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University of Manitoba

The Service of the State.

I have the privilege today to be addressing an audience
largely young, whose hopes in life are not yet dimmed by disappointments,
and to whom as to [?] the world is an
oyster waiting to be opened. So I am going to offer to you a plea that one consideration
should be present when you plan your careers. It is that you should
remember that you are not only, but also citizens. It is that
in all your schemes some allowance should be made for that supreme
duty, a duty second only to that which a man owes to his soul, and
which I shall call the service of the State. It is obvious that no
nation can be strong unless it can enlist for national purposes the
help of its best citizens. You educated young men and women are the
cream of this citizenship. It is only if you are willing to give, each
in different degrees, thought and work to the welfare of the nation
that your country will really achieve that greatness which every
patriot desires.

Let me begin by paying a tribute to a certain British tradition.
Heaven knows that some of our British traditions are foolish enough!
but there is one which has now persisted for more than two centuries,
and which has been of incalculable value to us in recent difficult
days. That tradition is that the public service is one of the most
honourable of all pursuits. It takes many forms. When I was an
undergraduate at Oxford some of the ablest men in each year went
naturally into the Civil Service; not because of the pecuniary rewards,
though these were reasonably adequate at the start; but because
of its dignity and interest. I say dignity and interest, for it was