Curling Viceroy

The Indian Round Table Conference struggled on in London last week, snagged on the question of future representation of Hindu and Moslem minorities in Indian Provincial legislatures, a question which Britons demand be settled before any definite promise of Dominion status is given. Far more important was the appointment of a new Viceroy for India: Free man Freeman-Thomas, Viscount Willingdon, Baron Willingdon of Ratton, at present Governor General of Canada. Latest previous royal representative to be appointed was the native-born Gover nor General of Australia, Rt. Hon. Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs, shoved into power by Australia's Labor Prime Minister James Henry Scullin (TIME, Dec. 15). This appointment so roiled George V that he altered the traditional "His Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve . . ." to "The King, on the recommendation of Scullin, has appointed . . ." No such blunderbuss phrase appeared last week: His Majesty was most graciously pleased to approve Lord Willing don. It was an open secret that the choice of Viscount Willingdon was King George's own, that he prided himself in the knowledge that by so doing he had unsnarled a nice political tangle.

Since India is no Dominion, the person of her Viceroy, most important British administrative post, is not for her to choose but for the British Prime Minister to suggest. Labor politicians demanded that James Ramsay MacDonald pick a Labor peer for the post. He suggested Laborite Ronald Gorell Barnes, Baron Gorell, president (1920-22) of the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases, Under-Secretary of State for Air (1921-22), author of Love Triumphant, and Other Poems. This met with such violent Conservative, Liberal, and even Indian opposition on the basis of Lord Gorell's "inexperience," that it was hastily withdrawn. A later suggestion was that MacDonald himself should take the post, taking the title of Lord MacDonald of Lossiemouth and handing his Prime Ministry over to jovial Foreign Secretary "Uncle Arthur" Henderson. This was too much for even the MacDonald sense of humor. Other names flew thick and fast for weeks, until last week Lord Willingdon was appointed.

It was an appointment acceptable to almost everybody. Acceptable to the Laborites because he is a known champion of racial equality in India, because as Governor of Bombay and of Madras he earned the title of "most easy-going of Governors," because the first MacDonald Government gave him his viscountcy in 1924. He is acceptable to the Liberals because he is a Liberal, has been a party member both in the Commons and the Lords. He is acceptable to the Conservatives because as captain of Eton and Cambridge teams he is remembered as a cricketer who could bowl a fast "googly," an ability which still serves him well, spinning curling stones over slippery Canadian ice; because he is a famed grouse shot, was once told by George V (one of the best wing shots in England), that "a little serious work" would make him the best shot in England; because though he might be tainted with impractical Liberal notions, he was known as an administrator who would stand no nonsense. But for all his love of sport, Lord Willingdon is not young (64). Cautious observers questioned whether he had the physical strength to meet the trying task that awaits him. Murmured the London Times: "[He] will need something more vigorous than charm and tact."

Lord Willingdon is acceptable to the non-partisan mass of the British public because of his obvious fitness for the job. Long, lean, after his able service through the War as Governor of Bombay (Bombay was headquarters for the ill-fated British Mesopotamia expedition) he was appointed Governor of Madras. British papers announced that it was "a foregone conclusion" that he would be next Viceroy of India. Something went wrong, Lord Reading, a fellow-Liberal, got the job. In 1926 Lord Willingdon was made Governor General of Canada. Gerard Frederick Freeman-Thomas, his eldest son, served in the Coldstreams, was killed in the War. In 1924 Lord Willingdon's second son, the Hon. Inigo Brassey Freeman-Thomas married Maxine, daughter of emaciated Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, famed Hamlet. Dimpling, buxom Lady Willingdon was a noted beauty in her youth, and a literal Lorelei. Years ago, returning to Britain from Australia, Mrs. Freeman-Thomas, as she then was, gave a large dinner party in the saloon of the P & O liner Clima, which was eagerly attended by the captain, chief officer and most of the staff. While Mrs. Freeman-Thomas dimpled her prettiest, and the bridge was left to the tender mercies of one near-sighted quartermaster, the Clima ran on the rocks. After due investigation, P & O officials dismissed Captain and Chief Officer in disgrace.

In immediate rebuttal to Willingdon's appointment to India was the question of who should succeed him as Governor General in Canada. Once more the press was ready with a plethora of names. For the time being it seemed unlikely that Canada would follow Australia, insist on a native Governor. Strangest suggestion was the converted Boer, onetime South African Prime Minister General Jan Christiaan Smuts. Most likely: either the Duke of York (it is known that King George is anxious for the duke to have administrative training as a possible heir to the throne) or Queen Mary's brother the Earl of Athlone, about to return to Britain after a successful term as Governor General of South Africa.

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