VISCOUNT BYNG OF VIMY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20500, 30 August 1928, Page 11

VISCOUNT BYNG OF VIMY.

NEW POLICE CHIEF,

TO CARRY OUT REORGANISATION LABOUR M.P.’s CRITICISM. (Fkom Opr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 5. General discount Byng of A imy, the commander of the Third Army in France, end ■ afterwards Governor-General of Canada, is to be the new Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, in succession to Bri-gadier-general 6ir William Horwood. A fusillade of questions from the Labour back benches followed this announcement by the Home Secretary in the House 01 Commons. The first criticism was that an army man had been chosen. Mr Hudson asked whether if was now the settled policy of the Government to go to the army for its- commissioners. The Home Secretary parried that by retorting that the settled .policy of the Government was to get the best man. Then it began to be hinted that the retirement of Sir William Horwood was on account of the Savidge business. The Home Secretary would not have that— Sir William Horwood had announced Ins intention of retiring last February. Mr Lansbury then asked whether Lord Byng would have another pension, but whether by another pension he was referring to the Speaker's pension voted last week or to the sum of £30,000 voted to Lord Byng by a grateful country at the end of the war did not appear. The Speaker ruled the question out of order on the ground that the right place to raise that point was on the Home Secretary’s salary. Then Mr Shinwell inquired about Lord Eyng’s age; and there was derisive laughter on the Labour side when the Horae Secretary replied that he is 65. “Genera! Bytip hesitated a very great deal,” said Sir \V. Joynson Hicks. “ before accepting the appointment. It was the acceptance rot of office by of very stern call of duty.” The Conservatives cheered, the Labourists laughed, and the questions continued. “As Sir William Horwood retires because he has reached the age limit of 60, why appoint a man of 65?" asked Mr Lansbury. The Home Secretary explained that Sir William might have asked for an extension of his term of service. He did not wish to do so. “ I am perfectly certain,” continued the Minister, “ that this appointment will be welcomed.—(Derisive laughter from Labour members.) There is no man I know who, by his career and his attainments, is so well adapted for this post as Lord Byng.” Mr Goodman (Labour) asked why a successor was not found among the senior officers of the metropolitan force.

INCESSANT, STRENUOUS ACTIVITY. While acknowledging the great qualities of Viscount Byng, the Daily Mail does not " think it is fair to a man : who has already deserved so well of his country to offer him at this age a post so onerous and exacting. It calls imperatively for a young. and active mind. The diversity and delicacy ,of the tasks with which the Commissioner of Police is called upon to deal at all hours of the day and night demand rapid decisions and incessant strenuous activity. Lord Byng is expected to take up work of an entirely new kind. We feel sure that, though he has proved himself so splendid in war. realise what an exceedingly difficult position he has undertaken to fill. We should prefer to think of his ending his days surrounded by the glamour which is at present his.’’ MISTAKE ON BOTH SIDES. The Daily Express considers the position is one that should be held only by a man who is coming to the height of his powers and rising to the top of his profession, not by a man who has already risen and whose active career is necessarily nearing its end. "We feel very strongly there has been a mistake on both sides, and that only Lord Byng's voluntary resignation of his office can rectify it. That magnificent force the Metropolitan Police should have at its head a young man of enthusiasm, initiative, and vision combined with the driving force to carry out this important task. - ’

Other London newspapers approve of the appointment. MILITARY CAREER.

Viscount Byng of Vimy will be 66 in September. The seventh son of the Earl of Strafford, be was educated at Eton, and entered the. army in ISB3, taking part the following year in the expedition sent to the Sudan to avenge the death of Gordon. He saw active service in the South African War. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was in command of the Army of Occupation in Egypt, whence he was transferred to the command of a cavalry division in France and afterwards to the Dardanelles. Finally Sir Julian Byng (as he then was) obtained the command of the Third Army in 1917. His name will always be associated, by the public gratitude no less than by the title which he afterwards assumed with the capture of Vimy Ridge on Easter Monday, 1917. Under him the Third Army continued to play a brilliant part in the closing stages of the campaign. In 1921, Lord Byng succeeded the Duke of Devonshire as Governor-General of Canada, a position which he held until 1926.

His name was recently prominently before the public on account of his refusal to pay the fees involved in his elevation from a barony to a viscounty. Ho contended that he should not be called upon to pay for an honour which a politician obtained for nothing. The viscounty was, however, gazetted last January, after a delay of 15 months.