Judge Stuart

Promotion to Guiana Ends Strained Situation

JUDGE W. H. Stuart, who has been Chief Justice of Tonga since 1938, has been promoted to the position of Chief Justice of British Guiana.

The departure of Judge Stuart may end a position of strain and difficulty in Tonga. The Judge is a courageous man, who does his duty exactly as he sees it; and he had to undertake the unhappy task of dealing with the position of Mr.

Bagnall (the Kingdom’s Treasurer) in relation to certain scandals which had occurred in his Department. Mr. Bag nall has been 30 years in Tonga, and his qualities had won for him many loyal friends. Some of the latter found them selves in conflict with the Judge. There was friction in one or two other direc tions—Judge Stuart is not a man toler ant of the easy ways that develop in a tropical community.

If the Judge is a literary man, his two years in Tonga will have supplied him with abundant material for an interest ing book.