ner, Reynolds, could give points to most
people in the matter of unwearying energy, yet I am proud to report that
the member of our circle who, so to say, worked us all to a standstill
was John Crondall, an Englishman born and bred. I said as much in the
presence of them all, and when my verdict was generally endorsed, John
Crondall qualified it with the remark:

"Well, I can only say that pretty nearly all I know about work I learned
in the Colonies."

And I learned later on to realize the justice of this qualification.
Colonial life does teach directness and concentration. Action of any
sort in England was at that time hedged about by innumerable
complications and cross issues and formalities, many of which we have
won clear from since then. Perhaps it was the strength of our Colonial
support which set the pace of our procedure. Whatever the cause, I know
I never worked harder, or accomplished more; and I had never been so
happy.

I think John Crondall must have interviewed from two to three hundred
prominent politicians and members of the official world during that
week. I have heard it said by men who should know, that the money
Crondall spent in cable messages to the Colonies that week was the price
of the first Imperial Parliament ever assembled in Westminster Hall. I
use these words in their true sense, their modern sense, of course.
Nominally, the House of Commons had long been the "Imperial" Parliament.

I know that week's work established _The Citizens_ as an already
powerful organization, with a long list of names famous in history among
its members, with a substantial banking account, and with volunteer
agents in every great centre in the kingdom. The motto and watchword of
_The Citizens_, as engraved upon a little bronze medal of membership,
was: "For God; our Race; and Duty." The oath of enrolment said:

"I ---- do hereby undertake and promise to do my duty to God, to our
Race, and to the British Empire to the utmost limit of my ability,
without fear and without compromise, so help me God!"

John Crondall interviewed the editors of most of the leading London
newspapers during that week, and thereby earned a discreet measure of
journalistic support for his campaign. There was a great need of
discretion here, for our papers were carefully studied in Berlin, as
well as by the German Generals commanding the various English towns now
occupied by the Kaiser's troops. It was, of course, most important that