Newfoundland and The War

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23744, 16 September 1942, Page 4

Newfoundland and The War

The announcement that Mr Attlee, who is Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs as well as DeputyPrime Minister, has gone to Newfoundland “ to discuss common “ questions with the Governor and “ Commissioners ” seems to mean that the involved three-cornered relationship between the Newfoundlanders, the Commission, and the United States garrison on the island is causing serious difficulties. Eight years ago the economic depression and corrupt administration had reduced Newfoundland’s finances to such a chaotic state that, acting on the advice of a Royal Commission, the British Government suspended the Newfoundland constitution. Since that time Newfoundland’s representative institutions have been in abeyance and her Governor has exercised the powers of government with the assistance of a Commission of six British civil servants. If the problem of Newfoundland were solely a financial problem, it could be said that the Commission had done its work well. Corruption has been eliminated from the island's administration; and the goal of the Commission’s labours—the closing of the gap between the island’s interest bill and the revenue it has available for debt services—was in sight when the war broke out Until United States troops were sent to Newfoundland at the end of 1940 under the bases-for-destroyerc deal, the British public was under the impression that the condition of the island was a testimony to the benefits of benevolent autocracy. But when United States troops moved in, United States newspapers began to pay attention to Newfoundland for the first time since the administrative scandals of a decade previously; and the tale they told was not a pleasant one. Far from being a credit to British colonial administration, Newfoundland was a nest of poverty and disease. Its inhabitants were miserably housed, miserably clad, and miserably educated; and so low was the standard of sanitation that the United States Army authorities put every bar and eating-house on the island out of bounds. Naturally enough, such acts did not make for harmony between the islanders and the United States garrison. At the same time, a series of difficult legal and administrative issues arose between the United States command and the Governor and his Commission. Some of these were solved by granting extraterritorial rights to United States citizens; but this step has involved the Commission in a dispute with the inhabitants, who hold—and with some justification—that extraterritorial rights will create more difficulties than they remove. Thanks to the programme of defence works being carried out by the United States command, the islanders are now more prosperous than they have been for many . years; and with prosperity has come an increasing political consciousness. They are now agitating vigorously for a restoration of the right of self-government; and while there are difficulties in the way of making drastic constitutional

changes during a war, it is likely that one result of Mr Attlee’s visit will be some modification of the Commission’s powers and the admission of local representatives to some share in the island’s government.