The Sun 12 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1930 GOVERNORS AND THE EMPIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 956, 26 April 1930, Page 10

The Sun 12 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1930 GOVERNORS AND THE EMPIRE

IT costs Australia £37,525 a year to support her eight Governors * and one resident. The Governor-General alone receives £IO,OOO a year. In such difficult times as these, Australians may feel that such a large sum might just as well be kept in the country. But there is more than this at stake in the Australian Labour Government’s proposal to appoint an Australian, Sir Isaac Isaacs, as the next Federal Governor! The steady growth of national sentiment brings with it the conviction that there is no jpb in Australia an Australian is not capable 'of performing. In the Conservative view of official quarters in London, the l>roposal to interfere with the custom of appointing a member of the English nobility to fill the office will be considered little short of heresy. There is already ample evidence that it has aroused alarm, consternation and horror. The independent manifestations of the Australian character have always been feared more than respected in England, and the latest departure from precedent will merely confirm the gloomy suspicion that it is impossible to tell what Australia will do next. The most serious aspect of the proposal, from the point of view of Englishmen, is that it implies loss of respect for the traditional administrative capacity of the British aristocracy. There will be a vague fear that such an appointment may weaken the ties of Empire. Every time one of the Dominions asserts a faith in her own competence, the same catch-cry is raised. If a New Zealander buys an American motor-car, some people regard it as rank disloyalty. The suggestion that the Dominions might dispense with the Privy Council on account of iis’expensiveness as a final Court of Appeal has been hailed as a threat to Imperial unity. The fact is, of course, that Imperial unity is not founded on formal survivals. It flourishes because deep down in the breasts of the people there is a sense of affection and kinship, which the existence of the Privy Council, or the system of Vice-Regal appointments, does not affect at all. If the survival of the Empire as a league of British nations were dependent on such things, there would he a poor prospect of its permanence. The real danger in the contemplated appointment of an Australian to be Governor-General of the Australians is a danger that will be felt by the Australians alone. They will suffer as America has suffered, through setting up a spurious image of freedom and democracy. Government House will lose its detachment, and instead become a centre of intrigue, a target of political attack. Candidates for the lucrative post will, in their own way, canvass for support as vigorously as an American Senator at a convention of Republicans or Democrats. Not every Chief Justice will have the qualifications and credentials of Sir Isaac Isaacs who, at 75, is aloof from the political turmoil. In the alternative, if the Chief Justiceship is to he made a stepping-stone to Government House, it will be invested with a new and dangerous magnetism for clever hut ambitions men.

As soon as the Vice-Regal appointment becomes political, the public respect for the incumbent will diminish. Neither socially nor in public affairs will he enjoy the prestige which British nominees command today. Coming from England with a mandate to preserve a due and appropriate detachment in the execution of his duties, the Englishman who becomes a Governor of a Dominion has no difficulty in avoiding political embarrassments. The Australian, reared among the people, calling the dustman and the office janitor by their Christian names, would find his position a great deal more delicate. Even in the apparently simple business of compiling a list of those eligible for Government House functions, all sorts of social problems would appear. His Excellency’s late neighbours, though of no particular social standing, might successfully urge their right to be among those present, to the exclusion of someone who, in an official capacity, might reasonably have expected to he invited. If the Australian Government insists on conducting the experiment, these and other disadvantages will appear. They will have the effect of confirming the value of the old system, but, even so, the failure of Australians as governors of their countrymen will be no rejection on their ability. There could be no more difficult position. Given the same responsibilities in another colony, an Australian who failed in Australia might succeed admirably by reason of the very detachment which at present makes Englishmen the best Governors of the Dominions. A New Zealander once became Governor of Jamaica. Possibly an Australian may yet become Governor of British Guiana* or Sierra Leone.