Hurricane Time

Hurricane Time Prim & proper Fredericton never fails to loosen its stays a bit for a gay old time during the annual visit of New Brunswick's most illustrious native son, William Maxwell Aitken, Baron Beaverbrook, 72 this week. The Beaver, Britain's No. 1 newspaper lord, likes it that way. He seldom comes home, moreover, without bearing gifts for his pet philanthropy, the University of New Brunswick (total so far: $1,500,000), where he himself was once a brilliant, tippling, debt-ridden, poker-playing law student.

The Beaver's visit last week was no exception. This year's beneficence: a $265,000 library, 12,000 books, the private papers of two other New Brunswickers who made good--Prime Ministers R. B. Bennett of Canada and Bonar Law of Britain --and miscellaneous valuable manuscripts. Among the latter was a love letter from Admiral Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton, accusing her of flirting. Said the Beaver to a newsman: "Shows how disgracefully women can behave . . . She was just getting him all hotted up."

The library presentation ceremony was held in the $250,000 Beaverbrook Gymnasium (his gift for 1939). Later, Beaverbrook presided with uninhibited gusto over a black-tie dinner, where he heard himself described as "an astounding combination of Puck and Napoleon." The Beaver lingered until 4 a.m., helping the 250 guests put away 95 bottles of champagne, uncounted slugs of whisky, with many a lusty song.

Said U.N.B.'s President Albert W. Trueman with an exhausted sigh: "He's a human hurricane, that man!"

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