Mr. Chamberlain, replying to the toast of "His Majesty's Ministers"
at the annual dinner of the Birmingham Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Association last Saturday night, dealt in his most trenchant manner with the critics of the Govern- ment and the British Army. He could understand a good party fight, but he could not appreciate the posi- tion of those who deliberately attributed barbarous con- duct to soldiers in the field and Ministers at home— Britons like themselves—and then professed surprise at the growth of the foreign hostility which they had helped to create. In so far as this animosity was ascribed to his own indiscreet oratory, Mr. Chamberlain went on, he with- drew nothing, he qualified nothing, he defended nothing. No British Minister that he knew of had ever served his country faithfully and at the same time enjoyed popularity abroad. "I make allowance, therefore," he continued, "for foreign criticism. I will not 'follow an example that has been set to me. I do not want to give lessons to a foreign Minister, and I will not accept any at his bands. I am responsible only to my own Sovereign and to my own countrymen; but I am ready to meet that form of criticism which is made at home, which is manufactured here for export by the friends of every country but their own."
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