New Britain herald., 1921-07-23
GENERAL BYNG WILL
 SAIL ON AUGUST 3
Hero of Viny Ridge to Assume
 Canadian Leadership
BY MILTON BRONNER.

LondOn, July 2o.-BdrOn BynS-o- the-Tanks sails for America Aug. 3.
 The immortal hero of Vimy Ridge the British general who for the first time in history un1eashed a fleet of battle tanks at Cambrai and routed q superior force of awestruck Germans comes to Canada to assume his new duties as governor general for five years.
 l asked him to talk to me about himself, his plans, his hopes and as- pirations-always hard thing for :s man who has done big things to con- sent to do.
 Picture him-59 years old, straight as line, almost six feet, with dark brown hair, scarcely showing any gray; dark brown mustache, and friendly smiling blue eyes. All the tune he talks he puffs at a little briar pipe which has gone through may u battle with him.
 T expect to be sworn in at Que bee Aug. 10 and to be in Ottawa on Aug. IT," he says. T have never held diplomatic position before. l am not a diplomat, but I think my good friends, the Canadians, will pull me out of holes as they have done before'
 "Canada's democratic country like | the United States" I ventured. '"TheJ will take to you because you are dem- | ocratic.''
 "Oh, verybody has to be demo- cratic these days. Did you ever hear of the word postwar dom? That is the condition of all the civilized worl1 l
 It means that since the war the world 1 IS more democratic, people are dem l ocratic, institutions are democratic It's an age of more simplicity. It's also an age of more criticism. People take a man only for what he is. not l for what he was born, nor for what he imagines himself to be.
 'The thing am proud of about this appointment to Canada is that the Canadians themselves wanted me.
 They asked for me. And if anybody knows me, it's the Canadians. The, were a real fighting lot.
 l When the king conferred the peer
 age upon me. I said I wanted to bc
 called Baron Byng of Vimy in com I1emoration of the great battle Of l vimy Ridge the Canadian troops
 fought. But I didn't want to take
 tnat title unless the Canadians were satisfied I should. So I sent word to
 them and got a very satisfactory an- l swer."
 I asked him, whether he was going
 to visit us while he was governor l general '7- +.
 ''I can't" he replied. Its an un-
 written rule that the governor gen. eral does not leave Canada. His wife can, his staff can, but not he. Still, I can go down and look at the most wonderful frontier in the world-the Canada-United States border which has never had it's paral- Tel. Three thousand miles with not a soldier. nor a fort, nor a gun on either side, but everywhere the signs of amity and peace. That's a wonderful object lesson for the world" 1 Julian Byng joined the army in 1883 saw service in the Sudan and in the Boer war, becoming colonel. At the outbreak of the big war he was in command of the British troops in Egypt. He fought in France and Galli- poll, Returning to France as a lien l tenant general, he had command of l the Nth corps and in May 1916, was given command of the Canadian corps with which his name is chiefly asso- ciated. With them he won the great surprise battle of Cambrai with the tanks. He was made a full general and in the final campaign of 1918 his army held the line north of the Somme and won some crushing victories against tthe Germans. The government made him a peer, gave him the thanks of Parliament and grant of 30,000 pounds In Aug. 1919, He resigned from the army l to become chairman of the United tService Fund, formed to administer l the proceeds from profits made by army and navy canteens. The fund is used to assist disabled soldiers and sailors and their widows and depen- dents. 5-