10 MAY 1930, Page 15

Letters to the Editor

GOVERNORS-GENERAL FROM THE

DOMINIONS

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The possibility of the appointment of an Australian as Governor-General of the Commonwealth has been much to the fore recently and a certain section of opinion in the Common- wealth has stated its objection to "importing governors from Great Britain."

Has the suggestion of appointing governors-general from the Dominions as well as the old country ever been seriously con- sidered as a symbol of the reality of the ties which bind the British Commonwealth of Nations ? Why should not a kind of Imperial" general post" be inaugurated, and Sir Robert Borden or General Smuts be appointed Governor-General of Australia, Mr. Stanley Bruce of South Africa or Canada, and so on ?

Is there any reason why a distinguished citizen from a Dominion should not be appointed as a Governor-General of another Dominion ? Surely, men of the calibre of Sir Robert Borden, General Smuts or Mr. Bruce are as fully fitted for the position as representatives who might be sent from Great Britain.—! am, Sir, &c.,