THE HON. MAURICE DUPRÉ

The death of Hon. Maurice Dupré K.C., as the resuit of injuries incurred in a railway wreck, ends at the comparatively early âge of 53 a public career which might normally hâve continued its usefulness for many years. Born of old French-Canadian stock, M. Dupré, after some expérience of municipal politics in Quebec City, where he was a prominent lawyer, played a considérable part in the revival of the fortunes of the Conservative Party in Quebec, which, after the general élection in 1930, gave it its first substantial représentation from that Province in the Fédéral Parliament since 1917. As a resuit, he was rewarded with the office of Solicitor-General in the Ministry of the présent Lord Bennett.

As a Minister he was painstaking- and diligent in performing his administrative duties, and, while he never made any particular mark in parliamentary debates, he coiild.ahvays make a well-reasoned présentation of the Governmental point of view. The loss of his seat in 1935 interrupted his political career, but he remained a figure of some influence in the councils of the Conservative Part3\ He was a good type of the French-Canadian Conservative of the old school. and the fact that he had received part of his éducation in Britain at Oxford University made him unsympathetic to the ideas of the extreme racial nationalists of his Province.

The forces in Quebec which are opposed to the once more dominant Liberal Party are so weak in leaders of good abilitv and high standing in the community that H. Dupré's death must be reckoned a serions loss to public life (The Globe and Mail, Toronto, October 6, 1941).