Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life Part 28

We called it the Victoria League in memory of the great Queen-Empress under whose sway that Empire had extended to "regions Caesar never knew."

The executive committee then elected was composed of the wives and sisters of Cabinet Ministers, of wives of leaders of the Opposition, and other representative ladies. Most unexpectedly, just before the meeting Lady Rayleigh (Mr. Balfour's sister) informed me that I was to take the chair and that it was intended to appoint me first President. My breath was quite taken away, but there was neither time nor opportunity for remonstrance, and I concluded that I was chosen because one great object of the founders being to emphasise "no party politics," it was thought wiser not to select a President whose husband was of Cabinet rank, and that though a Conservative I had the qualification of overseas experience.

The late Lady Tweedmouth, a Liberal, was appointed Vice-President, and shortly afterwards Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, representing the Liberal Unionists, became Honorary Secretary. Later on Miss Talbot, now Dame Meriel, took the post of Secretary, which she held for fifteen years, and Mrs. Maurice Macmillan succeeded Miss Georgina Frere as Honorary Treasurer, a position which she still holds. Miss Drayton, O.B.E., is now our most efficient Secretary.

For myself I have been President for twenty-one years, and, thanks to the extraordinary kindness and capacity of my colleagues, those years have been full of interest and unshadowed by any disputes, despite the divergent politics of the directing committees. We have always borne in mind the purpose of the League so well summed up by Rudyard Kipling on its foundation, "the first attempt to organise sympathy."

We have now 38 British Branches and 22 Overseas Affiliated Leagues, besides Allied a.s.sociations, and we are honoured by having the King and Queen as Patrons and the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal Family as Vice-Patrons.

Men were soon added to our Councils, and we had two splendid Deputy Presidents in Sir Edward Cook and Sir James Dunlop-Smith, now, alas! both taken from us. But the twenty-one years of the League's work lie outside the limits of these wandering recollections.

[Sidenote: MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S LETTER]

I would, however, like to insert the wise words which Mr. Chamberlain wrote on March 16th, 1902, in reply to a request sent by desire of our Committee for some official recognition. After acknowledging my letter he continues:

"I heartily approve of the efforts you are making to draw closer the ties between our Colonial kinsfolk and ourselves. I believe that the questions of sentiment enter more largely into these things than the average man is willing to admit, and that we have lost much in the past by the absence of personal intercourse with those whose support and friends.h.i.+p are daily becoming more important to us as a Nation.

The Colonials are especially sensitive to these personal considerations. They find it difficult to understand our preoccupations and the impossibility of returning the hospitality they so freely offer when we visit them.

"No Government can set this matter right, as it is not a question of official recognition, but of private and personal courtesy.

"I look therefore with the greatest hope to the work of such a.s.sociations as yours which may help to make our Colonists feel that we appreciate their affection and desire as far as in us lies to reciprocate it."

He then proceeds to explain the view which he says he has already discussed with Mr. Alfred Lyttelton--namely, that it is wiser to refrain from giving official colour to a work which had better maintain a "private and personal character." He continues:

"I cannot dissociate myself from my office, and I do not think that it would be wise or desirable that I should extend the vast field of responsibility which that office already covers by a.s.sociating myself publicly with these private a.s.sociations."

He expresses himself as ready at any time to give such a.s.sistance as obtaining special privileges for the guests we represent at the Coronation or other functions, and then says:

"But I feel that, except in such ways, I had better stand apart, and that the great value of these a.s.sociations lies in their non-official character. I represent the Government--you represent the people, and I think it is most important that this distinction should be carefully preserved.

"I am open to conviction, but I think I am right in begging you to accept my reasons and to excuse me from accepting a request which as a private individual I should have been proud to comply with."

Naturally we felt the justice of views so fully and courteously explained.

And now I must end. The years spent under the rule of two great Kings, and the guidance of two gracious Queens, have had their joys and sorrows, public and private, but they lie too near our day for a woman to attempt even a personal record of what they have brought under her ken.

The happy marriages of my eldest son to the beloved daughter of Lord Kilmorey, of my youngest daughter to Lord Dunsany, and of my brother Rupert to Miss Dudley Smith belong to the present century.

I can only say how grateful I am for the affection of many friends, and the love of my children and grandchildren, which have softened the sorrows and heightened the joys of these latter years.

THE END