TRIALS OF PUBLIC LIFE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 259, 2 August 1928, Page 3

TRIALS OF PUBLIC LIFE

Last month Glasgow, conferred the freedom of the city on Sir Austen Chamberlain. The reply of the recipient possessed a human touch that charmed his hearers. ’ Talking of the joys and work of public life, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said: "To have been in public life for -10 years perhaps excuses some reflections on a public career. There are moments when we are vexed by some passing incidents; at such moments I have confided to my wife that it is u dog’s life, and that I don’t know why I submit to ■ it. And then she says,' when I suggest that with my books and a little bit of garden I could be very happy, that I might be so for six months, but that after that I should weary of my leisure. I once—and this is, perhaps,'a warning to the younger among you against indiscretions in moments of expansion—I once ■ in our early married life told my wife a story which I owed to tlie late Lord Balfour of Burleigh. There was an. election in his county, and he -was sitting with the committee of the Conservative Association, running over the voters’ list, and marking off the proclivities of the people whose names were enrolled.. They came to ‘Jock Somebody,’ and ouc of the committee men said, ‘Ob, Jock’s all right; he told me he is to vote for us.’ ‘But,’ said another member, ‘Sandy told me that Jock said to him that he was to vote with them.” Then they wondered what Jock was really going to do, aud at last somebody suggested—Does no one know his wife; he probably tells the truth to her? And, having found a volunteer, they said, ‘Go and find out what he is when be is'at home.’ The volunteer went to see Mrs.'Jodc, and, having passed the time of day with her, he duly asked his. question. ‘You want to know what my man ?s when he is at home,” she said. ‘Well, he's a nuisance; that’s what he is.’ You see what great effects from little causes spring. I told this story to my wife some two aud twenty years ago, and whenever I show a tendency to seek relief from public duties, she says, What! and be a nuisance at home! But, after all, if I have these moments of weariness and distaste, I can nevertheless say, after my long experience, ■ to any young man or woman who is thinking of the possibility of undertaking public work, that it is worth while, that the more yoii do it the more interested you become. If (here are moments of disappointment, still the work is profoundly interesting: and I think I may add, in the light of my own experience, that a rich and generous reward awaits anyone who gives' honest service according to their measure.”