TIME is in the business of telling the news of any one country to readers in more than 180 other countries and territories. To me, one of the most interesting things about this business is the difference between what is generally known by people outside a country and what is known to be most important by people inside it.

One good measure of this discrepancy was taken this year by Bill Honneus, TIME's International Advertising Director. With the help of two Canadian companies, he sent to 1,595 Canadian businessmen a "blind" questionnaire (TIME was not mentioned) listing 50 important facts about Canada. Replying, 701 of these leading Canadian businessmen checked the ten facts which they thought most important for U.S. citizens to know. Here, in order, are their top ten choices:

1. "America's best customer," Canada buys more U.S. products than any other nation in the world--more than France, Germany and Italy combined.

2. Canada is the world's largest producer of newsprint, nickel, radium, platinum, asbestos--ranks second in wood pulp, aluminum, gold.

3. Canada pays cash on the barrelhead for U.S. goods.

4. In Labrador and northern Quebec, Canada is developing one of the world's richest bodies of iron ore; combined U.S. and Canadian interests plan to invest more than $250 million in this enterprise.

5. Canada is one of the few countries to solve her "dollar gap" without direct U.S. loans and grants.

6. Larger than all Europe, third largest country in the world, Canada's 3.8 million square miles are topped only by the U.S.S.R. and China.

7. Every third dollar paid by Canadian firms in interest and dividends goes to U.S. investors.

8. The U.S. has more than $5 1/2 billion in private investments in Canada--more than any other country.*

9. Unlike the U.S., the Canadian government has had a budget surplus every year since the war.

10. Interest and dividends (see #7) totaling 320 million Canadian dollars crossed into the U.S. last year.

Some Canadians said that they would happily settle for knowledge of Canada much less specific than all this. "Americans should know," noted one wistfully, "that most of us don't move around on our business affairs on snowshoes."

After hearing from the Canadians, Honneus worked many of the facts obtained from them into a general test for members of New York State's Chamber of Commerce. About 22% of the test-takers erred in thinking U.S.-British trade greater than U.S.-Canadian. More than half (69%) knew that U.S. private investments in Canada top those of any other country, but 56% underestimated the amount by $3.2 billion. In fact, most showed a general knowledge of Canada, but fell far short of the facts in their specific estimates of her trade, size and industrial importance.

You, as a TIME-reader, would no doubt avoid many such mistakes, since most of the ten facts have been recorded once or several times in stories which appeared in all five editions of TIME.

Cordially yours,

*In fast-growing Canada this figure has gone up since TIME's surveys first began last year.

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