"A GREAT TRUST"

Evening Post, Issue 113, 10 November 1930, Page 10

"A GREAT TRUST"

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

VICEROY OF CANADA

NEARING END OF TERM

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVEE, loth- October. Viscount Willingdon, tho first Viceroy .of Canada appointed under the "equal status" regime, is approaching tho end of his term as Governor-Gene-ral, to the performance of which office he has brought wider experience of the British Empire, by virtue of terms as Governor of Bombay and Madras, A.D.C. to an Australian Governor, and Boxer Eebellion Indemnity Commissioner in China. He was in the Orient, winding up the last-named taslt, when the. British Government invited him to succeed Lord Byng. Lord Willingdon's outlook toward the post of Viceroy of the Senior Dominion, expressed on the eve of departing for his new duties, is worth recalling here: "The British Empire is to all citizens of great trust and a great responsibility," he said. "Indeed, I think it would be outrageous for any one of us to, shirk that responsibility. It is in that spirit that I go to Canada, heartened and encouraged by the wish of friends and hopeful that I shajl secure the confidence and friendship of the Canadian people. I am determined, as far as it lies in me, to' do my utmost to ensure the prosperity and progress of the great Dominion." HONOURED BY INDIANS. The responsibility and trust imposed' on Lord Willingdon have been faithfully borne. He has won the confidence and" friendship of the Canadian, peo-, pie, from coast to coast. The/Indians have paid him high honour. When he visited Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Chief Napoleon,, a lineal descendant of Maquinna, who welcomed Captain Cook, stood on the shore of Friendly Cove, the historic spot discovered by the' famous navigator, and presented him. with a fortyfoot totem' pole carved by the Indians of that sector. "Chief Bainbow" he is known, to tho Cowichan tribe, who invested him with titular rank, after escorting him to an ancient Hudson's Bay Company fort in a war canoe that had carried braves in inter-tribal warfare. The ceremony took place in a tepee made of blankets fashioned from the wool of mountain sheep. OFF THE BEATEN TRACK. Three times, in his four years of office, Lord Willingdon . has crossed Canada. The manner of his living on those tours indicated a desire to get into closer touch with the lives and problems of that bulky group which, for want of a better.term, we call "the common people." From the time he left Kideau Hall at Ottawa until he returned, he^ and Lady Willingdon resided in their private car. Had they taken up their abode in Government House as they passed through each of the nine Provinces, or with distinguished citizens or society leaders, their movements would have been restricted to meeting privileged, possessors of the broad white card that was the symbo! of entree into the Vice-Begal circle. That was good enough at, Ottawa, but in the Provinces and rural centres siieh observance of tradition would have robbed Lord Willingdon of the-chance he eagerly embraced here, there, and everywhere on his route, to meet, men and women who were-bending: their backs to the task of paving the way to a wider, freer life in remote places. There -.were many unscheduled little meetings in the sunshine by some river bank, near a wayside station, with groups of farmers,< railway and highway construction workers, prospectors, trappers—all those who take a ready share in extending the purview of British rule, off- civilisation 's beaten track. There were no fine distinctions ,- 6i society, race, or creed in these unrehearsed gatherings. Lord and Lady Willingdon bore themselves nobly as they worked out the Vice-Begal destiny along appointed lines at Ottawa^ but they will best, be remembered for. the freedom with which they moved and sought intereoui-se among the real-Em-pire builders, the coatless, denim-clad hewers of wood and drawers- of water in this limitless West.