‘MURDER’ – M.P.
Envoy Smeared by U.S., Kills Self
HERBERT NORMAN, 48, DIES IN 12-FLOOR CAIRO LEAP
‘WITHOUT HOPE’ NOTE SAYS
"La Presse" report on Norman suicide, Unknown, 1957-04-04
Cairo, April 4 – (CP) – Canada’s ambassador to Egypt, distressed by accusations of Communist tendencies leveled at him by a United States senate sub-committee, plunged to his death from the roof of a 12-storey building containing the home of Carl Eng, Sweden’s minister to Egypt.
Herbert Norman, the 48-year-old ambassador, was declared a suicide by Egyptian police. Earlier the Canadian embassy said he apparently had taken his own life because of “recent unpleasant publicity and accusations.”
The ambassador died, in the words of a note he left addressed to his wife, “without hope” – despite the fact that the senate sub-committee’s allegations that he was a former Communist had been repudiated by the U.S, state department and despite a vigorous defense of his record by Hon. Lester Pearson in Parliament at Ottawa.
The note, hastily scrawled on embassy paper, was found in the pocket of his light gray suit. With it was a note addressed to the Swedish minister, who was not home at the time, apologizing for using the building to take his life.
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