THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24421, 5 October 1940, Page 10

THE KING'S REPRESENTATIVE

Famous soldiers and an illustrious sailor have been among the occupants of the vice-regal office in New Zealand in the past. In the successor to Viscount Galway, whose extended term as Governor-General is now drawing to an end, the King will be represented for the first time in the Dominion by a distinguished airman. The announcement to this effect should be received with warm satisfaction throughout the country. For it may well be regarded as a distinct compliment to New Zealand that her next GovernorGeneral has been selected from an arm of the British defence forces that has been rendering such magnificent service as that performed by the Royal Air Force. Never in the entire field of human conflict, as Mr Winston Churchill said recently with reference to the brilliant achievements of the British airmen, have so many owed so. much to so few. Sir Cyril Newall's association with the Royal Air Force extends over more than twenty years. But, as he had learnt to fly nearly thirty years ago and was organising a flying school in India when the war of 1914-18 broke out, he may well be said to be a veteran airman. For the past three years he has been Air Chief Marshal and a member of the Air Council, and in these capacities will have taken a considerable part in the organisation of the Royal Air Force and in the creation of the remarkable fighting machine upon which the Empire has come to place so much dependence. Sir Cyril Newall will be welcomed in New Zealand first and foremost, of course, as the personal representative of a King who has throughout this war been ever increasingly winning the devotion and admiration of the British people but also as a representative of the air service that is day after day and night after night discharging a perilous task with matchless gallantry and signal success.