New Governors—The British Connexion—League of Nations—Bolshevist and Em >ire—M malayan Mine Sensation From Our Own Correspondent Melbourne, Aug. 2
It seems certain that no serious attempt will be made to abolish the appointment of Governors-General by the Imperial Government, even if it soon happens that the choice of State Governors will be left to the new Federal convention to! determine. If, as is frequently asserted, Governors are but soda functionaries, and that the hardest} work they do, apart from laying! foundation stones and opening raiiways, is to place their signatures, formally to documents laid before them by their cabinets, it is curious to note that the appointments re-fleet some phase in higher polities, Before Australia federated we had! Sovernors with reputation as constitutional lawyers, and while the Australian contributions to naval defence were negligible we had quite an influx of naval and military chiefs. To-day Admiral Lord Jellicoe is on his way to become Governor-General of New Zealand, Lord Forster, with a staff of one general, one major, two captains atid a naval lieutenant has left the old country for Australia, where he will be Governor-General. Amongst the States, Queensland has just been given a new Governor in the person of Sir Matthew Nathan, and Victoria, in that of Earl Stradbroke, Both these _newcomers are soldiers of some emi-nonce. Clearly they are expected to use their influence in the direction of guiding Australia's defence policy, or this galaxy of soldiers and sailors to the South Pacific may be; accepted as an indication of the Empire's recasting of her defence strategy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.