SIR GEORGE REID

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 148, 24 June 1915, Page 6

SIR GEORGE REID

WHO WILL SUCCEED HIM? (MOM OUR OWN COnhfeStONftfeNT.) SYDNEY, 19th June. If we were not obliged to give predominant ' attention to war matter*, thei'e would be a great deal of discussion over the announcement/ that Sir George Reid, our first High Commissioner, muet leave that position at the end of the year. The announcement by the Prime Minister (Mr. Fisher) is definite on this point, but Mr. Fisher cays he cannot stato at all who is likely to succeed Sir George Ueid. It is, hoy,-* ever; persistently reported that Mr. Fisher will himself take the post, leaving the Federal Attorney-General (My. Hughes) hi& successor as Prime Minister. One will almost search in vain for an Australian who says that Sir George Reid was not the best man who cou'.d have been chosen to represent Austral' a at the heart of the Empire. Everybody admits that Sir George had done and is doing exceedingly well for us in thofc high post which calls for special qualities. But the Federal Government lifts decreed that he must go n&w. There is no pension attached to the appointment, and as Sir George is reputedly not a rich man, it seems that ho will on Us return have to apply himself to the restoration of his practice as lawyer, which he sacrificed in order to accent the High Commissionership. It is not surprising that some people epeak of the business as an extreme, ' highly unjiust, and generally undesirable carrying out by the present Ministry of the doctrine of spoils to the victors in Australian party politics.