Patents

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

Toward Premier George Howard Ferguson of Ontario some U. S. citizens feel a disloyal gratitude, for it was he who led Ontario Wets to victory at the last election (TIME, Dec. 13), and it is from soon-to-be-wringing-wet Ontario that numberless little boats will push off next spring across the Great Lakes with damp cargoes for the Middle West. Therefore when Premier Ferguson made a public pronouncement last week he was well heeded.

The occasion was a banquet at Toronto to honor Lieutenant Governor Harry Cockshutt of Ontario, shortly to retire. White-bosomed and sleek-shouldered. Premier Ferguson rose to address the King Emperor, personified by His Majesty's Lieutenant Governor. "Canadians," said Mr. Ferguson, "consider outworn the system which now denies to them the right of accepting fitting honors from His Majesty the King. . . . While Canadian politicians should unquestionably still be barred from accepting such honors, there are many other Canadians who deserve and should receive what only the Sovereign can bestow. . . . I hope that the Dominion Government will soon withdraw its resolution of some years ago against the granting of patents of nobility to Canadians."

Since Premier William Lyon Mackenzie King, staunch Liberal, hearty democrat, now guides the helm of the Dominion Government, there is no chance that it will be put over on such a Tory tack as that proposed by Premier Ferguson. Remained, however, for some U. S. citizens the glamorous thought that some day they may be able to obtain in Canada that other commodity denied to U. S. citizens, a peerage.