Beside a photo headlined 鈥淟ieutenant-Governor Opens Fall Fair鈥� and an article titled 鈥淲ild Ponies Will Become Zebras to Save Their Lives鈥� on the front page of the Sunday, Sept.10, 1939, edition of the Daily Colonist, Victoria residents read:
鈥淕overnment War Policy Approved by Parliament: Formal Declaration of War Against Germany Expected to Be Proclaimed by sa国际传媒 Early Today 鈥� Move Against Participation Gets Scant Support in House of Commons.鈥�
Readers would have had to turn to the competition, the Victoria Daily Times, or wait until the Sept. 12 edition to see how the cliffhanger resolved:
鈥淧roclamation Puts Dominion in State of War With Reich 鈥� The King Gives Assent to Document Which Signed by the Governor-General 鈥� Complete Text of Royal Order Given.鈥�
鈥淥TTAWA, Sept 10. (CP) 鈥� The speed with which the proclamation declaring sa国际传媒 at war with Germany was issued today after Parliament passed the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne was the subject of comment tonight.鈥�
King George VI鈥檚 approval of sa国际传媒鈥檚 proclamation follows:
鈥淲hereas by and with the advice of our Privy Council for sa国际传媒 we have signified our approval of the issue of a proclamation in the sa国际传媒 Gazette declaring that a state of war with the German Reich exists and has existed in our Dominion of sa国际传媒 as and from the tenth day of September, 1939. 鈥︹��
And down a bit:
鈥淣ow, therefore, we do hereby declare and proclaim that a state of war with the German Reich exists and has existed in our Dominion of sa国际传媒 as and from the tenth day of September, 1939.鈥�
sa国际传媒 entered the Second World War on Sept. 10, 1939, seven days after Britain and France declared war on Germany. Our separate declaration was possible because the Statute of Westminster 1931 had made sa国际传媒, Australia, New Zealand and the other self-government dominions of the British Empire largely sovereign nations in their own right.
It wasn鈥檛 quite that straightforward. Yes, we could decide to go to war. All such major policy announcements required a formal proclamation to be issued by the governor general on the advice of the federal cabinet. But not even sa国际传媒鈥檚 governor general had the power to approve a proclamation declaring war.
For that, sa国际传媒鈥檚 government needed the British monarch鈥檚 permission.
And King George VI was in London, an ocean and part of a continent away from Ottawa.
So how could Ottawa issue a proclamation declaring sa国际传媒 at war with Germany within a day of Parliamentary approval, when so much geography stood in the way?
What transpired that autumn underscores how modern wireless technology makes 21st-century life possible.
On Sept. 9, sa国际传媒鈥檚 Parliament approved authorization to declare war. On Sept. 10, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King requested the king鈥檚 approval to issue a proclamation by sa国际传媒 declaring a state of war with the German Reich.
The king did as requested.
But, as described online last year by Library and Archives sa国际传媒鈥檚 J. Andrew Ross, the document George VI approved and signed was copied out by hand from a cabled telegram and was not signed by a Canadian cabinet minister, as required by law. Ottawa defined this document 鈥渋nformal approval鈥� and promised London a formal 鈥� signed 鈥� submission forthwith.
Meanwhile, even before the king approved the informal submission, Ottawa drew up the proclamation and had the governor general, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and the minister of justice sign it. The government also published it as an edition of the sa国际传媒 Gazette, the official publication for conveying government announcements.
Three versions of the proclamation now existed, and none had all the required signatures.
The king continued to await the promised and most important version 鈥� the formal submission with a cabinet minister鈥檚 signature. On Oct. 24, sa国际传媒鈥檚 high commissioner to Great Britain cabled Ottawa, saying there was some concern in royal quarters that, without the correctly signed submission, the constitutional validity of the proclamation could be called into question 鈥� that is, sa国际传媒 might not be at war at all.
Oops. That lit fires. The government promptly sent a typewritten document signed by the prime minister and backdated to Sept. 10. The king signed this on Nov. 27 鈥� 10 weeks after sa国际传媒 had publicly declared war.
Headlines, hoopla and good intentions aside, limited communications technology and administrative delay almost sidelined sa国际传媒鈥檚 legal participation in the first war it entered as a sovereign nation.
