NEW GOVERNORS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19853, 14 February 1930, Page 9

NEW GOVERNORS.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF APPOINTMENTS. LORD CLARENDON FOR SOUTH AFRICA. Inmn ommit wibblsbs.) (Received February 13th, 5.5 p.m.) BUGBY, February 12. The King has approved of the appointment of Lord Clarendon as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, in succession to Major-General Lord Athlone, whose extended period of office will expire next January. The King has approved of the appointment of Sir William Peel, Chief Secretary to the Government of the Federated Malay States, to be Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Hong Kong, in succession to Sir Cecil Clementi.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF SOUTH AFRICA. Alexander, Earl of Athlone, was bom in April, 1874, the third son of the Duke of Teck, and is therefore a brother of Queen Mary. Until- July, 1917, he was known as Prince Alexander of TCck, but he then discontinued the titles of "Prince" and "Serene Highness," assumed the surname of Cambridge and was created Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon.

Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he joined the Army and served in Matabeleland with the 7th Hussars in 1896. Three years later he took part in the South African War, first with the 6th Dragoons and then as an A.D.C., being mentioned in dispatches and receiving the D.S.O. In 1904 he married Princes# Alice of Albany. served in the world-war, reaching the rank of majorgeneral; he was twice mentioned in dispatches, and was awarded the C.M.G. As chairman of the Governors of the Middlesex Hospital, he did much useful work.

In 1923 he returned to South Africa as Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Union and High-Com-missioner. His term of office included a period of storm and stress in the Dominion when members of the Nationalist Party were talking of secession and the controvery over the flag was raging. The Earl and Countess, thanks to their tact and geniality, endeared themselves both to the English and Dutch. They travelled all over the vast territory to be present the varied functions that fall to the lot of a governor and his consort. The latter learnt Afrikaans so that she might bo able to make speeches in that language and.converse with all sections of the population. It says much for the popularity of Lord Athlone that in January, 1928, a year before the expiry of his term, the South African Government asked that it should be extended, The extension was approved by the King, s«d the Governor-General, in spite of family considerations which made him hesitate for a time, agreed to continue for two years as from January 21st, 1929.

LORD CLARENDON. George Herbert Hyde Villiers, sixth Earl of Clarendon, was born in 1877 and educated at Eton. Going to Canada with a relative, he" settled dowii to fanning in Ontario, building his own log house, tending his cattle and his orchard, and working the customary long hours of- a Canadian farmer. On nis father's death in 1914 he sufcceeded to the earldom and returned to England, retaining, however, some of his land in Canada. _ As some of the family estates were in Hertfordshire, he accepted the command of the Herts Volunteer Regiment in 1916 and retained it till 1920, when he was appointed a Lord-in-Waiting to the King. Two years later he was made a captain of the Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms. He was also Chief Conservative Whip in the House of Lords. In 1924 he was made . Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Dominions and in addition Chairman of the Oversea Settlement Committtee. In pursuance of the duties of these posts he revisited Canada in 1928 and spent three months there, travelling from the Atlantic to the Pacific and studying the progress of the family settlement scheme. With his personal experience as a settler in the Dominion he considered the migration of families with Imperial and Canadian aid the best scheme. * . At the time of his return to England, in October. 1926. the Government was about to take over control of wireless broadcasting in Great Britain and was forming the Brit lß * l Broadcasting Corporation. Lord Clarendon was offered the chairmanship, and, resigning his Dominion posts, accepted it. The appointment was the subject of considerable criticism on the ground that he had no special 'experience of wireless broadcasting and was put over the heads of men who had had much. On the conclusion ot the arrangements for the formation or the Communications Company to take over control of the chief wireless and cable concerns of the Empire, it was announced in January, 19J}9 ; that Lord Clarendon had been appointed a director.

SIR WILLIAM PEEL. Sir William Peel, K.8.E., C.M.G., has been Chief Secretary to the Government of the Federated Malay States since 1926. He was born in 1876 and entered the Malayan Civil Service as a cadet in 1897. He was president of the Municipal Commission, Penang, 1911; president of the Municipal Commission, Singapore, 1918; Joint Passage Controller, Malaya, 1919; Food Controller, .1919; Controller of Labour, 1920: British Adviser to the Government of Kedah, 1922: Resident Councillor, Penang, 1925; Officer Administering the ernment, and High Commissioner, Malay States, May-June. 1927 SIR CECIL CLEMENTI. Cecil Clement!, the British Colonial Administrator, and authority on the Chinese language, was born in^ September, 1875. and educated at St. rani s School, London, and Magdalen College. Oxford, where he took several distinctions, including that of Boden Sanskrit Scholar. Entering the Colonial Service, be was sent, in 1899 to HongKong, where he quickly mastered the Cantonese dialect of Chinese—'the language of millions in the south, qualifying as an interpreter in 1900. After a term as Acting-Assistant Colonial Secretarv, he was appointed in ISHW a member of the board of examiners in Chinese. For a few months he was in India on special duty, but returned in 1903 to China, where his knowledge of the language and people was of verv great value in the handling of rebel work in the Kwang-si famine. His services were then transferred to the "New Territories," the area behind the Kowloon Peninsula, which China leased to Britain in 1898 for a tem of 99 vears. There he took part in the settlement of land tenure, and also acted as a magistrate. Meanwhile, he

hnd continued his study of £be Chinese language and in 1906 qualified ni Pekingese—the language of Northern China. A few months later he was made Assistant Colonial Secretary and clerk of the Hong-Kong Council, and in that capacity attended the International Opium Conference at Shanghai in 1909. After a year as Acting Colonial Secretary, he was sent to British Guiana In 1913, and thence to Ceylon in 1922 as Colonial Secretary. In both colonies he acted as Governor for considerable periods. Three years later he returned to Hong-Kong as Governor and was knighted (K.C.M.G.). In the autumn of 1929 the Governorship of the Straits Set. tlements becoming vacant, he was transferred to it.