King's Position on Constitutional Authority of Prime
Minister
***
Letter from William Lyon Mackenzie King to Governor General
Byng, 28 June 1926
Your Excellency having declined to accept my advice to place
your signature to the Order-in-Council with reference to a
dissolution of parliament, which I have placed before you
to-day, I hereby tender to Your Excellency my resignation as
Prime Minister of Canada.
Your Excellency will recall that in our recent conversations
relative to dissolution I have on each occasion suggested to
Your Excellency, as I have again urged this morning, that having
regard to the possible very serious consequences of a refusal of
the advice of your First Minister to dissolve parliament you
should, before definitely deciding on this step, cable the
Secretary of State for the Dominions asking the British
Government, from whom you have come to Canada under
instructions, what, in the opinion of the Secretary of State for
the Dominions, your course should be in the event of the Prime
Minister presenting you with an Order-in-Council having
reference to dissolution.
As a refusal by a Governor-General to accept the advice of a
Prime Minister is a serious step at any time, and most serious
under existing conditions in all parts of the British Empire to-
day, there will be raised, I fear, by the refusal on Your
Excellency's part to accept the advice tendered a grave
constitutional question without precedent in the history of
Great Britain for a century, and in the history of Canada since
Confederation.
If there is anything which, having regard to my
responsibilities as Prime Minister, I can even yet do to avert
such a deplorable and, possibly, far-reaching crisis, I shall be
glad to do so, and shall be pleased to have my resignation
withheld at Your Excellency's request pending the time it may be
necessary for Your Excellency to communicate with the Secretary
of State for the Dominions.
***
Source: NAC/ANC, King Papers, Letter from William Lyon
Mackenzie King to Governor General Byng, 28 June 1926.
Byng's Statement on Arthur Meighen's Chance to Govern
***
Letter from Governor-General Byng to William Lyon Mackenzie
King, 29 June 1926
I must acknowledge on paper, with many thanks, the receipt of
your letter handed to me at our meeting yesterday. In trying to
condense all that has passed between us during the past week, it
seems to my mind that there is really only one point at issue.
You advise me "that as, in your opinion, Mr. Meighen is
unable to govern the country, there should be another election
with the present machinery to enable the people to decide". My
contention is that Mr. Meighen has not been given a chance of
trying to govern, or saying that he cannot do so, and that all
reasonable expedients should be tried before resorting to
another Election.
Permit me to say once more that, before deciding on my
constitutional course on this matter, I gave the subject the
most fair-minded and painstaking consideration which it was in
my power to apply.
I can only add how sincerely I regret the severance of our
official companionship, and how gratefully I acknowledge the
help of your counsel and co-operation.
***
Source: NAC/ANC, King Papers, Governor General Byng to
William Lyon Mackenzie King, 29 June 1926.
Byng's position on Constitutional Responsibility of Governor
General
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Letter from Governor General Byng to Mr. L. S. Amery, The
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 30 June 1926
As already telegraphed, Mr. Mackenzie King asked me to grant
him dissolution. I refused. Thereupon he resigned and I asked
Mr. Meighen to form a Government, which has been done. Now this
constitutional or unconstitutional act of mine seems to resolve
itself into these salient features. A Governor General has the
absolute right of granting dissolution or refusing it. The
refusal is a very dangerous decision, it embodies the rejection
of the advice of the accredited Minister, which is the bed-rock
of Constitutional Government. Therefore nine times out of ten a
Governor General should take the Prime Minister's advice on this
as on other matters. But if the advice offered is considered by
the Governor General to be wrong and unfair, and not for the
welfare of the people, it behooves him to act in what he
considers the best interests of the country.
This is naturally the point of view I have taken and
expressed it in my reply to Mr. King (text of which is being
telegraphed later).
You will notice that the letter in question is an
acknowledgement of a letter from Mr. King (text of which is also
being telegraphed later) appealing that I should consult the
Government in London. While recognising to the full help that
this might afford me, I flatly refused, telling Mr King that to
ask advice from London, where the conditions of Canada were not
as well known as they were to me, was to put the British
Government in the unfortunate position of having to offer
solution which might give people out here the feeling of a
participation in their politics, which is to be strongly
deprecated.
There seemed to me to be one person, and one alone, who was
responsible for the decision and that was myself. I should feel
that the relationship of the Dominion to the Old Country would
be liable to be seriously jeopardised by involving the Home
Government; whereas the incompetent and unwise action of a
Governor General can only involve himself.
I am glad to say that to the end I was able to maintain a
friendly feeling with my late Prime Minister. Had it been
otherwise, I should have offered my resignation at once. This
point of view has been uppermost in my mind ever since he
determined on retaining the reins of office (against my private
advice) last November. It has not been always easy but it was
imperative that a Governor General and a Prime Minister could
not allow a divergent view-point to wreck their relationship
without the greatest detriment to the country.
Mr. King, whose bitterness was very marked Monday, will
probably take a very vitriolic line against myself -- that seems
only natural. But I have to wait the verdict of history to prove
my having adopted a wrong course and this I do with an easy
conscience that, right or wrong, I have acted in the interests
of Canada, and have implicated no one else in my decision.
I would only add that at our last three interviews I appealed
to Mr. King not to put the Governor General in the position of
having to make a controversial decision. He refused and it
appeared that I could do no more.
***
Source: NAC/ANC, Byng Papers, Letter from Governor General
Byng to The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 30 June
1926.
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Defines Position of
British Government on Rights of Governor General
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Letter from Mr. L. S. Amery, The Secretary of State for
Dominion Affairs to Governor General Byng, 3 July 1926
I am truly sorry that at the close of your wonderfully
successful term in Canada you should have had to face so
difficult and unpleasant a situation as that which Mackenzie
King's behaviour has created for you. It is not for me from here
to attempt to judge the weight of all the factors which
determined your decision that the possibilities of Parliamentary
situation were not exhausted and that you ought to give Meighen
a chance of trying his hand. It was a courageous decision and a
difficult one, and it is enough for me that you took it. I
imagine that will be enough for the people of Canada too, who
know quite well that no party or personal motive, nothing but
your conviction of the public interest, could have influenced
you. I can only add that it was no less wise than courageous of
you to refuse flatly Mackenzie King's preposterous suggestion
that you should cable to me for advice or instructions. He, of
all people, should have been the last to try and invoke, in his
personal interest, that dependence of Canada upon an outside
authority which he has always so strenuously denounced in
public. He has cut a contemptible figure in the whole business.
His letter to you, with its threat of an Empire wide agitation,
was scandalous and nothing could have been better than your
reply. Nor can I imagine that his public denunciation of you,
with its talk of Crown Colony Government etc. will do him
anything but harm in the greater part of the country.....
***
Source: NAC/ANC, Byng Papers, Letter from Mr. L. S. Amery,
The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, to Governor General
Byng, 3 July 1926.
