CANADA: Hands Across the Seaway

Today, this Nation offers to mankind

This moment, when the passion in old foes

Is blest and sublimated and combined

To give Man’s utmost for the best man knows.

—from Lines by John Masefield on the Occasion of Her Majesty’s Visit to Canada,

“She opens up a pathway to the sea,” Masefield went on, and that was the meaning of the occasion when the Queen of Canada extended a welcoming hand to the

President of the U.S. at a Montreal air-force base last week. The two heads of state made the great occasion human and informal. “This is a very great honor to see you again,” said Dwight Eisenhower. “So good to see you,” murmured the Queen. Then, along with Mamie Eisenhower and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the heads of state moved off by automobile to dedicate a project that in size and conception is “man’s utmost”—the St. Lawrence Seaway.

At the dedication site near the St. Lambert lock, Elizabeth pointedly emphasized her role as Queen of Canada: ”The seaway is a magnificent monument to the enduring friendship of our two nations and to their partnership in the development of North America.” Ike responded with a tribute to “all the people of Canada over whom you reign.” Then, with a slight grin, he continued: “Because we are in this beautiful part of Canada where French is principally spoken [the Queen had delivered part of her speech in French], will you permit me a single halting sentence of my Western prairie brand of that language —Je suis tres heureux de me retrouver parmi vous au Canada” (I am very happy to be with you in Canada again).

Royal Fending. With Prime Minister and Mrs. John Diefenbaker and a party of other notables from Ottawa and Washington,* Ike and Mamie joined their hosts aboard the blue-hulled yacht Britannia for a 31-mile, five-hour cruise through the lower channels and first three locks of the seaway—which have actually been in use for nine weeks (TIME, May 4).

On the royal bridge, just below the ship’s navigating bridge, Philip handed Ike his binoculars for a better view of the St. Lambert lock as its gates swung open to receive the Britannia. Later, in the state dining room, where a U-shaped mahogany table was set with crested white bone china, the royal couple and their 56 guests sat down in Chippendale chairs for a lunch of soft-boiled eggs on mousse of foie gras, garnished chicken, strawberry ice bombe, three wines.

In the Beauharnois lock, Elizabeth, like a suburban housewife back-seat driving a new station wagon, worried as the yacht warped close to the concrete walls. In mock alarm, she enlisted Ike’s help, and each reached over the rail with both arms to help fend the 5,769-ton ship away from the abrasive concrete. When the crisis passed, Elizabeth hurried to the side of John Diefenbaker to demonstrate with thumb and forefinger how close the ship had come to scarring its paint. Above the lock Elizabeth and Philip left the ship to> escort Ike and Mamie to their waiting Marine Corps helicopter; 20 minutes later the Eisenhowers were aboard the Columbine III, homeward bound for Washington.

Elizabeth and Philip reboarded their yacht for an overnight cruise to Massena, N.Y., where along with Vice President Richard Nixon, New York’s Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and Ontario’s Premier Leslie Frost, she dedicated the St. Lawrence hydroelectric power project.

* Among them: Secretary of Commerce Lewis Strauss, brought along by Ike as a show of his support; Secretary of State Christian Herter; Arkansas’ J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.