Canada's Department of External Affairs, Volume 1After an introductory chapter dealing with the conduct of external relations before 1909, the book examines three distinct phases of the department's development. Although the department had modest beginnings under the first under secretary, Sir Joseph Pope (1909 1925), it was seen by his successor, O. D. Skelton, as an important instrument for the assertion of Canadian autonomy. Skelton presided over the establishment of the first Canadian diplomatic