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Prime Minister of Canada

(Mr. Prime Minister),

I thank you from my heart for your generous words of welcome.
I recognise that they are a tribute to the King through his
representative, and I shall have much pleasure in reporting to His
Majesty those expressions of loyalty and devotion on the part of the
great province of Quebec. Here, as you have so happily said, the Canadian nation had its birth.
Here the early history of Canada was made. Here famous deeds were
performed, a proud memory for both France and Britain. He who
comes today to Canada as Governor-General stands in a high line of
succession, and at the moment I feel more conscious of the merits
of my predecessors than of my own capacity.

Sir, it is the glory of the Empire to contain within its
confines many races and many traditions. It is in its variety that its
strength lies, for it is no dull piece of mechanism, but a rich and
organic unity. Among its peoples none has behind it a
finer record of achievement than the French race in Canada, and
none has older and closer links with Britain. The head of a great
Oxford College, when he was here last year in connection with the
Jacques Cartier celebrations, told you that Quebec and England were
alike in this, that they both began by being colonised by settlers
from Normandy. As for my own country in north Britain, to which the
Normans scarcely penetrated, I need not repeat that for centuries
Scotland was the ally of France.

One of my most cherished hopes in coming to Canada is to
see more of Quebec and its people. As an historian I am naturally