which had passed the notice of all earlier generations: namely that the great

decisions of the world are not, in fact, arrived at simply in the public

chambers, or else during a handful of days given over to an international

conference under the full gaze of the public and the press. Rather, debates are

conducted, and crucial decisions arrived at, in the privacy and calm of the

great houses of this country. What occurs under the public gaze with so much

pomp and ceremony is often the conclusion, or mere ratification, of what has

taken place over weeks or months within the walls of such houses. To us, then,

the world was" a wheel, revolving with these great houses at the hub, their

mighty decisions emanating out to all else, rich and poor, who revolved around

them. It was the aspiration of all those of us with professional ambition to

work our way as close to this hub as we were each of us capable. For we were, as

I say, an idealistic generation for whom the question was not simply one of how

well one practised one's skills, but to what end one did so; each of us

harboured the desire to make our own small contribution to the creation of a

better world, and saw that, as professionals, the surest means of doing so would

be to serve the great gentlemen of our times in whose hands civilization had

been entrusted.

 

Of course, I am now speaking in broad generalizations and I would readily admit

there were all too many persons of our generation who had no patience for such

finer considerations. Conversely, I am sure there were many of my father's

generation who recognized instinctively this 'moral' dimension to their work.

But by and large, I believe these generalizations to be accurate, and indeed,

such 'idealistic' motivations as I have described have played a large part in my