262 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



have shown not to treat as a stranger the kinswoman 

 who comes to you from across the sea, and returns 

 to the country which her ancestors left behind them 

 more than 250 years ago. (Cheers.) She will tell 

 you that we have often talked of Birmingham, and 

 that I have dwelt upon the peculiar closeness of the 

 ties which bind me to this great constituency — 

 (hear, hear) — and now she bids me say to you that 

 she shares all the interest that I have ever felt in its 

 institutions and in its people, in the public and 

 private life of the city in which she has elected 

 to dwell. (Cheers.) She accepts with the greatest 

 pleasure the tokens of your friendship and regard. 

 She will cherish them amongst her choicest pos- 

 sessions, as evidence at once of the sincerity with 

 which you have welcomed her as a member of this 

 great community, and additional evidence of the 

 generous consideration that you have always shown 

 to her husband. I have tried to persuade her — I 

 am not certain that I have even yet succeeded — 

 (laughter) — that by her marriage she has renounced 

 the protection of the flag under which she was bom 

 — (laughter) — and has become a British subject. 

 (Hear, hear.) But, ladies and gentlemen, although 

 I neither hope nor expect to essen her love for the 

 country she has left — (hear, hear) — I know that she 

 is prepared to take up her life amongst us, in the 

 country to which she has come, in all its fullness, and 

 that she will say with Ruth of old, " Thy people 

 shall be my people." (Loud cheers.) I noticed 

 two leading ideas in the addresses which have been 

 presented, and in the graceful speeches which 



