Three Hundred Years

DR. CRANFIELD:

My Lord, in the northern hemisphere recurring March winds of great force are the expectation! In the past nine years these have been unusually fierce three times in March, in 1962, 1967 and again this year in the Toronto District. This phenomenon is quite without relation to the presence on our platform at these precise times of our distinguished guest of today.

The Empire Club of April 5th, 1923 listened to an address by Lieutenant General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scout movement. I rather suspect that most men in this hall were Boy Scouts and so will be familiar with the slogan of the Scouts, "Be Prepared". Our speaker who allied himself with the Boy Scout movement exemplifies this better than anyone, perhaps including Sir Robert. To serve as Chairman of the Education Committee of the Devon County Council, can you think of a better preparation than to attend Eton as a school boy and later Oxford's Christ Church College? In anticipation of World War II he prepared by twenty years service as a territorial officer and began active service in 1940. At Arnhem he was part of the air-borne troops though over 40 years of age and he was severely wounded and became a prisoner-of-war in that engagement.

Immediately post-war he was persuaded by Sir Winston Churchill to be a parliamentary candidate and was successful. He remained in the Commons until 1960. While serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1958-59 he brought down budgets that have been the envy of Canadian and British governments ever since. (One example was a tax reduction of 9 pence on the pound!)

It is said that it became evident to his friends that he was the logical next Prime Minister by 1960. To him, the horror of this prospect was only relieved by his elevation to the peerage in October 1960. He thought to hide out in the House of Lords but his talents were not permitted to languish and in 1961 he was named High Commissioner to Canada. Students of history will recognize that the European Common Market discussions for Britain's entry were red-hot issues at this time and Britain required the great skills of this well-prepared person to bring into balance the thoughts and reactions of Canadians should Britain's entrance to the Market become a reality. What would it do to British Canadian Relations?

It was the year following this that we were favoured by his address titled "The Commonwealth". This classic presentation, 9 years later, is still recommended reading. Should you follow my suggestion you will discover why the "Empire Club" has not changed its name to the "Commonwealth Club", for the word "Commonwealth" still defies definition. The structure of the Commonwealth, known to you all, is a union of countries of such a variety of governmental systems (many of whom have presidents, although Canada continues to have its Prime Minister) that they could only be united under the Queen; since it is possible for her to be "Head of Commonwealth" even though she may not be sovereign to each! While serving in Canada as our British High Commissioner, a post which he vacated in 1963, Canadians became unusually attached to our speaker because of his wisdom, graciousness and wit. There is a rumour that a message in an official dispatch, going from here to the Commonwealth office in Britain, expressed clearly that he reciprocated these feelings. It is my understanding that the message went something like this: "If an Englishman cannot feel at home in Canada he cannot be at home anywhere."

So our speaker returned to Britain in 1963--but once more he was prepared. This time, as perhaps with all the others intuitively, rather than deliberately prepared. An enterprise as ancient as The Hudson's Bay Company needed a new Governor. The original governor Prince Rupert was a cousin of Charles II and had his appointment from May 2nd, 1670. Who could follow the Royal appointment? One who felt at home in Canada was a first-rate choice as the last Englishman to hold this office and work out of Britain to do so?

His talents are not new, in his generation, as this story will show. As everyone knows the textile business is almost entirely within the boundaries of Yorkshire. This was where the John Heathcoat Textile business originated but the Industrial Revolution, when workmen felt machines were going to take over their jobs, resulted in some mad riots. The Heathcoat Company suffered more than any other. It was completely destroyed. The ancestor of our speaker however was equal to the occasion. By simple oratory he persuaded sufficient employees of his firm to cast their lot with him. They walked from Yorkshire to Devon and the John Heathcoat Company of Tiverton was founded in this new region in the County of Devon because of the Heathcoat integrity and ability to inspire loyal support. Heathcoats remain stalwart today. They come prepared.

Our speaker has a background in business, as director of the family's textile firm of John Heathcoat and Company and of Lloyd's Bank, and the Imperial Chemical Industries, and he does "know the territory". This of course was proved beyond doubt in another wonderful address by today's speaker, made to the Empire Club on March 30th, 1967. Once more this student of the Commonwealth renewed our hope in the significance of that great organization that still evades description. (The Commonwealth does, after all, represent a fifth of this world's population.) The preservation of this potent relationship of diverse peoples is one of the main aims of the Empire Club.

I have purposely refrained from any really direct reference to The Tercenteniary of the Hudson's Bay Company, the second ship named Nonsuch, the transfer of the headquarters of Hudson's Bay Company to Winnipeg and the appointment of a new Governor. Your notice card, of course, is in error as are many acts of your president, for Lord Amory is no longer Governor. He is, if you like, the immediate past governor. I am now, My Lord, going to present the audience to you and you to them. It is my pleasure to ask you of the Empire Club to receive for the third time, you lucky people, The Right Honourable Viscount Amory of Tiverton, K.G., P.C., G.C.M.G., Former Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company whose topic is: "'Three Hundred Years". My Lord Amory!

LORD AMORY:

Thank you very much. Mr. President and gentlemen, I would like to thank you very much indeed for this invitation to come back to the Club today, and for the very warm welcome I received on this visit.

On my arrival, as I splashed down opposite to the main entrance of the Royal York last night, the streets were lined three deep. That is the kind of reception that makes one feel so warm about Canadians!

I didn't have my spectacles on and I couldn't read what was on the banners, but I imagine they were words of warm welcome.

You mentioned some events of ten years ago when I introduced budgets in the United Kingdom, and you were very kind in your reference to them. I do remember one description in my own constituency, which was a rural one, when I was reminded of the old farmer who, when he had given free cider to all his farm workers, he went around and asked them what they thought of it. They all said, "Just right, sir."

Eventually, he said, "Just what do you mean by 'just right'?" One old chap said to him, "Well, it is like this, sir. If it had been any better we would not have had it, and if it had been any worse we couldn't have drunk it." I think that is probably a fair description of my budget.

In order, gentlemen, to try to get you to treat me with the reverence which I hope you will, I would like to say that my first visit to Toronto was 48 years ago, almost to a day. I am not going to talk about that because I well remember what an American senator said to me once. He said, "If you go back to somewhere which you spent some time in as a very young man, don't reminisce. I did the other day and I got warmed up and I recalled the happy times I had had with a number of young girls in this place. Then I said, 'I wonder if any of those girls are in the audience tonight. There was one special girl I shall never forget. If she is in the audience tonight and if she shares my happy recollections I wonder if she would stand up.' And thirteen grey-haired old ladies . . . !"

Mr. President, this is the fourth time you have done me the great honour of having me as your guest. Once I spoke to you about the Commonwealth, as you were kind enough to say; another time about Canada and Britain and Europe; and the third time mercifully no trace has survived of what my subject was .... The trouble with being an old politician is, it was about myself!

It was, I think, a successful advertiser who said, "I first tell them that I am going to tell them, then I tell them, then I tell them I have told them." Nevertheless, you may well conclude that four times is what I think in nuclear defence phraseology is known as an overkill and perhaps now I ought to begin with, "As I was saying before I was interrupted . . . ."

About the Commonwealth I only want to say just two or three words today. Here we have a group of nations of diverse races, of differing religions, varying economies and political systems, who are all together because they are historically all part of the British Empire, and on achieving their independence these nations spontaneously chose to remain members of the Commonwealth because they felt they held certain principles and ideas in common. They belong because they want to and for no other reason at all. With a membership of thirty-one nations it is no longer a closely-knit, intimate family gathering of a quarter of a century ago. The recent Prime Minister's Conference showed clearly the existence of some strain and some doubts about the future. The term "mini-United Nations" has now been raised by some critics about this last conference because of the growing tendency on the part of some members to make prepared speeches for outside consumption, a development which I think your Prime Minister found trying, as I did.

In some of these speeches from the newer members Britain was still the main target for something like abuse and seeing that all these new countries have learned all they know of freedom, justice, parliamentary democracy and civil administration at Britain's hands that does seem a little tough, but we have learnt to be patient and we retain unshaken pride in our record in having brought so many nations forward to independence, a unique record among the empires of the world.

The future of the Commonwealth may be precarious but I for one profoundly hope that member nations will continue to feel that in it we share in an imaginative and constructive project which could prove a source of stability and understanding in a divided and perplexed world.

Now for the present what I really want to talk to you about today is the history of the honourable company of which I have retired from being the Governor. I came here today armed with a power of attorney from the real governor to speak to you today. He has permitted me to make a speech of which I have not shown him a draft. He has also given me the power of attorney to borrow any money if I can during the proceedings here!

On my return home after rather more than two years, very happy years here as British High Commissioner, I felt honoured when I was invited to join them as a member of the Company of Adventurers of England, trading as the Hudson's Bay, thereby continuing a most happy link with your great country. I at once embarked on a crash programme of retraining designed to convert a superannuated politician and diplomatist into a top, resourceful fur trader.

I think I told some of you once before I was a little disheartened when I retired from politics to find my name on the list of "Members of Parliament who have retired during the past decade broken down by age and sex"!

I have enjoyed my eight years with the Bay more than I can say, and sad that the time has now come that I am a septuagenarian to say "Goodbye". I would like to say it is terrific fun being a septuagenarian because nobody can hold you responsible for anything. I do advise all of you to hurry forward as fast as you can and get to that delightful age the most rapid way you can. The septuagenarian must be put out to grass or put into the House of Lords, whichever course is most convenient. I don't want to associate myself with somebody who said, "The House of Lords is living proof of the existence of life after death."

Our company's history is recorded in twenty-seven volumes, with another four or five to come, and with fifty tons of documents in our archives. I am afraid I clean forgot to bring them with me today!

That the company has had a decisive influence on the development of Canada cannot, I think, be disputed. One illustration of this is it can, I think, be asserted with confidence that if it had not been for the Hudson's Bay Company Canada's territory today would not reach to the Pacific, and the boundary with the United States would likely lie much further to the north.

There are two things I would like to stress at the start. First is, our company came to Canada not as colonizers but as traders. The aim was not to replace the natives but to trade with them. From the early start our people had cooperative and friendly relations with the Indians and Eskimos and these relations, to our great pride, have been sustained for 300 years.

Secondly, for long periods and throughout vast areas the company was the only constituted authority under the Crown and on the whole throughout those days of direct power the record of the company's officials was one of responsibility and humanity. Enlightened self-interest dictated policies by which the native people could be kept friendly, peaceful and contented. It may have been self-interest and not altruism but it was enlightened and fair dealing proved in fact good business.

What are the secrets of the company's survival and long record of progress? Firstly, I think it succeeded in identifying itself with the development of Canada and because it did so it usually received the support of the Crown authorities.

Second, the Adventurers of England, although with varying fortunes, continued to show faith in the enterprise and sustained the company's operations with the necessary capital and perhaps even more important in those days, by steady inflow of recruits of robust character from England and Scotland. We still have great pleasure in an annual influx of young men from Scotland coming to us every year.

Lastly, the abiding tradition of loyalty to the honourable company which has been an ingrained characteristic of its staff throughout its long history and is still an object of pride in the company today.

Our company was established by royal charter on the 2nd of May, 1670, nearly 301 years ago. Our first governor was, as you mentioned, Prince Rupert. He was succeeded by the King's brother, the Duke of York, and when he ascended the throne as King James II, John Churchill, later the first Duke of Marlborough, became the company's third governor.

I was trying to think how I could get you into the mood of thinking that in your present speaker now you see the embodiment of the personal characteristics of those three great men . . . but I haven't quite found a way of doing that?

Sir Winston Churchill, the one and only grand seigneur, provided a link which we greatly valued between his equally famous ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough.

In the early days the governor, with admirably independent spirit which I was too dumb to emulate, did not himself bother to attend Meetings of the Board, ever at all. In 300 years the company has had 31 governors so you can see we run about a decade each. I think probably the company feels long enough.

Under our charter rent is payable whenever the sovereign enters the original territory of Rupert's Land and consists of two elks and two black beavers. Last July I had the honour to make this traditional presentation to Her Majesty at Lower Fort Garry in Winnipeg when she visited the Manitoba Centennial celebration. The two black beaver that I presented her with are now in the London Zoo and are looking forward to receiving visitors from Canada during the coming summer! They have had a new home built for them for the London Zoo. It took three months to get planning permission. I think the first time a beaver's house ever had to be put up for the approval of the planning committee of the local authority.

It was the visit of two Frenchmen, Pierre Radisson and Sieur de Groseillier--who was afterwards in the company known as Mr. Gooseberry--to England in 1665 to lay before the King their plans for opening up trade by way of the Hudson's Bay Company that led to the formation of our company. The two Frenchmen arrived in the year of the Great Plague, which was not an ideal moment for raising a new issue in the city or attracting, for that matter, the enthusiasm of the court. A few years later, however, Prince Rupert and some other prominent members of the court and the city bought the third-hand forty-three-ton ketch, the "Nonsuch", and borrowed the fifty-four-ton "Eaglet" ketch from the King. The next year the "Nonsuch" returned with a considerable quantity of beaver, which in the words of the report "made some recompense for their cold confinement". Our charter, of which we still have the original in our office in London, gave Prince Rupert and his 17 associates rights of trade and commerce for the whole vast areas whose rivers flowed into Hudson's Bay, under the name of the governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay. On today's map that would be much of Quebec and Ontario, all Manitoba, all of Saskatchewan, half of Alberta and most of the Northwest Territories. In all, 1,400,000 square miles .... Forgive me, Mr. President, for wiping away a nostalgic tear at the recollection of this happy monopoly! In 1670 we had 18 proprietors; today we have over thirty-two hundred.

In late May or early June of each year the ships sailed from Gravesend for the factories of Hudson Bay and they were usually expected to return to the Thames in the following October. Sometimes they were trapped for the winter in the ice and only returned the following year.

During the early years the attacks by the French on the company's ships, and on the forts built around the shores of James Bay and Hudson's Bay nearly ruined the company, and for many years only succeeded in retaining one single trading post.

One of the company's servants, Henry Pelletier, earned the great reputation with the Indians for successful single-handed combat with two grizzly bears. As far as I know none of our present directors have as yet repeated this achievement. He made his way with incredible hardship across the barren ground to the forest south of Great Slave Lake.

It was not until the year 1774, a hundred years later, that the Hudson's Bay Company abandoned its traditional policy of trading only at the Bay side and then they started moving inland and building their trading posts west. About the same time a number of rival traders joined forces to form the Northwest Company of Montreal and from then onwards until 1821 violent competition developed between the two companies. In 1821 the two companies united and under the name Hudson's Bay Company entered into a period of steady prosperity, and from 1821 onwards the enormous areas of which the company held administrative as well as trading powers, included all modern Canada except the Great Lakes Basin and the Maritime provinces.

The beginning out west was really perhaps the historic inscription written on a rock in red: "Alexander Mackenzie from Canada by land, 22 July, 1793."

In 1825 the Hudson's Bay Company had established Fort Vancouver in what is now the State of Washington. The company's description of the future British Columbia was hardly flattering. . . "A vast wilderness area west of the Rocky Mountains tenanted by wild beasts and still wilder savages."

Mr. President, I do apologize to any British Columbians who are present here today.

In no part of Canada has Hudson's Bay connection been closer than with the history of British Columbia. From 1821 our company constituted the only British representation on the west coast. The company were then the nominal British administrators of what is now British Columbia and its activities covered the present States of Washington, Oregon, and part of California, and their employees explored and trapped beaver throughout Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

Now mass movement of land-hungry Americans were bringing their covered wagons west at that time and in 1846 the international boundary west of the Rocky Mountains was settled at the 49th parallel.

The heroism and powers of endurance displayed by generations of our factors and explorers in their epic voyages by canoe westward to the coast make up a story of fascinating interest and heroism which I cannot recount to you today but of which we are immensely proud.

It has been well said that throughout the period from 1821 to 1870 the company had played the role of a great conservative force, preserving under British influence isolated outposts of trade and settlement which formed the nucleae of territories eventually admitted to the Canadian federation as provinces. If the company had not been established on the Pacific Coast when the tide of American immigration began to flow over the Oregon Trail it is more than doubtful whether the lord and limits of American expansion could have been held at the 49th parallel. If a base of administration and supply had not been in existence on Vancouver Island when gold was discovered in the Fraser, the entire Pacific Coast would now almost certainly be American territory. If throughout Rupert's Land and the Northwest the company had not maintained its trading monopoly and if at the Red River permanent settlement control by the company had not been established, the northward infiltration of American traders and settlers might well have pre-empted the Canadian West to the American Republic.

Could you arrange for a silver collection to be taken for the company! I don't think I can say more than that.

The boundaries of the Canadian nation today are set not by the territory which the fur trade could win but by the territory which it could hold against the advance of the American frontier.

And now I must record an event which if the press are present I hope they will get down that I do so with a voice choking with emotion . . . By the deed of surrender the Hudson's Bay Company gave up its rights to the 1,400,000 square miles, its monopoly and its powers of the government of Rupert's Land. If it had not surrendered that, Mr. President, I would not only have accepted your invitation to lunch but I would have paid for the lunch today! The acceptance of the surrender by Queen Victoria took place on the 22nd June, 1870, and on the following day an Orderin-Council transferred Rupert's Land to Canada. As compensation the company received from Canada a cash payment of 300,000 pounds, reservation of land around each of the trading posts, and one-twentieth of the land in townships was in the fertile belt.

If the press are short of space it is less important to record that fact of compensation.

I dropped a hint, Mr. President, in the federal capital of Canada with the greatest diffidence that should the responsibilities of government become unbearable my company, with its traditional public spirit, would be willing to revert to the status quo, with an appropriate adjustment for disturbance since 1870. Richard Murray, our managing director, who is sitting there, would be willing instantly to take over on receipt of a favourable response from Ottawa. So far the line has been dead, I must say, in this respect.

No history of our country could be more than a barren outline which does not pay tribute to those tough, tenacious, courageous leaders who blazed the trail westward to the Pacific. Sir Alexander Mackenzie and the Northwest Company, Kelsey, Stewart, Hendie, Hearn, Sir George Simpson, McLaughlin, Thompson, Simon Fraser, Ogden. Henry Kelsey joined the company in 1684 at the age of fourteen. Three years later, when he was seventeen, he was making journeys of 200 miles on his own and undertaking missions to the Indians. While still in his late teens he had learned their language and earned their entire confidence. At the age of twenty he was sent into the unknown West and was the first white man to see the buffalo and muskox and was largely instrumental in opening up peaceful trading to the prairie lands to the west. He identified himself to a greater extent than any other company officer with the Indians and Eskimos and worked with devoted energy to promote peace among the warring tribes. Eventually he became governor of the company's fort.

George Simpson, by any task, must be acknowledged as the greatest of all the company's servants. After barely a year's service with the company this Scottish clerk was appointed in 1821 to take charge as governor of the Northern Department, as it was called. For nearly 40 years Simpson was civilian administrator of a commercial company, ruled the vast areas over which the company had its rights, subject only to the London committee and the Crown. Among his spectacular achievements must rank high the astonishing journeys of thousands of miles which he made at unheard-of speeds by canoe in all weathers, often taking his young wife with him. His and her power of endurance must have been phenomenal. In 1841 Simpson was knighted by the Queen for his services to the Crown. His services to the company during these vital years were fundamental and decisive; as governor in Canada he ruled the company's empire and the company and indeed Canada was fortunate in its ruler.

James Douglas had been two years in the Northwest Company at the time of the union. He served in the West and Simpson marked him out for promotion. In 1851 Douglas received a commission appointing him Governor of Vancouver Island. He then represented at the same time two distinct institutions: Her Majesty's government and the Hudson's Bay Company. He proved an energetic and impartial governor and was knighted at the end of a career of remarkable achievement.

The careers of these three men, that is why I have mentioned them, have at least two things in common: quite exceptional energy and competence and that steadfast loyalty to the company's interest, to which I have already referred. In a still wider sense they have all three been builders of Canada, each in his particular way. It is of men like this that we think of with respect and gratitude when we meditate on the part our company has played in the history of Canada.

From 1870 onwards the company began developing vigorously a new role in addition to its trade in furs. This was the sale of merchandise through what has become a network of nearly 250 stores, varying from the departmental downtown store in the main cities to simple wooden premises in the far north with customers mainly Eskimos and Indians. It is interesting to record that from three of those remote trading posts (Fort Garry, Fort Edmonton, and Fort Victoria the provincial capitals of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia have emerged. These stores have become known to countless Canadians as "The Bay".

Then in 1960 the company moved into Eastern Canada through the acquisition of Henry Morgan & Co., itself 125 years old, with eleven stores.

Today the activities of our company can be summed up briefly as follows: a range of large department stores stretching across Canada, with the exception of the Maritime provinces. Over 200 smaller stores scattered over the northwest and north, a widespread organization for collecting furs in Canada, auction houses for the sale of these furs, and vast quantities of other furs on consignment in the international market in London, New York and Montreal, a wholesale business that branches across the country. Among the projects this handles is a brand of Scottish fire water with agreeable heartwarming qualities. I must not say one more word about that, Mr. President, or you will accuse me of advertising and rule me out of order.

Lastly, the ownership of mineral rights over that several million acres of land, these rights presently being leased to Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Company, in which Hudson's Bay has an important investment interest. Presently, we are engaged in a bold, or perhaps you may say rash, programme, depending how you look at it, a programme of opening modern, sophisticated stores in shopping centres in most of the large cities of Canada, including, I am glad to say, Toronto. Today the company has 15,000 employees, among them an increasing number of graduates of Canadian universities, and interestingly enough, as I mentioned, a brisk annual recruitment of young Scotsmen for service in our northern stores.

About nine months ago our company moved its corporate domicile from Britain to Canada with its head office now in Winnipeg. This was achieved as a result of a new charter, a new Canadian charter which was granted to us by the Queen, as Queen of Canada, and which was referred to by the Queen in her speech at the Manitoba Centennial celebrations. The company's transfer received the approval of both the Canadian and British Governments. This does not entail the movement of any personnel, as our commercial operations have for a number of years been substantially managed in Canada. The move does mean, however, that from now onwards Hudson's Bay is a Canadian company with its internal, its corporate management, its board meetings, et cetera, wholly in Canada. The present six British directors continue to serve on the board and though there has been a substantial movement of shares to Canada since transfer, the big majority of our proprietors are still currently residents of Britain. This change was the result of a unanimous recommendation by our Board of Directors, which was readily accepted by our proprietors. This new Canadian status for our historic company seems to us an eminently sensible step and augurs well for another three centuries of service to the Canadian nation.

Mr. President, let us recall with satisfaction the long and sensible co-operation between the peoples of Britain and Canada that the history of our company represents and the loyalty and the devotion and the strength of character that has evoked from those who served it.

Finally, one word about this connection between Canada and the old country. As new generations succeed one another and the personal recollections and memories of two world wars fade, there is inevitably a danger that we are drifting apart because new interests and loyalties arise with the changing years, as it is right they should. Don't let us forget old ones entirely. Though your population has grown enormously I would guess that perhaps the majority, if not a very substantial proportion of your citizens in this great province, stem from British stock. We in the United Kingdom are proud of this and hope and think that you are, too. So many of us share a common ancestry and much common history. There are lots of Jeremiahs around who will tell you that Britain is finished. There always have been and history has generally proved them wrong. Certainly the British Empire has developed into the multi-racial Commonwealth, and certainly we at home have our economic difficulties which are calling for difficult adjustments. Sir Winston Churchill once said that the British people are only really happy when they have their back to the wall. And he said, "If there is not a wall handy, build one." Well, by and large, Britain, I believe, is still setting a good example to the world in a decent and sensible way of life. You in Canada, too, have your problems in reconciling your internal cultures and working out your economic relations with your powerful neighbour to the south. That you will succeed in finding practical solutions to both these problems I have no doubt whatever. The Canadian nationhood is strong and further growth and development are sure.

Mr. President, let us each count our blessings, take pride in our common history, and fight with courage and enthusiasm the challenging and exciting future.

The gratitude of the Club was expressed by Brigadier General Bruce J. Legge, Q.C., E.D.