bout de papier, Vol. 17, No. 3 (2000) — Fall 2000 // Automne 2000, p. 11
Jeremy Kinsman, then Canada’s Ambassador to Italy, spoke at the tribute to Herbert Norman. The text follows:
On August 9, 2000, Canadian Foreign Service Officers on duty in Rome paid tribute to their colleague Herbert Norman, who took his life while Ambassador in Cairo in 1957. Exhausted by his strenuous efforts on behalf of peace in the Middle East, and depressed by renewed harassment by U.S. anti-communists trying to resurrect his activities as a student at Cambridge University in the 1930s, Norman finally gave up. Although he was consistently defended by Lester Pearson as a “loyal official and a patriotic Canadian”, Norman feared that after 10 years of witch-hunting, his pursuers would add to the pressure placed on his Minister and friend. Having left notes to those closest to him, foremost his wife who was in Ottawa, Norman ended the controversy.
It was probably Norman’s sense of modesty, his wish to avoid the limelight, as well as its lovely setting, peacefully nestled just inside the city’s ancient walls, that led to the choice of the non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome for his grave. Though the site is visited by many for its peaceful beauty, the allure of the reputation of some of its prominent residents, such as romantic poets Percy Shelley, and John Keats, Norman’s modest memorial, a simple triangle of marble with only his name, had passed virtually unobserved until the Canadian Ambassador to Italy, who is an ex-officio Administrator of the Cemetery, noticed it nestled against a tree.
It was swiftly decided that the Foreign Service and the Canadian Government should give the site where this fine and generous colleague is buried the more public and lasting honour which he deserved.
Dans la lumière dorée d’un crépuscule estival romain, les collègues de Herbert Norman en poste au service extérieur à Rome et leurs familles ont participé à une discrète cérémonie avec la sous-ministre adjointe, Suzanne Laporte, qui représentait le sous-ministre Donald Campbell. M. Campbell est ancien ambassadeur au Japon, où naquit Herbert Norman et où il servit en qualité de remarquable conseiller politique auprès du général MacArthur lors de la reconstruction postérieure à la guerre, car peu d’hommes avaient une connaissance aussi poussée des réalités japonaises. M. Campbell s’intéressait donc de très près à ces honneurs. L’ambassadeur Kinsman a rappelé ce que lui avait dit le ministre Axworthy récemment, à savoir sa fierté de servir dans les mêmes capacités que Lester Pearson, et de soutenir le travail accompli par les Canadiens au sein du service extérieur et en faveur d’un monde plus équitable, tâche à laquelle Herbert Norman avait consacré sa vie.
L’ambassadeur auprès du Saint-Siège, M. Fernand Tanguay, Mme Laporte et les autres participants ont laissé des fleurs provenant de Mme Irene Norman, épouse du disparu et qui habite toujours à Ottawa. Puis, dans un silence que même les chats fureteurs du cimetière n’ont osé rompre, la plaque honorant la vie et la carrière de Herbert Norman, et aux frais de laquelle de nombreux membres du MAECI ont contribué, a été dévoilée. On peut y lire ce qui suit :
Herbert Norman loyally served Canada with great distinction, in Japan, as
High Commissioner to New Zealand, and as Ambassador to Egypt.
He died tragically in Cairo in 1957. His efforts in the cause of peace
brought honour to his family and his grateful country.
En Témoignage
The Government of Canada
2000
Well then, let’s follow iza yukan
the peal of bells higan no kane no
to the yonder shore ato ote
– Hakurin
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Originally published in / Publié à l’origine dans bout de papier, Vol. 17, No. 3 (2000) — Fall 2000 // Automne 2000, p. 11. Read the rest of this issue / Lire le reste de ce numéro →
