Agent-general

This article is about the quasi-diplomatic post. For the clerical representatives in the Kingdom of France, see Agent-General of the French Clergy. For the official overseeing emigration from Britain (1837–1840), see Agent General for Emigration.

The plaque of the Agent General for British Columbia in London

An agent-general is the representative in cities abroad of the government of a Canadian province or an Australian state and, historically, also of a British colony in Jamaica, Nigeria, Canada, Malta, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand and subsequently, of a Nigerian region. Australia's and Canada's federal governments are represented by high commissions, as are all Commonwealth national governments today.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a growing number of British colonies appointed agents in Great Britain and Ireland and occasionally elsewhere in Europe to promote immigration to the colonies. Eventually, agents-general were appointed by some colonies to represent their commercial, legal, and diplomatic interests in Britain and to the British government and Whitehall.[1] They were appointed, and their expenses and salaries provided, by the governments of the colonies they represented.[2]

Starting in 1886, Quebec and the federal Canadian government also appointed agents-general to Paris. The first, Hector Fabre, was dispatched by the province of Quebec but was asked by the federal government to represent all of Canada. He and his successor, Philippe Roy, continued to represent both Quebec City and Ottawa in France until 1912 when the federal government asked Roy to resign his Quebec position to avoid conflicts of interest. Canadian provinces have also appointed agents-general (called delegates-general by Quebec beginning in the 1970s) to other countries and major cities.

Following a military coup in Nigeria in 1966, the federal system was abolished, and the posts of the agents-general of Nigerian regions in London were subsumed in the Nigerian High Commission.

By the 1990s, some Australian state governments regarded the office of their agent-general in London as a costly anachronism, even for promoting tourism and investment, and have since been closed and subsumed into the Australian High Commission. The majority of Australian states continue to have agents-general in London, but operate from Australia House rather than maintain separate premises.

Many Canadian provinces similarly are no longer represented by an agent-general, although Quebec continues to have a Government Office in London (Délégation générale du Québec à Londres) and in several other cities around the world. Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have representatives who work out of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC.[3]

  1. ^ MacLaren, Roy (1 January 2006). Commissions High: Canada in London, 1870–1971. McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 9780773560123.
  2. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agent-General". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 374.
  3. ^ "Ontario Appoints New Representative in Washington". Office of the Premier. 15 August 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2016.