ITAL

IN CANADA'S CAPITAL

APATHY AND BREEDING OF OTTAWA'S AUDIENCE--INTIMATE TALK WITH
PREMIER MACKENZIE KING--THE STATUE OF "SIR GALAHAD" AND ITS STORY

We arrived at Ottawa on the first of March and lunched with Sir George
Perley and his wife (who had befriended me upon the _Carmania_). Lady
Perley is a treasure of kindness and understanding, and nothing I could
ever do will repay her.

At lunch I met Mr. Meighen and the Canadian Premier. In inviting the
defeated Minister and Mr. MacKenzie King to meet each other, my hostess
reminded me of the early days where in my father's house Mr. Gladstone,
Lord Randolph Churchill, and other Cabinet Ministers of rival parties
met and discussed politics.

I was grateful to Mr. Meighen for the cordiality with which he greeted
me, as the inventive Canadian press had added impromptu reflections of
their own to what I had said of him. I sat next to Mr. MacKenzie King,
but as we had no opportunity of private conversation, he invited me to
go to his house for supper after the lecture.

The capital of the Dominion is a beautiful town, wonderfully situated,
and in spite of being covered with snow, was alive and radiant with
spangles and sunshine.

A greater contrast to the audiences of New York, Boston, Chicago,
Rochester or Toronto, than the one I addressed in Ottawa could hardly be
imagined, and I recognised some of the apathy and breeding which had
characterised my listeners in Montreal. I was introduced to several
select and fashionable people and one gentleman gave me an inventory of
our British aristocracy, most of whom he had known and stayed with. I
felt like putting my arm on his shoulder and saying with sympathy,
"Never mind!" but refrained. When the lecture was over I motored to Mr.
King's private apartments.

The Canadian Premier is a man after my own heart; shrewd, straight,
modest and cultured. I was surprised to find how much he knew, not only
of the political situation in England, but of the chief characters
concerned in it. After discussing Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Churchill, Lord
Birkenhead, and Mr. Bonar Law's Canadian friend Lord Beaverbrook, we
talked of Sir Wilfred Laurier, President Harding, and Mr. Hughes. He
spoke with genuine admiration of Mr. Hughes's speech and the Washington
Conference and agreed with me in condemnation of the many futile
confabulations that had preceded it.

He asked me about the Irish Free State and Labour conditions in