JUBILEE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE LONDON ROBERT BURNS CLUB. 25TH JANUARY, 1919. THE HE brilliant company assembled at this meeting, whose names would extend over several pages of the Chronicle, and the notable speeches delivered by eminent men present, have induced us to lay a full report before our readers as a memento of the Great War and contribution to the celebrations which marked the first Year of Peace. The report may also serve the purpose of introducing the sceptical to the mysteries of the January celebrations. 66 The Right Hon. Robert Munro, K.C., M.P., Secretary for Scotland, in rising to propose " The London Robert Burns Club," was loudly applauded. He said:: Mr President, my Lord, Ladies, and Gentlemen,-You have heard from the Secretary of the various calamities which have befallen this gathering by reason of the absence of certain guests. I hope you will not regard my presence as a calamity rather than my absence-(laughter)-when I have concluded the few observations which I propose to address to you. We recall I think that in submitting to you the toast of "The London Robert Burns Club," eloquence and argument are alike superfluous. But a short and simple narrative may be permitted. Your Club is celebrating this year its jubilee. I think you all know what a wealth of well-conceived and well-directed activity is comprised in that short and simple statement of fact. (Hear, hear.) We recall to-night the founder of the Club, Mr Colin Rae Brown. him with appreciation and with gratitude. We recall also the important part which this Club has been privileged to play in the social life of our time. We recall its many activities. We recall its unbounded generosity towards the ailing and the suffering and the poor, and in particular, we recall its war-time activities, which have been as manifold as they have been bountiful. (Applause.) May I just add this? The Club stands, as we all know, for the Burns spirit-the spirit of liberty, equality, and fraternity. That spirit is, of course, the negation of the hateful, and, fortunately, discredited doctrines of Prussia with which we have become familiar in recent years. It is, on the other hand, the affirmation of those great principles which have been triumphantly vindicated by the Allies. (Hear, hear.) Surely, then, there never was a time when an institution, breathing and animated by that spirit-a spirit abounding in, and so to speak, aggregated within its borders, and radiating its influence far and wide-I repeat, there never has been a time when such an institution had an opportunity so great and so fruitful as is presented to this Club. Your Club has a great past. In the greater future, whose sun-capped heights are now piercing the mists of the valley, I do not doubt for a moment that your Club will play a worthy and a noble part. In that uncharted future, in that uncharted sea, you have in your President a skilled and experienced captain, and an inspiring leader. It is my privilege to couple his name with the toast. I give you the toast of the "London Robert Burns Club," coupled with the name of Mr William Will. The toast was received with musical honours. Mr William Will, the President of the Club, in responding, said :— My Lord, Ladies, and Gentlemen,-First let me, on behalf of the Club, thank the Secretary for Scotland for the generous words that he has used in submitting this toast, and you for the handsome manner in which you have received it. We can reciprocate some of the compliments and congratulations which Mr Munro has offered, for we can congratulate him, and we can congratulate his native land upon his reappointment by His Majesty the King as Secretary of State for Scotland. (Cheers.) We meet to-night under conditions entirely different from those which last year led to the elevation of a miserable Italian decoction to the position which can only be satisfactorily occupied by His Majesty the Haggis. (Laughter.) Last year the Haggis was under control. Thanks to our invincible Navy and Army, and a determined civil population behind them, the Hun and the Haggis again occupy their proper places-the Hun under control and the Haggis uncontrolled. (Laughter and applause.) As the Scottish Secretary has said, this evening the London Robert Burns Club celebrates for the fiftieth year the birth of the Poet. Fifty years ago last Hallowe'en, Mr Colin Rae Brown, a Scottish minor poet, with Samuel Lover, the novelist, George Cruickshank, the artist, and others, founded this Club, and in the intervening half a century the members have kept the Burns cult alive in the capital of the Auld Enemy, by means of literary, social, and charitable endeavour. There are differences of opinion as to the origin and functions of Burns Clubs. It is not the case, as cynics, and others with weak digestions, declare, that Burns Clubs exist for the sole and exclusive purpose of giving Scotsmen an excuse for once a year eating Haggis and getting uproariously " fou," for I never yet met a Scotsman who, if he really wanted a glass, or a bottle for that matter, lost any time in searching for an excuse for drinking it. (Laughter.) No; the Scot is credited with being a highly practical person; and there were good reasons for the establishment of associations dedicated to the memory of Robert Burns. The Poet was but a short time in his grave when Robert Heron, the brilliant, dissipated, lying, Scottish literary hack, who settled and died in poverty in London, let loose upon his country the first Life of the Poet. Not for the first or last time was local gossip, scandal, and personal animosity converted into biography. Since then there has raged round the Poet's head of gold and feet of clay a fiercer storm than that which roared over Coila on that never-to-be-forgotten 25th of January, 1759. Heron's, and subsequent attacks based on Heron's mis-statements, were so unjust that the antagonism of many men with a sense of decency and fairplay was aroused. They banded themselves together in clubs. They had, besides, the correction of false statements, to promulgate the Poet's message, for Burns, let it be remembered, was the forerunner of Lord Grey and President Wilson with the idea of the League of Nations; and he was the author of what may well be the hymn of the League of Nations, the "Marseillaise of Humanity." (Applause.) As I have suggested, the work of our Club is not confined to gatherings such as this. We have literary meetings, we have other social functions, and we raise considerable sums of money for charitable purposes. This week, for example, we have handed to the Harry Lauder Fund for Disabled Scottish Sailors and Soldiers over £400. (Applause.) This Club is not a close corporation. Men of many nationalities come together in its membership. The first enrolled member was Samuel Lover, an Irishman; our first honorary member was Garibaldi, the Italian patriot; and the Father of our Club is an Englishman, Past President W. Hayward Pitman, a Deputy Alderman of London, a citizen of credit and renown, who with his good lady and family we are delighted to have with us to-night. (Applause.) The President made further reference to the international character of the Club's membership, and concluded by again thanking the company for their hearty reception of the toast, The Right Hon. Lord Morris, K.C., LL.D., K.C.M.G., proposed the toast of "The British Imperial Forces." Greeted with applause, Lord Morris said : Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,-I should like in the first instance to express my thanks to the President and the members of the Burns Club in London, for affording me the opportunity of being present here this evening and taking part in such a distinguished gathering, in celebration of Burns night. In tendering the toast of the "British Imperial Forces" to this gathering, it is almost impossible not to keep before one the fact that in those Imperial Forces the Scottish element has always taken a very important and outstanding place. (Applause.) To-night we are celebrating the anniversary of the great Poet Burns, the peasant Poet, the farmer Poet, the ploughman Poet of Scotland, and he is typical in his own sphere of what nearly every class of Scotsman is in relation to his sphere. We have just listened to the strains of Scots Wha Hae," sung in a manner doing credit to the Poet and the sentiment of that great Poet, and we can understand the emotion, the splendid patriotic feeling, that that must inspire in the breasts and hearts and minds of a Scotsman as he marches to battle, preceded by the bagpipes that we have had the advantage of hearing this evening. (Applause.) The Scottish race is small in number compared with other portions of the Empire, because, after all, there are only something like four millions even to-day in Scotland, but we can appreciate and realise the very important part they have always played in our Empire, especially in relation to the Imperial Forces, who have won and hold that great Empire of which we are the inheritors to-day. And when one comes to analyse the cause and the reason, one cannot but come to the conclusion that the reason is because they are an earnest people. (Applause.) They have always been a very solid, earnest and quiet, but very determined " get there " portion of the Empire. Whether it be their schools, or fighting, or their patriotism, or their religion, they are always in dead earnest. When the British Empire had only six Universities, Scotland had four, and there is no part of the world to which you may go to-day where you will not find Scottish people and Scotsmen on top. Even in London to-day, from the Archbishop of Canterbury right down, you have Scotsmen occupying the most prominent and important positions in the public life of the country, and the same is true in relation to the whole Empire, and the only conclusion is that they are absolutely in earnest in relation to everything. (Applause.) I heard a most convincing story on that point the other day. A Scottish cabman was driving an American round Edinburgh. He drove him to Holyrood and showed him the historic palace, then took him up Princes Street and showed him the Scott Monument, and then to Arthur's Seat and showed him the glorious scene from there; but the American was not in any way enthusiastic, and could not see eye to eye with the Scottish cabman, who was telling him all about the beauties of Scotland, and Walter Scott, and "Ivanhoe," and so on. So the cabman took his fare up to the Castle, and told him of its historical associations, but the American still displayed no enthusiasm over it. Coming down the hill, he stopped 66 opposite John Knox's house, and pointing with great pride to it said: "There is John Knox's house." American, "Who was John Knox ?" cabman, "did you never read your That is the faith, the strong faith, that keeps the Scot on top. John Knox," said the "Damn it, man," said the Bible?" (Loud laughter.) The toast I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, is that of "The British Imperial Forces." I think for the first time in the history of the Empire we can properly and appropriately call it the British Imperial Force, because the war in which we have been engaged and out of which we have come victorious, if it has done nothing else, has united in bonds of undying affection the peoples of the whole Empire. (Loud applause.) It is quite easy to understand that when war was proclaimed between Great Britain and Germany, how the whole of the British Empire and the peoples of all the Dominions, and the far-flung portions of the Empire, responded, without being asked. It is important to remember that the Dominions and the other portions of the Empire did not come to the rescue of the Mother Country, as it is improperly stated. They came to co-operate, to take part in the fight for the great principles underlying the war as far as Great Britain was concerned. (Applause.) The Empire itself was built up in the first place by the people of these islands--the Scottish, English, and Irish. When we had not a foot of land outside these islands, men of those races rose up and penetrated to all parts of the world, and by settlement and occupation, and conquest, built up all the great Dominions that we now call the British Empire. The great poet Tennyson, you will remember, said 66 We sailed wherever ship could sail, And that is what we have to fear to-day. We have to fear that there may be some who do not fully appreciate the greatness of the inheritance into which we have come, and the wonderful and tremendous responsibilities attaching to the great inheritance. That can be well tested by the fact that four and a half years ago this |