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5.

are not many finer instances of moral courage in our history.

That was the true Haig. I do not think he was ever understood
by the men he commanded, but towards the end he was profoundly
respected. You remember that after Peace he refused to accept any
honours until he was certain the men he had fought with had been
properly cared for. His soldiers will never forget that example of
his loyalty. Their feeling for him was shown when his body was
brought to Edinburgh for burial in St. Giles about midnight, in
bitter winter weather, and the streets of Edinburgh were congested
with old soldiers who had come to pay him their final tribute. That
was the kind of reward which he would have understood.

My second figure is Lord Balfour. (I apologise to those
here who are not Scots for taking another Caledonian). He was another
very typical Scotsman, but of a wholly different kind from Lord
Haig. Primarily he was a scientist and a philosopher, to whom the
things of the mind were of supreme interest. I have never known
anyone who was so completely guided by pure reason. He drifted into
politics by accident through his relationship to the late Lord Salisbury.
One would have said beforehand that no one was less adapted
to the rough and tumble of the House of Commons with its carnival of
half-truths.

But he developed great gifts as a parliamentarian. For one
thing, unlike Haig, he had a remarkable power of expressing his
views in lucid language. He had the gift of thinking on his feet
and scarcely used any notes. He would begin a speech slowly and hesitatingly,
as if he were feeling his way into the subject. Then he

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