Fonds consists of handwritten drafts of five chapters of memoirs, 1892-1917, and four chapters of "Moscow Through the Years", n.d., 5 cm; memoranda, speeches, pamphlets, and occasional letters concerning such subjects as, Siberia 1919, and Kuibyshev, Russia, 1943, the Atlantic Alliance, NATO, Canadian export trade, western foreign policy, European economic cooperation, Canadian defence, 1958-63, and Commercial Intelligence Journals, 1926-27, 5 cm.
The fonds also contains photographs of a meeting of Commonwealth High Commissioners in London, England, March, 1951; and portraits from international political conferences attended by D.L. Wilgress, 1950-1951.
Wilgress, Leolyn Dana, 1892-1969 : Leolyn Dana Wilgress, born in 1892 at Vancouver, B.C., was educated in Japan and Canada. After graduating from McGill University in 1914, he joined the Department of Trade and Commerce as a trade commissioner. He served in Russia, Romania, England and Germany. In 1932 he became director of the commercial intelligence service. In 1940 Wilgress became deputy-minister of the Department of Trade and Commerce.
Wilgress joined the Department of External Affairs in 1942 as Canada's first minister and later ambassador to the U.S.S.R. He also served with the United Nations, on trade and tariff negotiations, as High Commissioner for Canada in the United Kingdom, and on the North Atlantic Council of Deputies. From 1952 to 1953 he was Under Secretary of State for External Affairs. Following this he represented Canada at NATO Council, at OEEC, and as Canadian chairman on the Permanent Joint Board of Defence for Canada and the United States.
See also: The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1985 and The Canadian Who's Who, 1967-1969.
