[Speech delivered in the Birmingham Town Hall, April 16, 1915, on his election to the Presidency of the Liberal Unionist Association in succession to his father, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain.]
My Lord, Ladies, and Gentlemen:— I accept gratefully the honour and the responsibility which you have entrusted to me. I have been reminded by those who have moved the resolution which you have just so kindly passed, if I needed a reminder, how intimately my father was associated with this city, how great the services which he rendered to this city, to his country, and the empire—[hear, hear]—how long and how able his conduct of the affairs of this association. [Applause.] I cannot hope to serve you with equal ability, but I accept the position in which you have placed me as a trust, and I will at least try to serve you with equal fidelity. [Applause.]
Now, if these were ordinary times there are many subjects which would in the usual course attract our attention. We are passing through great changes. We cannot foresee exactly how we shall emerge from the great crisis in which we are involved. Big things and little things will change, and it may be that the future of our association may be different from its past. It may be that when the war is over, and when our thoughts turn again to domestic controversy, we may find that we can better serve the great causes which we exist to promote by some closer union of all the Unionist forces in our city than we have hitherto established among us. But these are thoughts for another time. We cannot deal with that to-night.
Nothing is usual now—neither business nor play, nor, least of all, politics. At the very beginning of the crisis which preluded this colossal struggle of great nations, we on our side declared a truce on all subjects of party controversy and from that day to this we have maintained the truce—in letter and in spirit, in spite, yes, even in spite of the grievous, the incredible provocation that was offered to us—[applause]—in the passage
