HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2006-10-11, Page 14.10441•14
2006 • The Huron Expositor
News
ille author pens his latest book
John Melady takes an in-depth look at the Suez Crisis in Pearson's Prize
Susan Hundertmark
MIMED
As a university student
in 1956, John Melady
watched anxiously as
events surrounding the
Suez Crisis unfolded,
wondering if he and
his classmates would
be conscripted to go to
war.
"Anytime Britain
was involved, we
(Canada) would sign
on the dotted line and
away we went. But the
government of the day
kept us out of Suez as
(Prime Minister Jean)
Chretien kept us out of
Iraq," remembers the
Egmondville author. •
Melady's latest book,
Pearson's Prize, revis-
its the Suez Crisis on
its 50 -year anniver-
sary.
A decade after the
end of the Second
World War, Egyptian
President Gamal
Nassar nationalized
the Suez Canal and
Britain, France and
Israel attacked him.
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Egypt and
Soviet
Premier
Krushchev threatened
nuclear war if the
United States got
involved.
Lester B. Pearson,
then -Canada's
Minister of. External
Affairs, won the Noble
Peace Prize for his
efforts proposing a
United Nations peace-
keeping
force (UNEF)
to be sent to Egypt.
"I wrote the book
because it's an event in
the history of this
country that people
should know about,"
says Melady.
And, while the book
does not make compar-
isons between the Suez
Crisis and present day.
events, Melady says
there are similarities
between Britian's_
Prime Minister of the
day, Anthony Eden and'
U.S. President George
W. Bush.
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"Bush had to have
his war in Iraq and
Eden had to have his
war in Egypt. Bush
hated Saddam and
Eden's worst enemy
was Nassar," he says.
Melady says. after
seeing the poverty in
Egypt firsthand, he
understands why
Naar would want to
end French and British
control of the Suez
Canal to benefit his
own people.
"It really was the end.
of Britain's time as an
empire, . when the bal-
ance of power shifted
to the U.S. and Russia.
We came so close to
there being an atomic
war in Egypt and that
would have been .a cat-
astrophe," says
Melady.
He says Pearson's
role as a global peace-
keeper through compli-
cated political circum-
stances is qne of
• Canada's glowing
moments.
"It's something we
can look back on with
pride,", he says.
"Things were so
volatile and suddenly
they work out a solu-
tion - that stuff
impressed me at the
time."
Melady, who met
Pearson once during
an election campaign
in the 1960s, says he's
always been
impressed by
Pearson's unassum-
ing, down-to-earth
character and ranks
him as one of the
great Canadian prime
ministers.
"He took the job seri-
ously but he had no
ego that was apparent
when I talked to him.
He was a diplomat
first and a politician a
distant second," says
Melady.
"Most Canadians my
age have a mental.
image of a man in his
60s, a little rotund, a
little disheveled who
spoke with a lisp.
They told him (when
he won the Nobel
Susan Hundertmakr photo
John Melady, of Egmondville, holding his latest book
entitled Pearson's Prize.
prize) that he saved
the world but Pearson
never :would have said
that," -he .says, remark-
ing on Pearson's mod-
esty.
Melady interviewed
Pearson's son and
daughter, who are now
in their late 70s, for his
book and learned about
the huge amount of
stress Pearson was
under during the Suez
Crisis.
"He lived on an air-
plane going back and
forth to the U.N. and.
he was prone to air
sickness," says Melady.
From Pearson's chil-
dren, he learned that
the $40,000 U.S.
Pearson won for the
Nobel Peace Prize was
invested by his wife.
And, Melady has a
hard time describing
how he felt when he
viewed the gold medal
Pearson won as part of
the Peace Prize.
"Awe isn't the word
but..)there it is, that's
what this man was
given. It's a round as a
coffee mug and a quar-
ter of an inch thick," he
says.
After researching the
beginnings of Canada's
role as an internation-
al peacekeeper, Melady
says he has misgivings
about Canada's current
role in Afghanistan.
"Our approach in
Afghanistan is certain-
ly different. If it's
peacekeeping, it's pret-
ty aggressive. But, I
also don't have any
solutions," he says.
Melady says reaction
to his book on Lester
B. Pearson has been
positive, with major
libraries around the
world, including the
University of Hong
Kong, ordering copies.