Evening star., 1950-07-23
|W.L. MackenzieKinq,
Ex-Prime Minister Of
Canada, Dies al Is
Continued From First Page0

five days of service as Prime Min
lister of the Dominion.
His tenure of 1929 days in Of
fee was the longest In British
Commonwealth history, surprising
that of Sir Robert Walpole, who
served as Britain's Prime Minister
for 1919 days early in the 18th
century.
Succeeded. by st. Laurent.
After retirement, Mr.. King sat
merely as the member of Parlia-
ment from the Ontario Riding
(district) of Glengarry, but the
decades Of his experience were at
the beck of his successor, Louis st.
Laurent.
His retirement had been fore
told, when he asked. his Liberal
Party in the summer of 1948 to
choose a new leader. Shortly
thereafter the Liberals named Mr..
st. Laurent.
Mr.. King disclosed his retire
ment date a few days before in a
letter to the Canadian Legion OF
the British Empire Service League,
just after his return in November
from London.
He became i'll a month before
his retirement while attending
a conference of commonwealth
prime ministers in the British
capital.
Mr.. King celebrated his 18th
birthday December II, 1949. He
told newsmen then his memoirs
were not progressing very rapidly
because he was easily fatigued.
He had been comparatively in
active since that time, being con-
fined to his home for long periods.
He rarely accepted invitations and
received visitors only when his
health permitted. -...
This summer he told a caller
he was confident he would recover
much of his strength and health
at Kingsmere, where he proposed
working on his memoirs. But
Thursday he was stricken.
Denounced Communism.
In one of his last important
speeches - made at the annual
dinner of the National Liberal
Federation's Advisory Council in
Ottawa. January 20, 1948, Mr..
King roundly denounced Commu-
ism as tyranny that "aims at
world conquest by force"
Communism is no less tyranny
than nazism," Mr.. King said. Its
patterns of procedure are similar
but they go further. They seek
to create unrest in all quarters
of the globe and, by devious under
ground and underhand methods,
to penetrate and undermine esta-
blished social systems of many
lands.
$50 long as Communism re-
mains as menace to a free
world. 1t is vital to the defense
of freedom to maintain a pre-
ponderance Of military strength
on the side of freedom and to en-
sure that degree of unity among
nations which will ensure that
they cannot be defeated and de-
stroyed one by one"
Mr.. King became one of the
greatest leaders of Canada's his
tory, achieving this stature slowly
and so unspectacularly that the
Canadian public hardly realized 1t.
He was the leader among Brit
iSh Empire statesmen of a group
opposing a strong centralized
Commonwealth "one-voice" lead
ership in world affairs.
He endeavored in his later
years to establish Canada as
leader of the so-called Middle
Nations" his policy being to have
Canada stand between Britain
and the United States, interpret
ing each nation to the other.
Naturally shy and, as world
statesmen go, a relative recluse,
Mr.. King remained in power year
after year almost despite himself.
Through his long tenure as
Prime Minister he rarely had a
large following Of ardent sup
porters. He was often ridiculed for
his lack of "color" and for his quiet
method of government by compro-
mise. He was short and pudgy, and
had a face that remained boyish
throughout his life. He was, on
most occasions, fiat and belabor-
ing speaker. He lacked utterly
nearly all those qualities popularity