Prime Minister Mackenzie King: It is a happiness to me to be sailing for England from this old city of Quebec. It brings to mind many associations, some of an historic, others of a personal interest. Here our Dominion had its beginning. Here Champlain established the foundations of French settlement in the new world. Here, only a few years ago, we celebrated the tercentenary of that event. It was here, a century and a half after its founding, that Canada was ceded by the French to the British. That event, we might say, marked the birth of what is today the greater Britain beyond the seas.

I regard it as a happy augury that the ship on which I am to cross to Britain is named The Montcalm. What expression of the cordiality of relations now existing between Canada and Britain could be more significant? It suggests better than words can express what, above all else, is the spirit of Canada today. What is that spirit, the truly Canadian spirit? It is, if I mistake not, one of conciliation, one, I might even say, of reconciliation, a spirit essentially of equal rights for all, and good-will towards all.

It is not many years ago that an ancestor of mine (William Lyon Mackenzie), but one generation removed, went on a mission to England on behalf of the people of Upper Canada. He carried with him a Grievance Report for presentation to the British Government. How many in number were the grievances enumerated, I cannot say. To-day it is my privilege to go to England in the name of the people of Canada without a single grievance. It will be for me to say that our relations with Britain and with all parts of the Empire are of the best.

If there is a fitting symbol of unity anywhere, it is surely to be found in the simple shaft erected here at Quebec to the memory of Wolfe and Montcalm and which commemorates in a single epitaph the virtues alike of victor and vanquished. Here from the hour of the conquest, men of British and of French descent have sought to forget the enmities of the past, and have united in an endeavour to make one great, one prosperous, one contented people. Has this shaft, the symbol of Canadian unity, no meaning for Europe today?

I do not forget, at this moment, that no Prime Minister of a British Dominion ever devoted his life and talents to the cause of Canadian unity with more unremitting zeal than Sir Wilfrid Laurier; and that it was from this old city of Quebec, which for forty years he represented in our Parliament, that, on more than one occasion, Sir Wilfrid sailed to attend an Imperial Conference at the heart of the Empire in London. With what pride the whole Canadian nation witnessed his going, and welcomed his return! In the councils of Empire his voice was powerful for imperial unity, because Laurier understood, as few men in history have understood, the secret of national unity. I shall not greatly err if I seek to follow his example.

There is one other association with this ancient capital which gives it, in my heart, a place apart, and which, at this time, is not without some significance. Within the walls of this city, lie the remains of my paternal grandfather. His grave, like many another, is that of an unknown British soldier. He came to Canada from Scotland in 1834 with a Highland detachment of the Royal Horse Artillery. During the Rebellion of 1837-8 he was stationed at Prescott, Ontario, and was active with others in the suppression of that uprising. Some six years later, while still in the army, he died in this city at a comparatively early age. His remains were buried here in the old military burying ground. Within your keeping his ashes lie.

I mention the incident because it is illustrative of a phase of Canadian history which is not without its effect upon our outlook and our attitude. Canada has been a land of reconciliation. Many strains of blood go to make up our nation. Through the veins of some of us there flows alike loyalist and rebel blood. But we are essentially one people. We have learned to admire principle, and the spirit which is ready to fight to maintain it, but we have learned also to respect honest differences of opinion. In our soil, the enmities of past generations lie buried, enmities of race which have occasioned war, enmities of political hate which have occasioned rebellion.

Today we are a united people, seeking first and foremost an enduring unity; not a unity which aims at uniformity, but a unity which delights in diversity. Such, I believe, is the model on which the community of British nations is patterned. Such a model, I believe, it is the aim of Imperial Conferences to maintain. To this task the representatives of Canada, at the forthcoming Conference, can give themselves with a glad heart.