He Is Now
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Sir Donald
The Administrator of Papua-New Guinea since 1953, Brigadier Donald Cleland, CBE, was created a Knight in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June—an honour which was warmly received throughout the Ter ritory.
ITE was created Knight Bachelor.
The honour was well deserved and long overdue, and will help to give a little extra standing to the Administrator of the largest of the South Pacific Territories—an island group of 183,540 square miles, with a population of more than 1,875,000 —21,000 of them Europeans.
For years there have been moves made within P-NG to have the head of the Territory given a higher rank than that of Administrator, so that P-NG could have some standing on international occasions when the Ad ministrator has to rub shoulders with Governors and High Commissioners of smaller Territories. Before the war Papua had a Lieut.-Governor.
The new honour for Sir Donald is a personal one which does not solve the protocol position, but it will un doubtedly give the Administrator of P-NG some additional standing.
It is to be hoped a knighthood will become a foregone-conclusion for the position in future, as it does with the Western Pacific High Commission and the Governorship of Fiji.