Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson
Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson, later 1st Viscount Novar of Raith (6 March 1860 - 30 March 1934), sixth Governor-General of Australia, was probably the most politically influential holder of this post. He was born at his family's home near Kirkaldy in Fifeshire, Scotland, the son of a wealthy member of the British House of Commons of old Scottish descent. He was educated at Sandhurst and pursued a military career until 1884, when he was elected to the House. He became private secretary to Lord Rosebery, a leading Liberal, and in 1889 he married Lady Helen Blackwood, daughter of the Viceroy of India.
Like Rosebery, Munro-Ferguson was a Liberal Imperialist. He supported the imperial policies of the Conservative government, including the Boer War, which made him highly unpopular with the radical, anti-war, wing of the Liberal Party. He therefore had little hope of Cabinet office in the governments of Campbell-Bannerman or Asquith, despite his obvious talents. In February 1914, therefore, he was happy to accept the post of Governor-General, even though the offer was probably made in order to get rid of him.
Munro-Ferguson's political background, his connections with the Liberal government in London and his imperialist views made him both better equipped and more inclined to play an activist role in Australian politics than any of his predecessors, while at the same he had enough sense to confine his activism to behind the scenes influence.
It was just as well that Munro-Ferguson was politically experienced, because he arrived in Melbourne to find himself in a political crisis. The Liberal government of Joseph Cook had a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives, but the Labor Party had a majority in the Senate, and had used it systematically to frustrate the government. Cook was now determined to force a double dissolution election under Section 57 of the Constitution.
On 2 June 1914, barely three weeks after Munro-Ferguson had taken office, Cook formally requested a double dissolution. Munro-Ferguson had several things to consider. The Parliament elected in 1913 still had two years to run. Cook had not been defeated in the House of Representatives. His sole reason for wanting a dissolution was that he did not control the Senate. This was a situation without precedent in the United Kingdom, where the upper house, the House of Lords, is unelected.
When Munro-Ferguson granted Cook a double dissolution, he was furiously denounced by the Labor Party, who maintained that Cook was manipulating the Constutution to gain control of the Senate. Munro-Ferguson, influenced by the British House of Lords crisis of 1910, took the view that the lower house should prevail. Paradoxically, it was Cook's conservatives who arged that the Governor-General should always take the advice of his Prime Minister, while Labor argued that he should exercise his discretion.
In the middle of the election campaign, news arrived of the outbreak of the First World War. This caused an acute crisis in Australian government. The Parliament had been dissolved and the government was in "caretaker" mode. Furthermore Australian politicians in 1914 were completely inexperienced in foreign affairs. In these circumstances Munro-Ferguson was the only man with both the constitutional authority and the confidence to act. It was Munro-Ferguson who convened the Cabinet, implemented the mobilisation plan and communicated with the Cabinet in London.
Cook's manoeuvering backfired when Labor won the September elections and Andrew Fisher returned to office. But from the start it was the energetic Billy Hughes who was driving force behind the war effort. He formed a close relationship with Munro-Ferguson, who recognised his ability. Munro-Ferguson saw his role in wartime as an agent of the British war effort, not just a representative of the Crown. He openly supported those who were committed to the war, and opposed those who were not.
In October 1915 Fisher resigned and was succeeded as Prime Minister by Hughes. Although Hughes was vain and erratic, Munro-Ferguson recognised his qualities as a war leader, and supported him privately and publicly, in a way that stretched constitutional propriety. Hughes was convinced that only the introduction of conscription would allow Australia to maintain its commitment to the war effort, and Munro-Ferguson gave him every encouragement.
Like Hughes, Munro-Ferguson regarded the defeat of the conscription referendums in October 1916 and December 1917 as disasters for Australia and the war effort. When Hughes was expelled from the Labor Party after the first referendum, Munro-Ferguson allowed him to stay in office as a minority Prime Minister, and encouraged Hughes and Cook to form a new party, the Nationalist Party, on a "win the war" platform. During the second referendum campaign, Hughes pledged to resign if it was not carried, but when he reneged on this promise Munro-Ferguson promptly recommissioned him.
Despite their close co-operation, Hughes was not Munro-Ferguson's puppet. Once David Lloyd-George became Prime Minister in Britain, Hughes increasingly communicated directly with him (sometimes in Welsh), causing Munro-Ferguson to complain that he was being denied his proper role as the medium of communication between London and Melbourne. Despite Munro-Ferguson's vigorous assertion of his rights as Governor-General, he could not in the long run halt the decline in the influence of the office. Once Australia gained the right to independent participation in international affairs, which it did in 1918, Munro-Ferguson's days of influence were over.
In May 1919 Munro-Ferguson advised London of his desire to resign. He was pressed to stay on to oversee the Australian tour of the Prince of Wales in 1920. He finally departed in October 1920, after more than six years in the job. On his return home he was created Viscount Novar of Raith. In 1922 he was appointed Secretary for Scotland in Andrew Bonar Law's Conservative government, holding the post until 1924. He died at his home in 1934. His papers are an extremely important source for historians of Australian politics and Australia's role in the First World War.
| Preceded by: Lord Denman | Governors-General of Australia | Followed by: Lord Forster |
