The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1921. His Excell ncy.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 170572, 3 August 1921, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1921. His Excell ncy.

Somewhere recently wo can’t as we write remember where we read that Viscount J ellicoe is a capital “nonsense man.” He can, it seems, tell an excruciatingly tunny story with a, tantaiisingly solemn face. And if that is true it means that he is something’ rarer almost than a great sailor —that he is the genuine article as a humourist. It means too that when he visits us to-day as Governor-General his first official visit in that capacity —we cannot humbug him, and need not fear being humbugged by him. If we say hollow things to him he will see through ns. If he says pleasant things to us he will not be going through with a task. I’or the humourist is first of all kindly. And after kindliness he is blessed with penetration. And with kindliness and penetration he has justice and sagacity and simplicity and plain horse*, sense.

It is necessary therefore to remember that the great man who comes to us sees himself as others see him; and that the exalted dignitary whom we honour sees us also as we ought to see ourselves., He does not want flattery, and he is far too famous already to appreciate anything like belated awe. There have been great captains Nelson, for example, and Wolfe in whom personal vanity co-existed with genius. _ But Viscount Jellicoe is cast in a different mould. If it were necessary to concentrate into two words what the world sensed of him when ho commanded the Meet our choice would be “"efficiency” and “self-effacement 5 ' Or perhaps the whole story would be better expressed by * duty. I’or InmseK ho asked _ nothing. l*’or the nation and civilisation he asked every officer s . best thought, every subordinate’s highest effort," every seaman's last ounce of energy. And so it is to-day. As Governor-General his Excellency maintains his dignity without losing hisjiumanity. He represents the J\iug, tli® stable element in sovereignty, and does not forget it. But he makes himself also one of ourselves, and hopes that we shall not forget it. So ill ere is nothing that limaru can say to lum but that it regards his regrettably brief stav as a supreme honour to South Canterbury. As GovemorGeneral ho has won universal esteem. As sailor he commands our sincerest reverence. As man he has the same hold over us. the same implicit trust and affection from us, as, say, Lord Robert? bad. or General Gordon would have had if we had been privileged to have him in our midst. And we are quite sure that, be is 100 big ami wise and good and humble to wish us to say nuyihing more florid. It is o ureal honour to bevr land to" have been given *

Governor-General from among 1 the five or six greatest lniny Englishmen. .I t brings ns lor the first time in our history into living touch -with world-politics and world-problems and world-person-alities. But it is supremely honourable also to the GovernorGeneral himself that the only ■person who has never said, or suggested, or, we will go so far as 1.0 say, never even felt that he is out of the ordinary is the man in whose honour our hats will come off at 1.40.