EXCELLENCY McKELL

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5318, 3 February 1947, Page 4

EXCELLENCY McKELL

JT is in the.last degree deplorable that. a bitter controversy should have arisen concerning the appointment of a successor to the Dulce of Gloucester as Governor-General of Australia, and equally deplorable is the fact that Mr. Chifley- should have insisted in putting forward an Australian politician in office after the feeling of a large section of the Commonwealth had declayed its objections, the most important of which. to our mind, are not only valid but vital. The first reactien to the rumour that Mr. McKell was the , Governor-General-designate was contemptuous incredulity. Then, when the Government refused to malce a statement of its intention and the rumour persisted, the Press and a large section of the thinking publie revealed a resentment that was exp'ressed in no uncertain terms. The

basis of this objection to the j McKell appointment has nothing to do with the Premier of New : South Wales personally. On the ! face of it, his record is one of a ' forthright politician who has ; proved his capacity as an admin- ' istrator but whose policy as , State Premier has been woefully ; vacillating and bent to every ; storm that has blown from industrial trouble centres. Had McKell's appointment received , the general endorsement of his } owii party, the charge might , have been levied that objectors j were activated purely by ppliti- | cal motives, but the fact is that i the Labour Party itself is at J loggerheads on the subject. , . One spokesman urged recently ; that in acknowledging the j widely-expressed desire that a ! distinguished Australian should ; be the next Governor-General, j Service qualifications should be i taken into account. He pointed j out that in Canada, New Zea- ! land, Queensland and in New . South Wales itself, the King's representative was a distinguished soldier, but to this ; obvious lead Mr. Chifley turned i a deaf ear. 0 This is the qtiestion that was ! asked at the time when the ; McKell appointment was first ' mooted : How can a party leader, passing directly from the politi- i cal arena to a post requiring „ supreme detachment and independence of judgment 'in its J occupant, suddenly stand above j party and electorate associations as the very symbol of national ; unity? The answer, of course, is that if the new appointee does attempt to deport himself . •essentially as the representative of the Crown, every political Falstaff and Mistress Quickly of Redfern will seize every suitable opportunity to embarrass him in his newly-worn dignity. It is too much to expect that the robust Australian sense of humour of his late constituents, whose manners and morals are so vividly described in Ruth Park's prize-winning novel, Harp of the South, will niot find a target in the Governor-General and in so doing, bring the office itself into disrepute. The other objection to McKell's selection is that it bears all the marks of a party gift. Had the reward aw:aited • the recipient's disappearance from active politics, less might have heen said about this aspect of the matter.