PRINCE AS-GOVERNOR?

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 5 January 1935, Page 4

PRINCE AS-GOVERNOR?

The unconfirmed statements that overtures have been made by the Commonwealth of Australia seeking the appointment of the Duke of Kent as next Governor-General, will raise interesting speculations in the minds of the people of all the Dominions. It is certain that such an appontment, would be good for Australia, as it would be for any other Dominion. Colonials have passed beyond that stage of their evolution in which, while losing none of their innate loyalty to the Throne, were apt to pride themselves upon their independence of, and their indifference to, the “pomp and circumstance” attaching to Royalty. There are several reasons tor this change oi colonial attitude, not the least being that the members of the Royal Family have kept themselves well abreast of the modern trend. In the four sons of the King, the House of Windsor has representatives who are fully in touch with the outlook of that section of the people who- were the youth of the war period and also with the outlook of the youth of the post-war era. Also, the people of the Dominions are growing towards maturity. They have out-lived that phase of lanky youth which looks upon the previous generation with scorn and have come to a stage in their development when they are capable of appreciating much that is solid and good in the older generation which previously they had been inclined to despise. The Australian and the New Zealander have enough breadth of vision today to realise that Old England stiil stands as solid as a rock in a world which is being tossed about on the seas of doubt and indecision. And we are gaining sufficient insight into history, old and in the making, to realise that it is not by mere good luck or accident that England stands where she does. Her Constitution is the foundation stone of her edifice; and we in the new countries have been given, in the Great War and. in the Great Depresson, reason to admire and respect, as well as love, the Old Country for the manner in which she has found it possible to mould her course according to the new conditions and still retain all that is best of the old ways. Australia would not be the only Dominion which would gladly welcome as resident representative of His Majesty a son of the King.