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THORNBANK, BLAIRMORE, ARGYLL.
26 March. 1935.
My dear John,
Best congratulations and all good wishes. I am, of course, not surprized and I am glad for many reasons, for your sake and for Canada's. That you will be a great success as Governor General and that you will bind Canada more closely than ever to the Empire no one who knows you can doubt. And I feel sure that you and Mrs
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Buchan will love the work and the country and be happy among old and new friends there. The appointment will give widespread satisfaction both here and there.
But - there is always a but - I hate to lose you as our Member. The loss is great, and the greater because you are one of the very few representatives of any University who are of the type which justifies the continuance of University representation. I
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hope that you will remain our Member until the last possible moment - unless your peerage comes in advance of your departure for Canada. The Universities will be very much the poorer for what will be Canada's gain, and, though I recognize that all is as it should be, I cannot repress a selfish and affectionate regret.
I had feared (and hoped) that you might go to Washington, for I
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have always believed that you alone could take up Bryce's unfinished work of interpreting us to them and them to us. And if it had been Washington I should have been more consolable. But a great man of letters in Ottawa is a new experiment which will be fruitful for the intellectual life of Canada.
So I write in mixed gladness and regret, but with
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deep pride, personal and corporate - old affection and the memory of many kindnesses to me, and the joy that the still higher eminence of one of our not very numerous great men must bring to a Principal of Glasgow.
Ruth and I send all good wishes to Mrs Buchan and to you. We may be able to
