Hard Times Broken

Whipped by a 40 m. p. h. gale, an Ottawa blizzard lashed the state carriage of Canada's unpopular Governor General last week, as His Excellency Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough, rode out to open Parliament for the last time in his five year vice-Regal term. The next Governor General may just possibly be His Majesty's youngest son the Duke of Kent. Last week Lord Bessborough further miffed Canadians by insisting that his youngest son, aged 3, should see papa open Canada's Senate and House of Commons. As usual the vice-Regal tot arrived guarded by a six-foot, red-jacketed Canadian Royal Mounted Policeman, pistol on hip.

Babe Ponsonby is named George for His Majesty, St. Lawrence for the mighty river and Neuflize for his late maternal French grandfather, an exceedingly rich Paris banker. For days Canadian papers conjectured whether George St. Lawrence Neuflize Ponsonby was likely to burst out crying during the Speech from the Throne, seemed to rather hope he would. Instead the Babe proved himself a Bessborough, did nothing, said nothing, with dignity. Lady Bessborough, gowned by Maggy Rouff in blue and silver lame. made an able substitute Queen Mary, her throat roped with pearls, her head regally supporting a tiara. In legal fiction the Governor General became "the actual person of the King in Canada" when he took the gilded Throne, attended by handsome young Court pages who seated themselves gracefully upon the dais.

Began the vice-Regal voice from the Throne, first in English, then in French: "Honorable Members of the Senate: "Members of the House of Commons: "I welcome you at a time when our country stands upon the threshold of a new era of Prosperity. It will be for you to throw wide the door! During the past year the grip of hard times has been broken."

The Speech, as everyone knows, is written by the Premier. What followed was a burst of demagogery from the Throne-- i. e. from hard-pressed Canadian Premier Richard Bedford Bennett who is trying to escape the fate of Herbert Hoover by a lightning change from his accustomed conservatism to Roosevelt newdealism (TIME, Jan. 14).

"You have been witness of grave defects and abuses in the capitalist system," continued the Speech from the Throne. "New conditions prevail. These require modifications in the capitalist system to enable that system more effectively to serve the people. Reform measures will therefore be submitted to you as part of a comprehensive plan designed to remedy the social and economic injustices now prevailing, and to ensure to all classes and to all parts of the country a greater degree of equality in the distribution of the benefits of the capitalist system. Upon this plan you have made a beginning. . . . May God give you strength to support, by your unremitting labors, this great movement toward happier days."

The Reform hinted in the Speech was the Bennett New Deal, a hodge-podge of Rooseveltisms blended with reform proposals lifted bodily from Canada's Liberal Party, the opposition led by former Premier William Lyon Mackenzie King. In a Montreal speech two nights before Parliament opened at Ottawa, Premier Bennett, one of Canada's wealthiest capitalists, denounced prosperous ex-Premier King as "entrenched behind the forces of Capitalism!" Amazed Liberals accused the Conservative Premier "not only of stealing our clothes but of trying to wish his old clothes off on us." Conservative henchmen were jubilant. Resigned until recently to a debacle like Herbert Hoover's, they vowed last week that "Bennett has a chance to put this over, a real chance!"

Next night as Parliament caught its breath, Lord & Lady Bessborough held the "Drawing Room" equivalent in Canada to presentation at Court. Flanked by a galaxy of decorative generals, the Bessboroughs standing on a dais received the curtsies of elite Canadian females as do Their Majesties in Buckingham Palace. In nine other Canadian Provinces subjects similarly kowtow to the local Lieutenant Governor. Only in Ontario does brash, newdealing Premier Mitchell ("Mitch") Hepburn threaten: "Next time we are going to stop aping all this nonsense!" Next time for "Mitch" will come on Feb. 13 when he may or may not dare to have someone other than Lieutenant Governor Colonel the Honorable Herbert A. Bruce open the Provincial Legislature.

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