The Commission of Government on Reconstruction, December 1936 (DOCUMENT‪)‬

ON 16 FEBRUARY 1934 NEWFOUNDLAND switched from elective self-government to administration by a British-appointed Commission of Government. Under the Commission system there was a Governor and six commissioners, three of the latter drawn from Newfoundland and three from the United Kingdom. All these officials were appointed by London, and the Commission, which remained in office until 31 March 1949, had both executive and legislative power. Each commissioner had a portfolio, with the British commissioners occupying the economic posts (Finance, Natural Resources, and Public Utilities). The Commission was established by an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament passed, with the agreement of St. John's, following the report of the 1933 Newfoundland Royal Commission, which had recommended the suspension of self-government in the Dominion of Newfoundland. This startling turn of events had been brought on by the Great Depression, which had devastated Newfoundland's markets and public revenues while imposing a heavy burden of public relief. In the view of the Royal Commission, Newfoundland needed economic reconstruction, which in turn required "a rest from party politics," (1) something the Commission of Government was presumed to embody. In its first phase, drawing on the analysis of the Royal Commission, the new administration attempted reform across a broad front. Experts were invited into the country to give advice, the civil service was made more professional, the magistracy was reformed, and a Ranger Police Force was launched. In the same spirit a cottage hospital system was established, educational administration changed (though the existing denominational system remained in place), and the dole ration (given in kind) nutritionally improved through the addition of Vitamin B to flour. Economically, the Commission took action on behalf of loggers and promoted land settlement (especially at the new community of Markland) as an alternative to overdependence on the fishing industry, Newfoundland's main source of employment. In November 1935 a Commission of Enquiry, headed by Justice James M. Kent, (2) was appointed to make recommendations for lifting the fishing industry out of its current doldrums, and in April 1936 the Newfoundland Fisheries Board was established to better regulate the trade. In attempting to promote ameliorative change, the Commission of Government enjoyed limited assistance from the Colonial Development Fund, which had been established by a United Kingdom statute of 1929 "for the purpose of aiding and developing agriculture and industry.'' (3)