The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1930 HONOURS FOR MERIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 989, 4 June 1930, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1930 HONOURS FOR MERIT

ONE glance at the list of the King’s Birthday Honours in Great Britain is enough to show that no one will be able satirically to say with a famous earl who said it first with grateful satisfaction: “"What I like about the Garter is that there is no demned merit about it.” None of the recipients of titles and distinctive rewards has received that decorative insignia, and all of them have been meritorious more or less in national service. If the King’s advisers have erred at all, they have erred wisely on the side of moderation. It is rare indeed on such occasions that the people could say reasonably that, here and there in the list, something a little better o» higher might have been bestowed with unanimous appreciation. Moreover, best and above everything else, nobody anywhere has been given opportunity, cause, or even suspicion, for raising ugly gossip about political trafficking in honours. Amon£ those whom the King hath delighted to honour there are no rich bounders and buyers of glittering rewards. This, of course, need not be taken too literally as the highest kind of tribute to the political morality of the Labour Government. It has not yet had sufficient time to make a host of distinguished friends, and then it must not be overlooked that men with great possessions will have no inspiring desire to subscribe on a scale of lavish generosity to the fund of an administrative party whose Chancellor of the Exchequer, a hard Yorkshireman, takes from very wealthy people in the heydey of prosperous life a fourth of their income for taxation revenue, and exactly a half of their estates at death, without even contributing in gratitude a commemorative wreath. Still, Labour deserves to be commended for advice that has flourished in the regal reward of merit. In the highest rank of honoured merit it so happens that hoth New Zealand and Australia enjoy a reflected glory. A New Zealander with world-wide fame as a plastic surgeon has had a knighthood conferred upon him “for valuable services in the treatment of facial disfigurement.” Sir Harold Gillies, formerly a Dunedin boy, and a Wanganui collegian, has given his country notable reason for pride in the achievements of a brilliant son. It is not necessary to write sob stuff about the deft and often daring skill with which he has healed hideous war wounds, subdued grotesque scars, and saved hundreds of shattered soldiers from the humiliation of causing children to flee in terror. Let it be said simply that he is one of the greatest plastic surgeons in the world, and has remade distorted faces in the divine image. It is true that this splendid knight has been a long time away from New Zealand, but New Zealand will hail and acclaim him as its own. There must be intense satisfaction in Australia that, one of its sons, Dr. Samuel Alexander, has been awarded the aloof and unsullied Order of Merit for eminent philosophy. A great deal of his deep but clear thinking as a British philosopher is needed badly these days in the land of his boyhood. Other honours, completely British in birthright, but Imperial as to service and distinguished merit, range from a peerage down to C.B.E. In between there are many titular rewards which represent almost an automatic progress in honour for colonial administrators, great sailors and soldiers, one famous airman, and an intrepid airwoman. It is, of course, open to argument that something better than a C.B.E. might have been bestowed on Miss Amy Johnson, but she herself is so satisfied as to exclaim that the honour is “simply marvellous.” No doubt, this, courageous adventurer of the air, who has spoiled a multitude of girls for office work and so-called household drudgery, will receive the Air Cross on her triumphant return to Old England. It is good to know that a wise ambassador like Sir Esme Howard has been made a peer of the realm, and that Sir John Simon, who sacrificed an income of £50,000 a year in order to become chairman of the India Statutory Commission and investigate a trouble worse and more difficult than a hundred Southern Irelands, has received the coveted Star of India. He, also, deserves even a higher honour. There will be a chuckle of pleasure over the baronetcy conferred on Mr. Frederick Royce, the founder of the firm whose motor-cars are far too good for even the average rich man. It is to be hoped that Mr. Henry Ford will join in the congratulations. The stage also has gained a knighthood. And who deserved it more than Sir Henry Lytton, the Gilbertian English “Mikado”? All things considered, Labour’s latest list of honours stands for merit, not money and social or political manoeuvring. Everybody in London today may join in the merry party for the Derby.