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Personal

[Embossed Seal: Coat of Arms - Prime Ministers Office Canada]

Ottawa, February 27, 1926

John Buchan, Esq.,
Elsfield Manor,
Oxford, England.

My dear Buchan:

Since the opening of the year I have received no
letter which brought with it more in the way of genuine
comfort and satisfaction than yours of January 12th. I
have felt so convinced in my own mind that constitutionally
I was doing the right thing in continuing in office until
the new Parliament had met and expressed its view in the
matter of majority control, that I have been naturally anxious
to see how tbe matter might be viewed by others wholly
removed from the atmosphere of political prejudice and
passion. I do not hesitate to say that your judgment is
one to which I would, on any matter of the kind, attach the
greatest importance. It was, therefore, very pleasing to
me that you should feel that from the constitutional point
of view I had adopted the right course. It is now wholly
apparent that my judgment in the matter was sound; that
the majority of the elected representatives could not have
been expected to give their support to Mr. Heighen, and so
it has proved. The first vote in the House gave the Gowernment
the small majority of three. That was due, so far as
I can learn, to the desire on the part of certain of the
Progressives not to defeat the Administration, but to make
it clear that the Government would be more or less dependent
upon their support to carry on. From that moment to the
present the tactics of the opposition have been of a character
to drive the Progressives, the Labor Members and ourselves
into one homogeneous whole, and to make a clear line of
division between the official opposition and the other groups
in Parliament. This is exactly that I believed would take
place. Several amendments to the motion on the Address have
been made. The Government's majorities upon them have been
anywhere from eight to ten. That, I think, may be taken as
a fair average of what we are likely to receive throughout
the Session, if we continue to hold office.