CEREMONY AT ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS,
EDINBURGH SCOTLAND, ON 28TH
Y 3NE, 1963
Speech by the Prime Minister..-the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert-Menzies
The fellow who lives my kind of life, Sir, moves
along in a kind of rakefs progress. Itm invited to come here
I'm greatly honoured I'm told that I will in effect take an
oath to be a law-abiding citizen not for tile first time, Then
when I say, " This, of course, will be a highly agreeable occasion
with no speeches" the answer is, " 1Well we would like you to say
a few words." A lew words. This is the most masterly understatement
of the century and whenever I am told " a few words", I know
that I am for it. You have discovered that too haven't you.
Yes. " You're for it*" And, really, I felt that I was entitled
to some kind of revenge because when we went in to the ceremony,
never has any politician stood so straight and so silent
( Laughter) as I did for so long. ( Laughter) Then instead
giving me a ch" c: ir because if you give me a chair to sit on I
can write an almost legible signature almost but when I have
to stand up and do it, it is indecipherable ( Laughter) And so
here I am, not knowing whether I am to be penalised or take my
revenge, but I wontt take my revenge for too long.
I was very amused well, " amused" is not the right
word, Sir interested when you were reading the long statement
to which I have by implication attached myself, because I listened
to it and I thought, " Well, now, this is all a matter of protecting
the interests of the College of Physicians and its members," My
Public Orator wher3 is he now? Oh yes, there we are he
produced one of the whimsies of the century when he sa~ d that
there was a long and friendl association between the doctors
and the lawyers, ( Laughter) This, I am bound to say, I have
never previously observed, ( Laughter) because in my respectable
days at the Bar when I was doing a lot of work, I appeared in a
considerable number of medical cases.
Well I am happy to say that by luck I usually
appeared for the loctor ( Laughter) and that is a pretty difficult
job because civil juries, presented by a child with a twisted
arm or a man with a hole in the side of his face, will always
say, " Oh, yes. Yes" This is what they call, loosely, British
justice, you see. They say, " Oh, isn't that terrible. How would
you like that to happen to you. They tell me these doctors have
a defence fund." ( Laughter) And so if you whip the damages down
by a œ 1,000 or œ 1,5O0, you are doing rather well.
But I thought I observed at that time that there
was a sort of occupational friction between Counsel and medical
witnesses, and I think there was something in it, I gave it a
lot of thought at the time. I used to confer with my medical
witnesses and give them fatherly advice -or brotherly advice
at that time of my life, filial advice -as to, you know, what
to beware of, how to play this game, But I think I learned one
of the truths at that time and I pass it on to you for what it
is worth. A medical man is going to be called in a medical
case, He is a doctor being sued for negligence and all the
sentimental stuff piles up one end and there are medical witnesses
to be called and they are eminent men, and like all eminent men,
they have long since risen superior to the alphabet or the
elementary textbook because they have gone beyond it, they've
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moved on to a different levl This is true of all of us who
practise a profession. You become so concentrated on what you
might call the upper reaches of the business that you almost
forget the elementary things that you learned years ago, And
of nourse the cross-examiner, like me, who knows nothing whatever
in reality about anatomy or physiology or whatever it may be,
says to the instructor, " What's the leading text-book on this2
Itts a case on the elbow joint." ( Jones on Joints, I think,
used to be the thing) " What is the last edition?" And you get
that and you wrap towels around your head. My wife can remember
me doing this kind of thing. And you swot up the text book and
then you cross-examine some distinguished fellow who knows far
more about it than you will ever know, and you get him to commit
himself to a proposition, and then you say in that smart fashion
that characterises a cross-examiner in a case of this kind, " Do
tell me, is Jones on Joints a recognised textbook?" " Yes"
" What would the last edition be? Would the 1 5th?" ( or whatever
it might be) " Yes" " Now, I wonder if you would mind taking this,
witness, at page 657 and reading out to the jury what it says,"
after he has committed himself to the oppositci proposition.
( Laughter) Well this you may say is indecent and although
I used to think it great fun, I am free to admit that looking
back on it, it was a rather shameful proceeding. But then I
blame the medical witness who ought never to assume that Counsel
is a fool and won't know the techniques of his own trade and
practise them. So when I heard you say, Orator, this morning that
there was an old and friendly association, I was very grateful,
It seemed to me to argue on the part of the medical profession
a quality of compassion and forgiveness which I think is
completely remarkable,, ( Laughter) And the best proof of that,
of course, is that, as you have pointed out to me, I am a
physician in Australia and I am a physician here.
Do you mind if I give you a little boastful remark,
Sir? I mentioned it because I am still rattled by it. I am
a gynaecologist and obstetri~ cian ( Laughter) of the Royal College
( Laughter) though when they gave me a searching look they were
not clear whether I appeared as practitioner or as a patient.
( Laughter) I am a Doctor of Science in some university somewhere,
I am an architect in fact, I have been given, except
in the law about which I do kno. w something, I have been given
honorary degrees and honorary fellowships which have been
cunningly devised to relate to the things of which I am most
ignorant. ( Laughter) This, I think, is very satisfactory.
But at the some time Sir, I would like to recall
the fact that I was able once to do the medical profession in
my own country some sm.-all service. I was sitting in Opposition
I was Leader of the Opposition in about 19418 when this happened
when an amendment to the Constitution was being promoted by
the then Government to give the Commonwealth Parliament power
over medical health services, among other things. This had
become necessary because a doubt had been exposed by the High
Court and, of course, in a Federal system, you know, the limitations
of power are constantly the subject of dispute in the
courts. We, in Opposition, felt that the Commonwealth ought
to have power to provide medical health and pharmaceutical
benefits and things of this kind, but there was some anxiety
in the medical profession as to whether this would enable thKe
Government, which was a socialist government, to institute the
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system of nationalised medicine. This was a very real apprehension
and my little contribution to history is that for the
first and only time in the history of the Commonwealth Parliament
in Australia, the Loader of the Opposition got an amendment
accepted to a constitutional bill and may amendment was to include
in brackets " but not so as to include any form of civil conscription"
which blew out all the prospect of a nationalised,, medical
health service. It turned out later on that that was what it did
because there was a challenge in the High Court on some bill
that had been introduced, and the High Court upheld the effect
of this amendment. I'm not quoting the words with precision,
but it did prevent the creation in Australi" and does it
permanently of what you might call a completely nationalised
medical health service, Now that doesn't moan that you can't
have a government medical service. Wre have one. I think we
have a remarkably good one in Australia, but it is all based on
the voluntary principle, on the basis of insurance with private
effort and with Government subsidy and backing, but it loaves
completely untouched the choice of the patient. The doctorpatient
relationship remains free, inviolate, but when the
treatment has occurred between the doctor of choice and the
patient who has gone to him, then the paymunts that are made
are adjusted ultimately through some insurance scheme like the
Hospital Benefits Association. I have forgotten what the
total is but by and large you can take it that about 90 per cent.
of the fee in a normal case comes from one or other of those
two sources. But the free choice of doctor by the patient
remains and, if I may say so, we think this is not too bad and
we think that this is increasingly known in other countries and
approved of, perhaps envied in other countries.
But I do simply say this, that I am most happy to
have an obligation to defend the interests of the College and
its members because I believe that in the new world, the world
that we are living in the function of the medical man is
increasingly important, increasingly difficult, lie is called
upon for a most complex body of new knowlodge, new techniques
and new expertise in this world, u believe that it is
essential that the therapy of the individual confidence in the
man should not be lost because I am sure that it is of tremendous
importance and I am sure that you believe it too.
Now, Sir, the only other thing I want to say to
you, because I am really not making a speech but merely offering
a few words, is that I have been a bit taken aback by discovering
that there is an argument about how my name should be produced.
( Laughter) It turns out that the Aberdonians say " Menzies"
though I must say that the Lord Lyon this morning seemed to
me to take a rather insistent view that it was " Mingies"
( Laughter) and in Edinburgh they say " Mingies" and in these
parts of Glasgow which have been adversely affected by the
Irish, they call it " Menzies", So who is to know? All I can
tell you is what I said was it to you, Sir? this morning
that at one of these big Dinners in London where there is a
red-coated Master of Ceremionies and where I myself heaven
help me -have made many speeches to patriotic gatherings of
800 people and 1,000 people and that sort of thing this old
boy who runs through the name of the man he's announcing to
the last flourish of " Justice of the Peace" you know
wonderful business having introduced me about four times,
nipped across to me this time and said and he had always
delivered this in a Home Counties accent which was impeccable
he came across to me and said, " Excluse me, Sir, but am I to
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introduce ye as ' Menzies' or by yelre proper namae?" ( Laughter)
And I said, " By my proper namel by all means," and so out it came
with a fine Doric quality, Home Counties entirely forgotten.
The only other thing I want to say to you on this
fascinating question of my nane is that in England, I think,
more than in Scotlandl the pronunciation of names and of place
names is calculated cunningly and wickedly to put the visitor
at a disadvantage. ( Laughter) It is. I mean, people say,
" Well, I visited they pause, and they 11say, I
visited Beaulieu 11 only to be told it is " Bewley". W. ell this
is very difficuli. It is like Cirencester " Cissister".
Chichester which is called " Chychester" in Australia. This
is all very difficult.
Many years ago I found myself appearing in the
Judicial Committee in a case which invv~ lved a patent of some
novelty and the name of the case was Paper Sacks Ltd. versus
Cowper, who was an eminently respectable solicitor in Sydney
and a great friend of mine; but he was on the other side.
His name had been given to this case for some reason of a
techhical kind, and so it was Paper Sacks versus Cowper in
Australia and versus " Cooper" before the Judicial Committee.
One of my opponents in the case was a Sydney Counsel who
discovered not only thzit Cowper had become " Cooper" by crossing
the ocean but that Menzies had become " Mingies" in the course
of the same voyag~ e, because the Judicial Committee had none
of your hesitation they said "' Mingies," you see. And so
this fellow from Sydney wrote some verse I'll just quote it
to you. It has always stuck in my mind. It was rather nice; it
was a nice double rhyming scheme. dhen I have given it to you
I will conclude* It said
Said M~ enzies to Cooper
I swear like a trooper
To be classed so it seems
With the Chumleys ( Cholmondoleys)
and Weems ( Wemyss)
Said Cowper to Mingies
Look here, Bob, the thing is
To alter our names
To Tompkins and James,
All you have to do is to remember that simple quartet, you see,
and all these things will be solved.
Well, now, I mustn't resume my seat as they say in
Parliament without telling you that you have given infinite
pleasure today to three people my wife, myself and my eldest
son who is here for the first time and to whom this experience
will be unforgettable, and our joy is added to by the fact that
we are in Edinburgh and the joy is further added to by the fact
that we are among our friends and if I may say so, further added
to by the fact that we are in a street and in a building and in
a city in which, from time to time, you can see the work of the
greatest architect of our age, or any age, Robert Adam. I hope
I may say that in Edinburgh which has so much of his work,
Thank you so much, Sir. We are delighted, we are
honoured and you have filled us with happy memories.