Whiskerless Santa Claus

Max was home again. The boy who started out in the world as William Max well Aitken and wound up with a baron's title and a London newspaper empire, bounced merrily from city to town to let all know how happy he was. The people of New Brunswick were just as happy, for aging (75), puckish Lord Beaverbrook bestowed gifts like a whiskerless Santa Claus.

The Beaver, largesse in hand, makes his homecoming an annual affair. This time benevolence showered in all directions.

Beaverbrook's first act on arriving in the province was to dedicate a three-story law-school building that he had donated to the University of New Brunswick. Then he discovered that a favorite folk song, The Jones Boys, no longer bonged from a broken university clock; he promptly put up $7,000 to have the clock repaired and The Jones Boys restored to clangorous eminence. Earlier this year in London, he had established an educational trust, the Beaverbrook Foundation, to which he turned over his vast holdings in his three newspapers. Now, in New Brunswick, he announced that the foundation had increased the number of its scholarships (some as high as $1,600). Then Lord Beaverbrook was off to Newcastle, his boyhood home, where he dedicated the Beaverbrook Town Hall and Civic Auditorium, his latest gift to the town.

Over the years, Bible-quoting, Empire-minded Lord Beaverbrook's gifts to his home province have run up to some $3,000,000. They have included buildings, a 120-acre park, libraries, art objects and books. The University of New Brunswick can thank its most famous graduate (and life honorary chancellor) for some of its residence halls, a gymnasium, library, skating rink, the president's house and a mass of scholarships. He has equipped the Miramichi Hospital, built a school at Beaverbrook, whose name he chose for his title when King George V created him a baron in 1917. A Beaverbrook fund provides care for New Brunswick's aging Presbyterian ministers. As a fresh gesture last week, he handed the city council of Fredericton $400,000, with orders to build an ice-skating rink to be used by both the city and the university.

No one was enjoying the giving more than the giver. "This is my happiest time of year," said Lord Beaverbrook, his cheeks glowing, his eyes twinkling, and his face lit up as if he were about to shout, "On, Comet! On, Cupid!"

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