New G.G., New Status

Canada's new Governor General, Field Marshal Viscount Harold R.L.G. Alexander, was on his way.

The blue-eyed, saber-trim soldier closed his home in Berkshire; then, in London, with the help of extra coupons from the Board of Trade, he bought all the extra clothes he would need. He called on Queen Mary, lunched with George VI and Queen Elizabeth, stood in the rain to review Canadian troops. He was honored at a Savoy dinner, saw a son through a siege of mumps. He said his formal farewell to Great Britain when, at a Guildhall ceremony, he was made a Freeman of the City of London.

One day last week he marshaled his lady, his three children (Rose Maureen, 13, Shane William, 10, Brian James, 6) a nanny (nurse), an aide-de-camp, a valet, a maid, a secretary, a lady in waiting, three dogs, 28 trunks and suitcases onto the four-stacker Aquitania in Southampton (see cut), and in a grey drizzle set sail for Halifax.

Tangible Reminder. This week, in Ottawa, he would be sworn in. He would have one function: as the personal representative of the King, he would serve as a tangible reminder of the British Crown. But he would do little more. For Canada, once sternly ruled from London (until 1878 Canadians could not even hang their own criminals), has all but crawled out of its uncomfortable colonial cot.

First there was Confederation (1867); then (in 1909) establishment of Canada's own Department of External Affairs. By 1919, after carrying a full share of the Empire load in World War I, Canada had progressed far enough toward self-rule to join the League of Nations and to sign the Versailles Treaty as a separate nation. The Statute of Westminster (1931) was another step: it denned Canada as a self-governing Dominion. World War II, in which Canada made its own declarations of war, all but concluded separation from Britain.

Today Canada, and the other "Dominions," are held in the British Empire mainly by loyalty and sentimental kinship. In all other respects, Canada is as much master of its own destiny as is the U.S.

Empty Glory. Lord Alexander would be a "Governor" of Canada in name only. The job had glory but no authority. Socially, he would link Canada to the Mother Country, but politically he would be a nonentity. He would have to present himself, smiling, at all sorts of functions. He would entertain and be entertained. He would have to show interest in every form of public activity, from a cornerstone-laying to a charity bazaar. He would open sessions of Parliament, and sign bills. He would have ample time for sightseeing around the country, and would live in grand style in a 75-room Government House on an 85-acre estate at Ottawa, with 40-odd servants at his call.

But he would never be able to make an important speech without first submitting it for approval to Prime Minister Mackenzie King.

No Canadian would tolerate him for a minute if he really tried to govern. As a Canadian once said of an earlier Governor General: "Religious Canada prays every Sunday that [he] may govern well, on the understanding that Heaven will never be so unconstitutional as to grant [the] prayer."

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