x PREFATORY NOTE. 



to make a more or less coherent story which should 

 give a fair representation of the general spirit of the 

 discussions and convey, so far as might be done in 

 cold print, a sense of the atmosphere of the Club. 

 Now that I read the story I find that it has not 

 developed exactly as I intended when I began it 



" When at the first I took my pen in hand 

 Thus for to write I did not understand 

 That I at all should make a little book 

 In such a mode." 



One obvious and unintended defect is that the 

 opinions of the story-teller have intruded unduly 

 into the Story. This is inexcusable, but it can now 

 only be brazened out. It may testify to the stimu- 

 lating effect of the discussions. 



An apology is due, in advance, to those whose 

 utterances have been quoted. I am conscious that 

 in many cases the extracts given from papers read 

 give an inadequate idea of their merits, while the 

 brief notes of discussions which in the absence of 

 a shorthand writer were all that were available 

 do much less than justice to the speeches, which 

 in many cases were reasoned and balanced argu- 

 ments, frequently reaching a high dialectical 

 level. It is but fair to add that the existence 

 of any record of the discussions is due to the 

 assiduity of the Honorary Secretaries of the 

 Club Captain Page Roberts and Mr. S. A. Smith 

 both of whom were very successful in making 

 summaries of the proceedings. 



But whatever may be its deficiencies, I make no 

 apology for giving the Story to the world. Lord 

 Bledisloe in his sympathetic " Foreword " speaks of 

 it as an " inspiring record," and I venture to think 

 that this is a true description. No one is better quali- 

 fied than he to speak of the proceedings at the Club, 

 for very few, if any, of the members were more regular 

 in their attendance at the meetings. The record 



