIN: I did not have all that much choice of the people I wanted. And I am not sure that I necessarily did very young officers in their first posting a tavour, because nobody ever worked for me, everybody always worked with me. I encouraged initiative. Spring an idea and if it sounds alright, get on with it. I think people found that exhilarating, particularly if it was their first post. I know it backfired in the case of several who then went on to someone else who did not play it that way, and they felt disgruntled that they did not have the freedom that they had at their first post. So there are two sides to that story.
bout de papier: Would you please relate to us your story of the disaster on the Orinoco River Bridge?
RANKIN: The opening of the Orinoco Bridge in 1967 — what a disaster. After many years of struggle and at great cost the Government of Venezuela completed a bridge across the Orinoco River. It was decided to have a suitably impressive opening ceremony for this structure. All ambassadors resident in Caracas were invited to this great event and the Venezuelan government’s chief of protocol was going to fly us down in his Viscount. I was not very keen on getting into this plane, and so I called up the President of Shell, who was a good friend of mine, and asked him if he was going to the opening. He was not but he provided a plane for the British Ambassador and I to fly down in.
We were put aboard a brand new bus to drive the five miles from the town out to the bridge. We got there and placed ourselves in the stands right at the opening of the bridge. The President of Venezuela was standing across the road and he was going to make the speech and cut the ribbon. The Cardinal was also flying in from Caracas for this event, to bless the bridge. And we waited and waited – it was 110 degrees in the shade. Then we heard a rumour that the Cardinal had been a little late leaving the town. As he got out towards the bridge he was stopped by an army unit that was stopping all traffic. The Cardinal was mad as hell about this and went back into the town and refused to return. The President had to send one of his cabinet ministers into town to persuade the Cardinal to try again.
Meanwhile, the President decided to give his speech while we were waiting for the Cardinal to arrive. He got about half way through it when the Cardinal arrived. The Cardinal would not get out of the car until the President came down and apologized to him. There was a lasting confrontation. The President was damned if he was going to apologize to the Cardinal – the Cardinal was not going to get out of the car until he did. A compromise was eventually reached. The Cardinal was in very bad humour but he blessed the bridge.
We were all to get on a series of buses to go to the other side of the river where there was to be a military march past. People piled into the buses and off they went at which time we discovered that our brand new bus had disappeared. All the ambassadors were left marooned on the wrong side of the river. The President kept sending motorcyclists back to tell us to get over to the other side. Eventually they persuaded one of the sergeants to let us use one of his broken-down army buses and we got trundled across the bridge and into our places.
When that finished we had a terrible time keeping the army bus. God knows what ever happened to our beautiful new bus, but we managed to get back into a broken-down vehicle and start the five miles back into the town where we were to have this huge buffet lunch. Meanwhile, they had taken the army off the road. There were thousands of people and we were bumper to bumper, going nowhere. I thought we would never get into the town.
When we finally arrived in town the British Ambassador and I headed rapidly to the urinal which was awash in God knows what. And the chaos in the place was unbelievable. Flies by the millions were sitting on the food all over the table. The British Ambassador remarked that he did not think things were going all that well. I said that I agreed with him and suggested that we had better go. At which point I ran into my great pal the Saudi Arabian Ambassador, a highly westernized man who liked his comforts and usually travelled with a valet wherever he went. He was in a towering rage and said it was the last time he was going to an opening of anything in Venezuela. I asked if he would like to go back to Caracas on a private plane and he said he would give me half of Saudi Arabia. I told him to follow us. We arrived at Caracas at a good comfortable time in the afternoon. We learned later that the two Viscounts that took the rest of the Ambassadors back to Caracas continued to have mechanical problems. In fact, one of them had to turn back and its passengers had to stay in a wholly-inadequate hotel for the whole night. The ventilation system on the other plane malfunctioned and dripped water on the seated ambassadors. Everyone got off soaking wet.
The event that really stood out in my memory was the forthright action taken by the Paraguayan Ambassador who was seated across from me on the bus on our way back into the town. We had a sound truck riding back beside us and the noise was unbearable. The Paraguayan Ambassador indicated several times to the driver of the sound truck to shut the damn thing off. When it was clear that his request was not going to be complied with, the Ambassador reached inside his coat, pulled out a revolver and shot the damn speakers! That was a day never to be forgotten.
bout de papier: Is there any particular message you would like to give at this time?
RANKIN: I always have a great message. I joined the foreign service with great reluctance in 1945 and 36 years later I have not a moment’s regret. It was a great career and I loved every ticking minute of it. I would like to think that it will continue to be a good career for those joining now. I would like to see a little more freedom made available to the posts abroad. This business of sending a telex every time you want to do anything bothers me but you have to have confidence in the people you send to the posts and allow them to get on with their own initiatives.
bout de papier: What do you think of the recent trend towards more “rotational” appointments to heads of post positions?
RANKIN: I think it is full of dangers and I am opposed. Joan Winsor, who is now Consul General in Los Angeles, is an old pal of mine. I think I was probably the first to phone her when she was appointed. I told her she was a marvelous girl, intelligent and attractive and that she would do very well in Los Angeles and that I wished her well but greatly regretted that she was chosen. She said she thought I would have something like that to say. I said that there were young guys who start out in this business at the bottom of the ladder and every time somebody is appointed from outside it just makes that ladder longer and more difficult. I congratulated her and said I was sure she would do well but I was not in favour.
There were a couple of assignments from the previous government at the last moment that left me purple in the face. I would not totally eliminate it. I think there may be occasions when there are exceptional people who can bring some particular knowledge into a particular situation. But we seem to be getting more and more of them. I think attitudes have changed too, but the professionals in the foreign service today are a little bit fussier about where they are willing to go and what they are prepared to do. When I started you went where you were told to go. You did not question it.
bout de papier: What sort of advice would you give to a young foreign service officer today?
RANKIN: Well, I would go back to my original thesis. Get involved in everything. I think that is where the reward lies. I can recall when I was home in Ottawa once between postings, I got a phone call from a good friend of mine in the department, much younger than I am, saying he and his wife just had to see me. They came down to the hotel and they were the gloomiest couple I have ever seen in my life. He had just finished his training and had been offered a very small post. He said that this was not what he had in mind at all when he joined the foreign service. He wanted Paris, London, Washington but was being sent to this relatively small country with a tiny embassy with three or four officers and it did not appeal to him at all. I told him that this was where he was wrong. He could go to London, Paris or Washington as probationary third secretary stamping passports or some damn thing for four years. But if he went to the small post he could do everything. He would get his nose wet in every aspect of Canada’s representation abroad. I told him that that was experience he would value for the rest of his career. I told him to get off his ass and get back to the department and say he was delighted to accept. He has told me 50 times since that I was right.
bout de papier: Bruce, thank you very much.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1986) — Spring/Summer 1986 // Printemps/Été 1986, pp. 11–14. Read the rest of this issue →
