Canada: THE PRIME MINISTRY: Man in Blue

To many a Briton, Prime Minister Mackenzie King seemed less a personality than a symbol of a generous Canada that had time & again stood beside the mother country. Said the London Times when he received the Order of Merit: “He has been loyal to Canada, loyal to the Commonwealth, and loyal also to a larger vision of the brotherhood of humanity.”

“The man in blue,” the British press dubbed him when he came to England last month dressed in a blue suit, shirt, tie and socks. With quiet dignity, the man in blue had paid official calls, passed in & out of Buckingham Palace during the week of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding, worked late at his suite at the Dorchester. There had been a weekend with Prime Minister Attlee at Chequers, and a Savoy reception by the Canada Club. Once Mr. King slipped away to visit his portrait painter, Artist Frank Salisbury, at Hampstead. There, after dinner, Mrs. Salisbury had played his favorite, Handel’s Largo.

Last week, Mackenzie King sailed for home. With him he carried a handful of confetti he had scooped up after the wedding, and a bunch of white heather that had been given him and the other guests at the wedding breakfast. Said the London News Chronicle as Godspeed: “. . . In a world starved of American currency . . . there is little we can do to help Canada at the moment. But at least we can take the occasion of Mr. Mackenzie King’s presence in London to acknowledge our great debt, and to reaffirm that nothing shall be left undone which might enable us to assist wherever and whenever we can do so.”