CANADA: Maiden Flight

For the first time in his cautious, well-ordered life Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King flew in an airplane last week. An American-made bomber flipped him across the North Atlantic to Britain. The take-off showered dust on angry critics of Canada’s fuddy-duddy war policies, particularly on the Government’s unwillingness to conscript men for overseas service. His war talks in Britain were expected to save some of the face lost when Canada was not represented at last fortnight’s Roosevelt-Churchill meeting at sea.

Six hours before the flight ended an uncoordinated censorship revealed the bomber was in the air. But no Nazi planes tried to intercept it. Not so considerate later were 10,000 boisterously restive Canadian soldiers jampacked in a British sport stadium. To them Prime Minister King pontificated: “Never in her history has Canada been prouder than today of men who crossed the seas to play their part alongside the mother country. …”

Back from the soldiers came a boo like a cannon blast. It was enough to jar any statesman, drive many a less stubborn man to cover. But Mr. King has learned a few tricks during nearly two decades dominating Canadian politics. Taking a death grip on his umbrella, he cannily turned boos to cheers with the neatest euphemism of the week: “I gather from the applause that many of you would rather be engaged in more active operations than you are today.”