The Struggle For Peace

1C

understanding have for many years made all my troubles
seem light.
" There is only one thing which is essential if the Govern-
ment of which I am now the head is to be an effective force for
the things which you and I want to see done, and that is that
you and I should work together in mutual confidence and
trust* And it is because this resolution has not only declared
your choice of me as your leader but has also promised
me your whole-hearted support that I shall gladly and defi-
nitely accept the charge, and on my side I promise you to
devote myself with all my strength to an endeavour to
prove worthy of your trust. The pleasure that you have
given me by passing this resolution has been very much
increased by the knowledge that it was proposed and seconded
by Lord Derby and Mr, Churchill. I would like to thank
them very warmly for consenting to do so, and for their
words, which, although I was not here to listen to them,
I know them well enough to be able to guess were both
gracious and generous.
" I know you will forgive a personal note if I say that
ever since Friday last my thoughts have reverted continu-
ally to my father and to my brother. Both of them had
qualifications far greater than I for the highest Ministerial
office. Both of them might have attained it if it had not been
that, by the chances of political fortune, they had to choose
between their natural ambition and national interests which
seemed to them to be paramount. I look upon my position
to-day as the continuation—perhaps I may say the consum-
mation—of their life work, and it has therefore been a matter
of the keenest satisfaction to me that my election should have
been proposed by two men for both of whom I have long
entertained the highest respect and admiration, and of whom
I would like particularly to remember to-day that each of them
began his political career with the strong interest and approval
of my father, and each of them subsequently became the
personal friends of my brother until the date of his death,
" I am very conscious of the difficulty of succeeding one
who led our party for so many years, and who had succeeded
in obtaining from them such an unusual amount of respect
and affection. I know well that I do not possess some