CANADA AND TITLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12738, 6 September 1919, Page 15

CANADA AND TITLES.

I LONG-STANDING AGITATION la deciding, by a vote of 94 to 43, to ask the British -King “ graciously to refrain” in the future from conferring titles upon persons living in the Dominion, the Canadian House of Commons brings to a head an agita tion of long standing (remarks an American paper). It is a victory— at least a temporary one—for those who have feared the transplantation of the British class system across the Atlantic, and who have, for that reason, fought tenaciously against the growing habit of the British Crown of awarding honours to Canadians of prominence. For _ many the number ol Canadians who received titles bestowed by the British King was not enough to build up any considerable class or to present any danger of such a class becoming an appreciable factoi | in the life of the Dominion. But of late the annual honour lists have contained more and more Canadian names and the tendency hag thoroughly alarm ed those who cling loyally to the conception of a Canada founded upon the strictest possible interpretation of the theories of democracy and personal equality. This alarm has been accentuated ‘-nd the opposition to honour giving strengthened hy the conviction in many quarters that the titles awarded are seldom given with a single eve to merit or virtue. Tt is even held bv many that the “ services ” rendered have been too seldom rendered to the Dominion, and too often to one or other of the British political parties or leaders. That was notoriously the case in the recent rapid elevation to the British peerage of a Canadian now living in England. But the Canadian opposition to the honouring of men who, having rvrn Canadians, decide to live abroad —is net strong. It is concentrated upon the possibility of the building up in the Dominion of a numerous and powerful aristocracv, identified perhaps with a considerable portion of the wealth r-f the country and exercising throurrh these two mediums—social power and money—an undue and unhealthv influence upon the life of the country. Whether the King will refrain from awarding titles to Canadians in ‘be future in cnm-oliance with the resolution of the Dominion legislators is an open question. Tt is not actuaTlv a matter for the Kins pergonallv. hut for the British political oart'ea. which draw no the annua] honour l?=ts and award the tit l es tbc action of the monarch. Bo lour as ft remains an advantage for both T.ihe-als and TTuioui'+s to retain t-hi'a considerable f'd potrpr of ■ ndvfne nr -[ri'+Vt>.d^i'n<T dec?rebl n roff ,rf s feUV-fV,! f o p orwps^ it Will he extremelv to induce them to foreo the practice.