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Anchorman. Norman went on to serve as High Commissioner to New Zealand, and last August was assigned to Cairo as Ambassador to Egypt and Minister to Lebanon. In Cairo he served as Pearson's Middle East anchorman during the Suez crisis and the creation of the Canadian-inspired United Nations Emergency Force. He also handled Australia's affairs in Cairo after Canberra broke off relations with Gamal Nasser's Egyptian government.
Norman's tense trials in this job were just easing when the charge of Communism fell anew on him. In Washington the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee called in John K. Emmerson, deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Beirut, questioned him about Norman and the 1951 Wittfogel charges. Emmerson, who had worked with Norman in Tokyo and the Middle East, told the committee he had no reason to think that Norman had ever been a Communist. When Committee Counsel Robert Morris released the testimony, there was a new flurry of news stories.
"Mike" Pearson sent a fresh complaint to Washington, took the floor of the House of Commons to reaffirm his confidence in Norman's loyalty. The U.S. State Department disowned the committee's charges, said they did not represent the views of the U.S. Government.
Undermined Spirit. From Cairo Herbert Norman cabled Pearson thanking him for his support. He began to spend long hours in his study writing: then he would summon his Nubian servant, Mohammed Daoud. and ask him to burn the writings in the ambassador's presence. In the pocket of his suit when he died, he left two scrawled notes. One said: "I have no option. I must kill myself because I live without hope." Another, to his wife, said: "I kiss your feet and beg you to forgive me for what I am doing."
When news of Norman's death reached Ottawa, Mike Pearson rose in the House of Commons to pronounce an epitaph: "All his actions served only to confirm and strengthen my faith in and my admiration for him. The combined effect of overwork, overstrain, and the feeling of renewed persecution on a sensitive mind and a not very robust body produced a nervous collapse." But Pearson refused to send a new official protest to Washington: "There is no point in making an international issue of this."
Others turned Norman's suicide into an anti-U.S. romp. Tory Leader John Diefenbaker attributed Norman's death to "witch-hunting proclivities of certain congressional inquisitors," and the CCF's Alistair Stewart cried that Norman had been "murdered by slander." Editorials in general were bitter.
In a calmer vein the Toronto Star reflected: "We believe it wiser to think of him as a victim of sacrificial service to his country than to say that he was 'murdered' by the slander of a few irresponsible men in Washington. Mr. Norman will carry the truth of his motivation to the grave with him."