VITAL LINK OF THE EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 134, 4 December 1930, Page 9

VITAL LINK OF THE EMPIRE

AUSTRALIAN AS GOVERNOR-GENERAL

APPOINTMENT PROVOKES CRITICISM

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received 4th December, 3 a.m.) LONDON, 3rd December. "The Times," in a leading article dealing with the announcement that Sir Isaac Isaacs has been appointed Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, says:— "Sir Isaac Isaacs's name was apparently submitted to the King without any alternative or formal preliminary conversation, which is most significant to those who care for the maintenance of the Crown as one of the remaining vital links of the Empire. Australians may reflect on the disadvantage of leaving the Commonwealth's highest post as a prize for men who have taken sides in paity politics. They may also reflect that any step which may be quoted as a tendency to drift by other Dominions is hardly calculated to improve their standing and credit in the eyes of the world. The King was undoubtedly right in confirming the appointment. The risk of an election fought on difference between the Crown and the Commonwealth Government, and enlisting all the forces of Republicanism, Communism, anti-Imperialism, and religious fanaticism is not to be contemplated. A weaker Sovereign might have resisted his Minister's advice, but Mr. Scullin's political embarrassments and manifest inexperience, and the fact that he offered the place to a friend in all good faith before he left Canberra, made the case all the stronger for His Majesty's consent, but it must be kept reserved for use if Ministers' advice anywhere in the Empire runs counter to the interests of the people and the true interests of the country concerned."