Memoirs of Hugh L. Keenleyside

Darlene Money was a writer in Mississauga, Ontario.

In two thick volumes of memoirs this distinguished Canadian not only recounts the events of a lifetime of achievements in public service but also affords a fascinating perspective on Canada’s developing role in the international community from World War I to the 1970s.

Joining the Canadian diplomatic service in 1928, Hugh Keenleyside served in Ottawa and Japan and was Canadian ambassador to Mexico until his appointment as Deputy Minister of Mines and Resources in Ottawa. His recommendations concerning technical assistance to Bolivia while on loan to the United Nations for a fact-finding mission led to his subsequent appointment as director general of the U.N.’s Technical Assistance Administration. Later, as chairman of the British Columbia Power Commission and joint chairman of B.C. Hydro and Power Authority, he was active in the negotiations leading to the Columbia River Treaty with the United States.

Following the obligatory chapters on the family background and education of the author (and, to a lesser degree, his wife), the account progresses steadily from one stage of Keenleyside’s career to the next. These are definitely the memoirs of a public man, one whose thoughts and feelings about personal matters are either totally conventional or unrecorded here. The inner man lies beyond the scope of the author’s aim — to describe his role in many of the important events of the twentieth century while at the same time revealing Canada’s role as it participated in these events. Here and there the reader may catch just a tantalizing glimpse of an inner life, but in a flash it is gone.

Still, in spite of the emphasis on the external, Keenleyside does offer fascinating behind-the-scenes details of public events — for example, the royal tour of 1939, organized to a large extent by him, or of international negotiations like those between Churchill and Roosevelt, through Mackenzie King as middleman, during World War II. Equally interesting are portraits of such friends, colleagues, and leaders as Lester Pearson, Mackenzie King, Vincent Massey, O.D. Skelton, Norman Robertson, C.D. Howe, Robert Winters, Dag Hammarskjold, and many others.

A life so full of varied achievement both nationally and internationally cannot fail to furnish interesting reading. Though I regret the absence of insights into the private persona of so accomplished and successful a Canadian, I can only admire the accomplishments and the success, and the fair, balanced, and clear account of them that Hugh Keenleyside provides in these memoirs.