The announcement that the Duke of Kent has been appointed
Governor-General of Australia in succession to Lord Gowrie, who relinquishes his post in November next year, should give great satisfaction in the Common- wealth, from which presumably the original proposal came. The new appointment to Canberra, following on the announcement of the proposed royal visit to Canada next year, will strengthen that unity of feeling in the British Commonwealth of Nations of which the Crown is so appropriate and invaluable a symbol. As the legal and constitutional bonds have gradually dropped away, and the institutions of the various nations who are " freely associated " (in Lord Balfour's famous phrase) in the British Commonwealth, have grown to manhood, " the commonalty of feeling spread " has expressed itself in a loyalty to the reigning House felt in every part of the Empire. The Duke of Kent is not the first member of the Royal Family to hold the post of Governor-General of a Dominion, but he is the first since the status of the Dominions was changed by the Statute of Westminster in 1931. His appointment, for which he is well qualified, is symbolic of the unity in diversity which marks the latest stage of the Empire's history.
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