NEW LEADER CHOSEN s

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 10

NEW LEADER CHOSEN s

CANADIAN CONSERVATIVES

DR. R. J. MANION

(Received July 8, 2.15 p.m.) OTTAWA, July 7. Dr. R. J. Manion, who served in th» medical corps in the Great War, wa3 chosen to succeed Mr. R. B. Bennett as Leader of the Conservative Party in the second ballot at the Conservative convention. He is an advocate of moderate tariffs and a greater measure of defence, with Imperial co-operation. Previously Mr. Bennett had declined j a strong demand that he should continue as Leader.

Mr. W. D. Herridge, Mr. Bennett's brother-in-law, created a storm at the conference after his monetary reform resolutions had been rejected, with a declaration that the whole convention was "a lot of bunk" and that it was controlled by reactionaries. He was howled down with shouts of "Jeremiah." ' : ■ .

Dr. R. j. Manion was Minister of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment in 1921 until the defeat of the Meighert Government. In the short Meighen. administration of 1926 he was Post-master-General. He was a member of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario for a time after the Government's defeat. • Dr. Manion won the Military Cross in the war when serving as medical officer with the 21st Battalion at Vimy Ridge. He was bom at Pembroke, Ontario, in 1881, of Irish-Cana-dian ancestry, and was regarded as this Irish Catholic representative in the Cabinet. He was later Minister of Railways. He was first nominated in Fort William as a Liberal in 1915. He was elected to the Commons as a Liberal Unionist in 1917. He is the author of "A Surgeon in the Army," a gold medallist of Toronto University, and a vigorous speaker of the fighting typ«. He has three sons. ■