Creed & Graft

Spunky Newfoundlanders, famed for the free & easy way they have of pummeling an unpopular premier and smashing furniture in their Government Offices when aroused, were scathingly told by a Royal Commission last week that in Newfoundland "a continuing process of greed, graft and corruption has left few classes of the community untouched by its insidious influence."

As a result, the condition of Newfoundland is "desperate." both politically and financially, according to the Royal 'Commission headed by that uncompromising, vinegar-tongued Scot, Sir William Warrender Mackenzie, ist Baron Amulree of Strathbraan. Last week prudent Lord Amulree had put the Atlantic between himself and Newfoundland when his Commission's report was published simultaneously in London and at St. John's. It declared 'that Newfoundland's chief industry--fisheries--is rotten to the core, that Newfoundland fishermen have become, under a "vicious credit system," practically the serfs of the merchants of St. John's.

Newfoundlanders have called themselves a "Dominion" so often that the habit of thinking of them as such has spread throughout the Empire and the World. In law, however, Newfoundland is still a colony, even though a self-governing one. Taking full advantage of this fact the Amulree Report proposed that Newfoundland's Government revert under the Crown to His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, which took over in an emergency last month the Government of Malta (TIME, Nov. 13).

Malta was taken over to squelch the pro-Italian Government its islanders had elected. Patriotic Britons highly approved of that. But the British taxpayer winced when it appeared last week that he must guarantee the debts of thoroughly insolvent Newfoundland. As Newfoundland bonds bounded up on the news, Britain's famed Manchester Guardian, its excited editors ignoring Newfoundland's non-dominion status, asked: "Is this claim to suppress the Dominion constitution in order to avoid default on external debt payments to be confined to Newfoundland? If so, on what peculiar theory of Empire relationships is the claim based? Are the financial arguments strong enough to justify such interference? In a word, is no lesser measure possible which would equally well secure the necessary reforms in the dominion?"

No lesser measure is possible, Lord Amulree insisted, pointing to the Report finding that Newfoundland's Government "is in imminent danger of financial collapse due to reckless waste and extravagance."

Paradoxically the Premier of Newfoundland, white-haired, Irish-born Frederick Charles Alderdice, was delighted rather than dismayed to have his Government called in "imminent danger of financial collapse." Not he, but his predecessor, Sir Richard Anderson Squires, committed as Premier the "reckless waste and extravagance." In Newfoundland's last election (TIME, June 27, 1932) both Sir Richard and Lady Squires lost their seats and Mr. Alderdice was chosen Premier on his business record as a Newfoundland tycoon (cordage, tobacco, insurance, hotels). So economical has he been that the Amulree Commission felt bound to reprove him gently for limiting the Newfoundland "dole" to a sub-starvation pittance of $1.60 per month.

Not knowing in what direction high-powered Newfoundland public opinion might explode on publication of the Amulree White Paper, Premier Alderdice and all other Newfoundland public figures kept mum as owls while the House of Assembly (Newfoundland Parliament) was convened.

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