It has been my good fortune to be a member of the Canadian public service for approximately twenty years. I hope that the authorities of the Bank of Canada will forgive me if I include in this period my employment with that important institution. I am afraid that the bank cannot escape the responsibility for having brought me here in the first place. It was characteristic of Ottawa and of the significant role of the bank that I felt myself to be a part of the larger public service from the start. Here I should confess that I made an attempt to enter the civil service from the beginning, but jobs were few and I did not make the grade. Upon graduation I made an application to write an examination but the opportunity to do so never arose. Unquestionably I was eliminated by inspection and, I have no doubt, quite rightiy so. It is proper that I should admit my failures from the outset. However, the bank was willing to take a chance. This was the first of many pieces of good luck which I have enjoyed.