Evening Star Newspaper, March 13, 1932, Page 83

e TO KNIGHT OR NOT TO KNIGHT? Sir Herbert Holt. BY JAMES MONTAGNES. ~ ORDS and ladies, peers of ,the realm, knights and baronets may once more flourish in Canada if agitation for the repeal of certain laws prohibiting the granting of titles to Canadians succeeds, There is only a mere bandful of titled folk left in the Dominion, but if the movement for the restoration of titles keeps gaining the way it has in recent years, American industrialists looking for titled husbands for their daughters will not have to journey to Europe. They will have a field much closer to home. A ban on the granting of titles was put into force by the Canadian Parliament in 1919. The Dominic: of Canada conveyed this fact to King George V. A majority vote of the Parliament passed that ruling. There had been t00 many titles conferred during the war years. It was necessary in a country of democratic ideals to do away with bought honorariums, was the consensus of opinion. Yet so strong is the urge to hold a coveted letters patent granting a knighthood that the question of titles has been before Parliament ever since, and the supporters for the restoration of such honors have been growing. The latest proponent of the title question is Armand Lavergne, French-Canadian Conser- vative from the electoral riding of Montmagny, Quebec. He is Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. He is strong for the restoration of titles, with reservations. In fact, he even would have Canada become the Kingdom of Canada instead of her present status among the nations as the Dominion of Canada. He has a resolu- tion to this effect to come up before Parlia- ment. The Kingdom of Canada sounds very monar- chical. In fact, so much so that when Canada became a unified country from coast to coast, those who signed the confederation of the various British colonies north of the United States boundary felt it would place Canada on an equal footing with Great Britain. In those days that was unthought of. Today Canada has that equality by the Westminster bill, passed recently in the British House of Parlia- ment. And for another reason the unifiers of Canada in 1867 did not name Canada a king- dom. That was as a courtesy to the United States, a republic. Whether a kingdom will come into being north of the international boundary is a matter that will bear watching. HE last attempt to restore the granting of titles in Canada before Armand Lavergne took up the cudgels was by the present Canadian secgetary of state, C. H. Cahan, widely known Montreal lawyer, who already bears after his name the coveted initials K. C., which stand for King's Counsel. He came out with the subject in 1928. It occupled quite an amount of time early in the 1929 parliamentary session. And when it came to a vote, the majority still favored doing without more sirs and ladies, for a vote of nearly two to one sent the resolution into the discard. But still the battle wages, with the latest strides in its favor coming from the prime minister, Richard Bedford Bennett. He took on himself the responsibility for allowing the grand priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem to grant titles in the order to Canadians on the centenary celebrating the return of the priory to England. This organi- mation, of which the King is the patron, is best known in Canada as an organization teaching first aid to the injured and supplying uni- formed ambulance men at large public gather- ings. Premier Bennett allowed the granting of two knighthoods in this order and a number of other officers, despite the fact that the Canadian department of justice had ruled previously that the order could not confer titles on Canadians. A prominent Toronto King's Counsel, P. B. FPetherstonhaugh, has circularized on expen- sive vellum-embossed paper members of the Canadian Parliament on the question. He has been answered by a four-to-one majority in favor of restoration of titles through his suggested title commission for granting non- hereditary titles. By the latest figures there are only seven Canagdian barons, seven baronets, 34 members of well-known British orders, which include the THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 13, 1932. Sir Henry Drayton. Sir John Aird. Canada Is Agitated Over Efforts to Repeal Law That Prohibits the Granting of Titles. Dominion Is De- serving of This Recognition, Say Proponents, While Others Declare Against It. Orders of St. Michael and St. George of the British Empire and of the Bath and 18 Knights Bachelor. When the ban on titles was put into force it was estimated that there were 108 titled persons in Canada and that within 36 years of that date all these would have passed on. There has been a great dwindling, as many have died, and each year sees the number growing less. And while baronies are heredi- tary titles and some of the baronets also can pass on their title to their sons, if titles are not restored there is a possibility of a Lindberghian reception for the last Canadian knight when his only rival passes. While a fight is made for the restoration of titles, there is opposition in plenty. With mest influential persons in Canada the subject is anathema, whether that be in business, in the House of Commons or in the cabinet. The opposition is accounted for in several ways. Some claim the proximity of the United States; some a too democratic soul. Canadians claim that titles are too easy to produce. An offer to the party funds of the political party in power creates a title for the donor. The Dominion does not want more big rail- way builders, brewers, distillers and merchants to be granted a sir because they have enough money to help the political party. As that strong Liberal woman member of the Dominion ° house, Agnes McPhail, said during the last debate on the subject: “The abolishment of titles keeps those who did {he damage from view of outsiders. We knc'. .aem without their having a handle.” She said that titles should be granted to the laborer or the farmer who manages to get along with less than $1,000 a year in these days. It was during the war years that military decorations, knighthoods, earldoms, dukedoms and all those other titular insignia were handed out in a dity which was nothing less than wholesale. Canada had her share of the King’s birthday lists and of the New Year honors. She addressed a note to the King, who is the donor of all such titles, th asking that he be good enough not to give Canadians any more titles which they eould pass on from father to son. That was in 1918. The next year, after two sessions and a special committee had been at work on the problems, they made the request a little more inclusive. grant titles of any chivalrous order, hereditary or otherwise. Since then no resident Cana- dian has been given a title. In fact, even 29 foreign honors have been refused. 13 Sir Charles H. Cahan. TfllRlblnothers&detothetfleMn. It has been brought out by some of those who now favor granting titles. Mem and women who contribute outstanding ecultural and scientific works to the nation and thus help its advancement should be homored ac- cordingly, say these people, In fact, the Royal Society of Canada a few years ago suggested the establishment of a Canadian honor system for such people. Who will pick these Jeaders, asked the public? Will there not be erles “of favoritism when a few have to be picked from many for such honors? And while the Royal Boclety’s idea was dropped, there have been advocates since of granting titles under some such commission as that functioning in Eng- land during the reign of the Laber government. Many who are in favor of the restoration of titles state definitely that they do mnot want to see politicans being granted titles, but rather those who have accomplished something in science, literature and art. Despite this assur- ance, the opposition remains strong, because it is felt that once titles can again be conferred on Canadians, the present absence of a host of titled members of Parliament, cabinet ministers, Senators, judges, lieutenant governors and all the other officials will soon be rectified with a wholesale handing out of sirs. And this brings up another opposition point. Those against the restoration of titles say that if they were handed out in great profundity, titles would soon cease to mean anything and 80 they would eventually be banned altogether. Womenfolk are considered one of the real reasons behind the title restoration fight. While male vanity might desire a title, it is suggested by the opposition that it is really the wives who would like to have a lady before their name. In the social whirl such a prefix means a great deal. TK! outbursts for the restoration come mostly from Quebec and Ontario. This is natural. Quebec, while strongly liberal, cannot forget the seigneurial days under the French regime, Ontario one of the earliest governors, who founded Toronto in 1795, was all in favor of forming a landed aristocracy. In fact, he even attempted it and failed. Most of the sirs in the Dominion wil be unable to pass the title on to their sons. They are knights bachelor and represent every phase of the Dominion's life, among them financiers, educators, judges, industrialists lawyers. There are a few baronets be able to pass their titles on to or daughters. Then there are. the three of whom reside in Canada England. The oldest peerage Dominion is that of the Earl of Aylmer, w! was created in the seventeenth cemtury to naval officer for services to his country. many generations the Earls of Aylmer ha been living in the Dominion, the ninth baron now living in British Columbia. The only that of the Seigneury of Longueuil, created by Louis XIV of France in 1700. The eighth Baron of Longueuil recently died in Prance, never having lived in Canada, and the present holder of the title is John de Bienville Charles Grant, who lives in England. Lord Atholstan is the first holder of that title, and he is a newspaper proprietor who worked his way from reporter to the owner- ship of the Montreal Star. He lives in Mont« real, where also lives Baron Shaughnessy, the second of the line, whose family is tled up with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Ancth-. er of Canada’s peers who are entitled to sesslh in the House of Lords in England is Lerd Strathcona, the second baron bearing that name, who lives in England and whose father Wwas a famous Canadian pioneer and states- man. The other Canadian peer is Lord Bea- verbrook, the great English newspaper puwb- lisher, who used to be Max Aiken and then Sir Max Aiken. Lord Greenwood, who was recently ralsed to the peerage from Sir Hamar Greenwood, is another Canadian who resides in the United Kingdom, where he has become a well-knogn statesman. (Copyright. 1083.)