MONTREAL -- Diplomat John Watkins -- 'the most beloved officer in the whole foreign service' -- acted like a man who had little time to live just before he died while undergoing RCMP questioning, a friend said Wednesday.
John Holmes, who preceded Watkins as Canadian charge d'affaires at the Moscow embassy, told a coroner's inquest he 'took it as a joke of some sort' when Watkins told him in September, 1964 he was being investigated by the RCMP.
'Then, when we were alone, he told me something that made me realize that it was more serious than I thought. It upset him, there is no doubt about that.'
'He didn't go into a great deal of detail, just enough for me to realize that it was a very stressful situation,' said Holmes, who left the government in 1960 as assistant under-secretary for external affairs and now teaches.
He said Watkins acted like a man 'who did feel he didn't have much longer to live, because of his heart attack.'
Watkins died of an apparent second heart attack in a suburban Montreal hotel room Oct. 12, 1964 while being questioned by RCMP officers Henry Brandes and Leslie James Bennett.
The month-long investigation was intiated when two Russian defectors alleged Watkins had been blackmailed by Russian intelligence over homosexual activities during his stint as ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1954-6.
The RCMP began the interrogation in Paris, where Watkins was recoverng from a heart attack in the home of former governor general Jules Leger. The questioning then moved to London where Watkins met with Holmes and confided the nature of the investigation.
Holmes said he thought his friend was on amicable terms with his interrogators. But, he added, Watkins 'made friends with everybody.'
'He was the most beloved officer in the whole foreign service... entertaining company, a wonderful raconteur, witty, cheerful.'
Although Watkins died while under police questioning, Brandes told authorities at the time he was 'a friend of the deceased.' He did not mention Watkins' diplomatic status or his own role as an RCMP officer.
The statement was a factor in then-coroner Marcel Trahan's decision not to hold an inquest at the time. Trahan has not been called to testify before the inquiry.
Coroner Stanislas Dery adjourned the inquest indefinitely, while he considers whether to call for testimony from Bennett, who now lives in Australia.
