The Governor-General.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17990, 6 February 1924, Page 8

The Governor-General.

There would bo few "Press" readers in whom tho special message which we published yesterday about the GovernorGeneral would not excite regret. If Lord Jollicoo goes to England in October tho Dominion will lose a great deal more than a correct, wise, and capable representative of the King, and very much more than a popular figuro at social • functions. Our Governor-General is one of the most

distinguished sailors alive: though no one could possibly have obtruded himself less, or have divested himself more completely of whatever would giveihim tho air of a man of destiny, ho is one of the Empire's men of destiny whether wo always remember it or not. To tho end of the century, and probably long afterwards, men will argue about tho Battle of Jutland, and the function of the British. Fleet, and the conduct of tho Great War generally. But no ono will or can doubt that not merely for an hour or two, but for a year or two, tho safety of the British Empire, and indirectly therefore of Western civilisation, depended on the vigilance, capacity, and high moral conrago of tho Commander of the Grand 3?leet. One of tho momentous facts of all

great crises is that the fate of millions is in tho hands of perhaps half-a-dozen. It i 3 impossible to think of Lord Jellicoo without thinking also that ho had it in his power once to make every farmer in the Dominion a bankrupt,

every merchant a dependent of aliens, and every artisan a beggar. It was particularly appropriate that the most distant of all the Dominions, and the ono therefore most dependent on the security of tho seas, should have been given for it 3 Governor-General tho man by whom abovo all men' living the security of the seas was assured. It has been a very great honour to us to have had moving among us for four years —and Lord and Lady Jellicoe have moved among us very freely indeed —a man aasociated with events as big a3 any in history. On the young especially—for like many famous men the Governor-General has been especially interested in boys and girls—it has been both mentally and morally stimulating to see and meet and talk to a man who kept the outer gate of the Empire through so many of its darkest days and nights. But we are not at present farewelling Lord Jellicoe. It' is to be hoped that there is still a chance that tho Dominion will secure an extension of his term. And if there is not, there are at least seven or eight months yet before he is timed to go, and precedent suggests that most centres in the Dominion will see him during that period.