1 October 1993
2
3 King-Byng Affair
4 Lord Byng's position on the Constitutional
5 Responsibility of the Governor General
6
7
8 ...edited by Marijan Salopek
9
10 =============================
11 Letter from Governor General Byng to Mr. L. S. Amery, The
12 Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 30 June 1926
13
14 As already telegraphed, Mr. Mackenzie King asked me to grant
15 him dissolution. I refused. Thereupon he resigned and I asked
16 Mr. Meighen to form a Government, which has been done.
17 Now this constitutional or unconstitutional act of mine
18 seems to resolve itself into these salient features. A Governor
19 General has the absolute right of granting dissolution or
20 refusing it. The refusal is a very dangerous decision, it
21 embodies the rejection of the advice of the accredited Minister,
22 which is the bed-rock of Constitutional Government. Therefore
23 nine times out of ten a Governor General should take the Prime
24 Minister's advice on this as on other matters. But if the advice
25 offered is considered by the Governor General to be wrong and
26 unfair, and not for the welfare of the people, it behoves him to
27 act in what he considers the best interests of the country.
28 This is naturally the point of view I have taken and
29 expressed it in my reply to Mr. King (text of which is being
30 telegraphed later).
31 You will notice that the letter in question is an
32 acknowledgement of a letter from Mr. King (text of which is also
33 being telegraphed later) appealing that I should consult the
34 Government in London. While recognising to the full help that
35 this might afford me, I flatly refused, telling Mr King that to
36 ask advice from London, where the conditions of Canada were not
37 as well known as they were to me, was to put the British
38 Government in the unfortunate position of having to offer
39 solution which might give people out here the feeling of a
40 participation in their politics, which is to be strongly
41 deprecated.
42 There seemed to me to be one person, and one alone, who was
43 responsible for the decision and that was myself. I should feel
44 that the relationship of the Dominion to the Old Country would be
45 liable to be seriously jeopardised by involving the Home
46 Government; whereas the incompetent and unwise action of a
47 Governor General can only involve himself.
48 I am glad to say that to the end I was able to maintain a
49 friendly feeling with my late Prime Minister. Had it been
50 otherwise, I should have offered my resignation at once. This
51 point of view has been uppermost in my mind ever since he
52 determined on retaining the reins of office (against my private
53 advice) last November. It has not been always easy but it was
54 imperative that a Governor General and a Prime Minister could not
55 allow a divergent view-point to wreck their relationship without
56 the greatest detriment to the country.
57 Mr. King, whose bitterness was very marked Monday, will
58 probably take a very vitriolic line against myself -- that seems
59 only natural. But I have to wait the verdict of history to prove
60 my having adopted a wrong course and this I do with an easy
61 conscience that, right or wrong, I have acted in the interests of
62 Canada, and have implicated no one else in my decision.
63 I would only add that at our last three interviews I
64 appealed to Mr. King not to put the Governor General in the
65 position of having to make a controversial decision. He refused
66 and it appeared that I could do no more.
67
68 Source:
69 Public Archives of Canada, Byng Papers, Letter from Governor
70 General Byng to The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 30
71 June 1926.
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