King's Commoner

In a master stroke of Empire tact, His Majesty's Government last week gave Canada its first commoner for Governor-General. Canadians have grown heartily weary of the King.'s man they have now, dull, finical Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, ninth Earl of Bessborough. Last week Governor-General Bessborough, wife & daughter were in western Canada on a "farewell tour." By all etiquet, his successor should not have been named until after Bessborough finishes presiding at the King's Silver Jubilee ceremonies in Canada. But George V's popularity in his dominions is more important to the Government than Bessborough's personal feelings. Therefore, last week plain John Buchan was named Governor-General.

John Buchan, 59, is a smallish, tightlipped, prudent Scot, an able romanticist in most of his 50 books, an able realist in life. Son of a middle-class preacher, he has many potent friends, few enemies; many abilities, no vices. He has been a lawyer, private secretary to the High Commissioner for South-Africa, justice of the peace, soldier, Wartime director of Information (propaganda), book publisher, director of Reuter's news agency, member of Parliament from the Scottish Universities. He has written a score of excellent adventure stories, such as The Dancing Floor, Greenmantle, The Path of the King, and has shown a brilliant flair for dishing up heroes in immensely scholarly, reasonable and sound biographies: Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Walter Scott.

For playing the hero himself Mr. Buchan has no taste. His most notable bill in Parliament was one on greyhound racing. British intellectuals object to the fact that Buchan scholarship, without falsifying history, can make a great man look like a scamp, a scamp look like an honest fellow. He is friend to many a British pacifist yet he believes in what he calls "the eternal sacrament of war." In his career, he goes slowly and prudently, saves all his violent and romantic impulses for his books. He married a daughter of the rich Grosvenor clan, the Duke of Westminster's second cousin once removed.

Canada's Governor-General is named on the advice of the Canadian Premier. King-loving Richard Bedford Bennett would undoubtedly have been delighted to please his King by advising that a King's son be named the next Governor-General. But Canadian elections are coming and Bennett may not be Premier after them. Therefore His Majesty's Government consulted, not only Bennett, but also the leader of the Opposition, Liberal Mackenzie King, who is a good friend of Buchan. King advised strongly against a King's son.

Last week Mr. Buchan's choice for the job was a huge success. The Canadian Commons cheered the news with a will. Britain hoped George V would make his man a peer before John Buchan goes to Canada in the early autumn; Canadians fervently prayed he would not. Canadian politicians promptly tried to impress one another with the fact that they had read Buchan's books and Canadian bookstores advertised the volumes they had in stock. Only the loyal Toronto Daily Star bridled: "It may be a little unseemly to be discussing so approvingly the selection of the next Governor-General in the presence of Lord Bessborough, but His Excellency will understand. . . ."

In London Governor-General-Designate Buchan, giving up his seat in Parliament, said the magnificently right thing: "As an historian I have always been fascinated by the romance of Canada's history and her wonderful development. ... I do not feel that I am really leaving home, since Canada has been so largely made by my countrymen and so much inspired by Scottish tradition. I look forward also to seeing much that is wonderful in the French-Canadian race, which has produced some of the chief pioneers in the world's history. I found in the War that the old Scottish friendship for France was still a living tradition."

John Buchan's ability to say the right thing reaches its flower in The People's King, the Jubilee history of George V's reign, which Houghton Mifflin will publish in the U. S. on May i. Of George V it says little: that he has a tenacious memory, is the first British King since Charles II to be a first-class practitioner of a field sport (shooting), that the British Government suppressed the fact that during the null horse reared and fell on him. Of the British institution of the Throne it says much: "A calm at the heart of the storm. The King is of no class, being above classes. . . . His duty is not to act but to be ... like Time,

'who in the twilight comes to mend All the fantastic day's caprice.'"

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