In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 25

In the Public Eye

THE EARL OF BESSBOROUGH,

The Earl of Bessborough, GovernorGeneral of Canada from 1931 to 1935, was the guest of honour of the Canada Club at a banquet at the Savoy Hotel recently. The Hon. G. Howard Ferguson, High Commissioner for Canada, was in the chair.' Lord Bessborough paid a tribute to the good will shown to him by the Canadian people, and said he also owed a great deal to the assistance of Lady Bessborough. "All my friends know, that I am the most fortunate of husbands," he continued, "and I do not hesitate to say that if any of the many kind things said about us in Canada are true, the credit is due entirely to my wife." He wondered whether Britons and the Canadians understood each other as well as they should. It would be a great advantage if many more people from Britain and Canada undertook the journey r between the two countries. Lord Bessborough pointed out that the Governor-General stood alone as the direct personal representative of the King, and now bore the same relation to the Government and Parliament of the Dominions as the King ,did to the British Government and Parliament. His previous connection with the Government in England, through the Secretary of State for the Dominions was at an end. Whatever the-effect of the change in the Governor-Gen-eral's functions might be, one thing was certain-while constitutional links diminished the .prestige of the Crown grew. Some time before the Jubilee—which made the fact so obvious to everyone —the King was described in a United States journal as "the most respected man in the world." The Hon. G. Howard Ferguson referred to what he described as Lord Bessborough's crowning achievement —the production of a young Canadian. (A son was born to Lady Bessborou^h in Canada in 1931.) Mr. A. D. Lindsay. The new academic year has seen a change in the Vice-Chancellorship at Oxford. The Provost of Worcester Mr. F. J. Lys, retired after three years' of quiet and productive work during which far-reaching plans have been prepared for a number of important projects, most notably the new Bodleian Library building. His successor Mr. A. D. Lindsay, the Master of Balliol, is a scholar and a man of affairs with wide academic experience Originally a University College man, ' he was for many years Fellow of Balliol. He left Oxford to hold the famous Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, his first university, but after a short time was recalled to hold the office which since the days of Jowett has had a special eminence. ' To his academic record Mr. Lindsay can claim an interesting record of service in the army during the war, ending up with the important post of Deputy Controller of Labour in France. He is, indeed, according to the "Manchester Guardian," the first Vice-Chancellor from the ranks of exservicemen. He is known to have Labour sympathies in politics, and at the time of his election to the mastership of his college there was some stir in ultra-Conservative quarters. Indeed, it is probably due to his appointment more than to anything else that, outside Oxford, people have entertained , the delusion that Oxford, as compared with Cambridge, was red and Radical.

SIR MURRAY ANDERSON,

The new Governor of New South Wales, Admiral Sir Murray Anderson, is regarded in Whitehall as having had an outstanding success as Governor of Newfoundland in one of the most criti- j cal periods of that Dominion's history. Sir Murray was chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Dominion and chairman of the committee of six appointed to administer the country, following a scathing report tabled in the House of Commons. His appointment as Governor shortly followed. Everywhere it is realised that he is, in a small measure, responsible for the general improvement in conditions in the Dominion. Sir Murray Anderson is described as frank, straightforward, and courageous, the best type of English sailorman, who appreciates a good joke. He speaks well and entertainingly, as was proved at a Royal Empire Society luncheon on the eve of his departure to take up the Governorship of Newfoundland. He then referred to the effect of the depression through the loyv prices of fish—one of the staple industries of the Dominion and remarked that he was afraid it was useless to hope that an ordinance might be introduced,' as was done in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which commanded everyone in Britain to eat fish on two days every wee.: in order to help the island's fishing industry. Obviously, he discovered other methods to improve the finances of Newfoundland. Sir Murray Anderson's appointment to New South Wales, for which there is a parallel in the case of the late Sir Walter Davidson, is a recognition of his successful administration. His successor, Sir Humphrey Walwyn, was appointed in September. The Earl of Athlone describes Sir Murray Anderson as notable for his charm of sharacter and personality, a description which all ' his friends endorse. He is of medium height, squareshouldered, and ruddy from the winds of the Seven Seas. Lady Anderson was popular in Newfoundland, where she was called the Florence Nightingale of the island as a result of- her work in supplying clothing for the distressed asherfolk. Her activities were responsible for the formation of an organisation from which 50.000 people received clothing and assistance. Admiral Sir Murray Anderson is sixty-one, and is the son of a soldier, General David Anderson. Educated in H.M.S. Britannia, he joined the Royal Navy in 1889 and for his work in West Africa when only 21 he was specially promoted to lieutenant and awarded the African Medal. From 1908 to 1911 he was commander of the Royal yacht, Victoria and Albert. The outbreak of the Great War found him again in African waters, this time with the rank of captain, and or. the east coast where he was associated with the operations which resulted in the destruction of the German cruiser Konigsberg in 1915. j Mentioned in dispatches, he was transferred to the Grand Fleet, serving in the North Sea for the remainder of the war. Promoted to rear-admiral in 1922. he was sent the next year as senior naval officer in the Yanstse command and was temporarily Commander-in-Chief of the China station for some time during 1925. From 1927 to 1929 he was Com-

mander-in-Chief on the Africa station, and during part of that time was High Commissioner in South Africa. During his term a.s, representative of the Admiralty on the League of Nations Permanent Advisory Commission 11929-31), he was knighted, being created X.C.8., and in 1932 he was placed on the retired list. Sir Murray, who married in 1908 a daughter of the late W. H. Teschemaker, holds, among his foreign decorations, the Order of St. Anne of! Russia, the Order of the Redeemer, the Order of Danneborg, the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar, and the Order of the Rising Sun. Mr. R. B. Bennett. When Car No. 100 rolled out of Calgary railway station recently on its long journey westwards to Vancouver, it took away a tired man who had had a brief glimpse of the bachelor retreat he had not seen for a year. This man was Mr. R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada, engaged in an arduous election campaign, during which he travelled some 10,000 miles in his private railway coach. His two days' stop in Calgary was specially delightful for him, not only because this is the town where he worked as a lawyer for thirty years, but because it contains his only real home—which must be one of the most modest owned by any man of such fame and wealth. It is a small suite, furnished with his own belongings, in the skyscraper Palliser Hotel —taller than any London building, though this town has only 87,000 inhabitants. He moved into this suite when the hotel was built more than twenty years ago and made it his home. i When he became Prime Minister he still kept the suite, just as it was, alj though he was obliged to spend nearly all his time in Ottawa, more than 2000 " miles away. Although Mr. Bennett is a millionaire, these simply-furnished rooms are [ to him a home he would not exchange ' for the largest house in any city. > When he arrived for his short visit ! the most, luxurious,suite in the hotel ■ was put at his disposal. It was oc- ; cupied by his secretary, while Mr. . Ferinett retired at night to .the peace ■ of his little home. Here, although on the seventh floor of a modern hotel with perfect service, he can look out in the daytime over sunlit prairies and the distant Rocky _ Mountains, while at night, as was the case recently, he can see the aurora borealis waving its ghostly curtains, a pale light through the frosty stars. His retreat was particularly welcome to Mr. Bennett on this visit, as he had a most exhausting time, with a ceaseless programme of functions and speeches. During his visit he carried out his annual custom of presenting money prizes to the girls and boys of the various schools who had been selected as the best pupils of each class, not only in school work but in manners, good humour, and brightness. Mr. F. K. Neilsen. The name of Mr. Fred K. Neilsen, former solicitor of the United States State Department, diplomat, and 1 authority on international law, has 1 been mentioned as a possible successor to Mr. Frank B. Kellogg on the World Court of International Justice. The seat made vacant by Mr. Kel- 1 logg's recent resignation will be filled < by the League of Nations from a < list of nominees which will be officially £ drafted by the members of the Per- 1 manenl Court of Arbitration at The * Hague. 1 There is nothing in the rules govern- s ing the selection of Mr. Kellogg's sue- £ cessor to require that he be an Ameri- £ can, but since it has been the custom i of the League to have one prominent c American jurist on the Court since its \ inception, it is fully expected that the t new member will also come from that country. Officially the United States Government has no hand whatever in the f nominations, but unofficially, the State i Department is consulted by the Ameri- s can members of the Court of Arbitra- a tion before submitting their choice. s Two individuals will be nominated. c In the normal course of events, one r of those nominees would be a former * Secretary of State or one who had en- * joyed unusual public prominence. The * other would be an outstanding author- c ity in international law. The League v would then exercise its choice. t Mr. Neilsen is considered a likely c prospect for one of the nominations, a because of an unusual career of twenty } years spent almost entirely in the ' atmosphere of international law. He c began as American delegate to the a international conference on the gov- v ernment of Spitzbergen in 1914. After ' serving as a major in the army during ' the war, he was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference ending the World f, War, and has since represented the United States on numerous occasions s both as delegate to treaty conferences r and before foreign claims commissions. ° During latter years he has specialised i in handling American claims before s foreign claims Courts and before The Hague Court of Arbitration.