{HOUSE OF COMMONS
CANADA
Leader of the Opposition}
Ottawa,
September 18, 1926
The Honble. N. W. Rowell, K.C., LL.D.,
134 Crescent Road,
Toronto, Ontario.
Dear Mr. Rowell:
May I again ask you to consider becoming a member of the Government of Canada in the new Liberal Administration which I expect, on Monday of next week, to be called upon to form. I know that you have no aim higher than that of public service and that, apart from your health, there is no sacrifice which you would not be willing to make at a moment of great need in the country's affairs.
I cannot ask you to ignore advice in the matter of your health, and having told me what you have concerning it I feel an added measure of responsibility in again asking you to consider re-entering public life and assuming the onerous duties of a Minister of the Crown. On the other hand, I feel an equal, if not greater, measure of responsibility in seeking to obtain at this moment a person
(page 2)
in whom the country would have the greatest confidence for the discharge of an all-important public duty, and it is with this end in view that I write not only to ask you to consider coming back into Parliament and into the Government, but also to take, at the outset, the portfolio of Minister of Customs and Excise, with the understanding that you are to be given a perfectly free hand in having the whole Customs Service reorganized, and that you will receive my wholehearted support in any reforms which you may regard as essential.
It would not be either my intention or my desire that you should continue indefinitely as Minister of Customs. Knowing your preference for one or other of the two portfolios of which I spoke to you before the recent contest, I should be glad, should you come into the Ministry at once, to arrange within the course of the year for one or other of the portfolios referred to. For obvious reasons that would be somewhat difficult, if not impossible, to arrange just at the moment. I would undertake, however, to see that the matter would be arranged just as soon as the necessary appropriation could be obtained from Parliament.
Mr. Meighen has intimated to the Press that he intends resigning on Monday. I assume that His Excellency
(page 3)
will thereupon call on me to form an Administration. For this reason I should be grateful if, as soon after the receipt of this letter as possible, you would wire me as to whether or not you would be willing to accept the portfolio of Minister of Customs and Excise in the new Administration. I would like to get some kind of intimation from you by noon on Monday, if that is at all possible, in order that I may have in mind all possibilities when I come to confer with some of my former colleagues respecting the personnel of the new Administration.
With kindest regards to Mrs. Rowell and yourself, and all good wishes.
Believe me,
Yours very sincerely,
[signed] W.L.Mackenzie King
