2110-8-5-15

19th April, 1937.

Memo. for the Prime Minister.

I wonder if it would be possible, when you are in England, for you to raise with Lord Wigram a matter on which I think you and I hold the same view?

As representing His Majesty I cannot pay a visit to the United States for any public purpose except in full paraphernalia of a Governor-General, such as guards of honour, etc. This rule, I think, is right; but I should like, if it were possible, to have one exception made.

I receive constant requests from American Universities to accept honorary degrees to address the students. Last year I had twenty-seven of such requests, and this year all the chief Universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. have repeated their invitaitons. So far I have only been able to give one answer - that I could not visit them for a public purpose except officially as Governor-General, and it would be unfair to put them to the trouble of such a visit.

Now I have a considerable vogue among the youth of the United States owing to my books, and I believe that if I visited a certain number of Universities and talked to the young men, I could do a certain amount of good. I wonder, therefore, if it would not be possible to have the general rule modified as far as Universities are concerned? I should, of course, go to very few, and I should specifically ask permission from the King for each visit. But I

2.

should like such visits not to have an official character. I would go as Governor-General of Canada, but without the trappings of officialdom.

I know that you take my view on this matter, and I think the suggestion would come most effectively from you. If the Prime Minister of Canada were to say that he considered the matter of some importance that on special occasions I should be able to accept invitations from an American University, it would carry far more weight than if I made the suggestion myself.