2110-19-3-1

Address in reply to the Mayor of Toronto.

I would offer you my warmest thanks, on my wife's behalf and on my own, for your most kindly welcome. I well understand that in welcoming me you are honouring, through his re resentative, our beloved King, and it will be my privilege and pleasure to report to him what you have expressed in such loyal & felicitous terms. Canada has a threefold character. It is a great and sovereign State; it is a vital part of the British Empire; and it is also an American nation. I remember, on my first visit to Toronto, how strongly I realised this threefold character of yours. I came to you from the United States, a land in which I have many old friendships, and I shall never forget my first impression. I felt that I was in a city with its own idiomatic character, different from anything in Europe. But at the same time I felt that I was in a city quite different from any I had ever visited in the United States. Above all, remembering your famous history, I felt that I was in a city which in stormy days had kept the flag of Britain flying, and stood as a warden at her gates. I had the happy knowledge that I was among my own people.

Mr. Mayor, my wife and I have come to Canada with the utmost enthusiasm for our task, with the certainty that before us lie some years of intense interest, and above all, of happy companionship. Canada has adopted us, and today, by virtue of that adoption, we are proud to rank as Canadians. It will be our pride and our privilege to devote any gifts we may possess to Canada's service.