HL Deb 13 June 1918 vol 30 cc209-13

LORD BRAYE had the following Notice on the Paper—

To refer to the Pope's Note which His Majesty's Government has not answered, and to the Secret Treaty with France, Russia, and Italy in opposition to any endeavours on the part of the Holy See in the direction of peace.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, one of the most melancholy accompaniments of the present war is the refusal of the Entente Powers to reply to the Pope's Note addressed to all the belligerent countries. Even the United States sent an answer of a kind. Very great inconsistency has been manifested by our Governments in their various attitudes towards the Holy See. Long ago and for centuries they refused to be represented at all at the Vatican. Then suddenly in the Gladstone Administration they sent a private member of the House of Commons without any definite mission, at least as far as the public were informed. This irritated Ireland, as well it might. Questioned in Parliament, the Government tried to minimise the error they had fallen into. Very soon this mockery of an Embassy was dropped.

In recent times a fresh representative has been installed at the Vatican. This time he has a definite, status, and, let us hope, a definite function. But although this envoy is accredited to the Vatican, when the Pope writes to us no notice is taken of his letter. However, the reason is not far to seek. Revolution has laid bare the Secret Treaties into which our Government entered with certain other States, and while they undertook to carve out various annexations for Governments which coveted them, special care was taken to prevent the Pope from bringing about peace by negotiation before the re-arrangement of the map was secured. Clause 15 of the Secret Treaty with France, Italy, and Russia—that is to say, with quondam Russia—sets forth that if Italy objects to the Pope sending representatives to any Peace Conference we shall support the objection.

While the millions suffer, Secret Diplomacy hides the causes of wars from us. We are ruled with a dark rod. Years hence whole books, nay whole libraries, will be written on the causes of this war; but whoever may be deemed the beginner of it, there is little doubt that those who continue it in defiance of the Holy See must share in the guilt of it. The saying of the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstern has not yet sunk in the stream of oblivion. He said— You do not know, my son, by how little wisdom the world is governed. I recollect hearing the late Lord Salisbury say one evening in this House— We all know now that the Crimea was a mistake. Well, a mistake is a move without wisdom; all wars the reasons for which might be settled by arbitration are criminal follies, and even this war could have been so settled if recourse had been made to the supreme court of arbitration—namely, the Holy See. Even Bismarck—in other words, Prussia and the new German Empire—in company with Spain, went to arbitration about the Caroline Islands before the Pope, and there is no reason why more important appeals, involving far more transcendent issues, should not be made in a similar way.

Last December the Pope referred to his appeal to the belligerents in the following terms— From the highest quarters some guiding motives for an understanding have been put forward; therefore we invite the heads of the belligerent States to make a particular study of them. He then went on— We deplore that in some quarters the authorities do not deign to hear our words, while others do not spare an expression of suspicion and calumny. No obstacle or peril is capable of breaking our resolution to exercise our rights, those rights belonging to one who represents the Prince of Peace. Seeing the efforts of once flourishing nations thrown back into a paroxysm of mutual destruction, and fearing the ever-nearing suicide of European civilisation, we ask when and how this dreadful tragedy will end. The present calamity will never finish until men return to God with prayer from the heart. As once the unbridled lust of the senses plunged the celebrated cities into a sea of fire, so in our days the public impiety and atheism, erected into a system of so-called civilisation, has plunged the world into a sea of blood. The Pope ended in a strain to the following effect— Think of the heavy responsibility you have before God and man. Upon your resolves depend the repose and joy of innumerable families, the lives of thousands of youths—in a word, the happiness of the peoples to whom it is your absolute duty to secure these boons.

Such are the exhortations which the Pope has addressed to the Powers engaged in fratricidal strife. Great Britain—that is, England, Scotland, and Wales, three peoples that glory in what is called "throwing off the yoke of Rome"—will not listen to him even now. They will not acknowledge his warning. They will have nothing to do with him except sending an envoy. They turn a deaf ear. They do not even speak about it. There is no contempt so piercing as the contempt expressed by silence. Yet the country is heading for bankruptcy and revolution. The poorest classes are earning guineas where before they scarcely got shillings. Firms are reaping millions of gold. A frightful motive is thus given for the prolongation of the war. Meanwhile our manhood and our youth are butchered to make a European holiday.

The misery is that the opportunities for concluding an honourable peace by negotiation have been rejected more than once. It would seem that as recently as the Versailles Conference the olive branch was once more refused. What can be done if every time your enemy comes forward to discuss the bare idea of peace you call him a deceiver and hypocrite? Meanwhile the massacre goes on. In the first year of the war the armies of Europe were ankle-deep in blood. In the following years they have been knee-deep in blood. Very soon the tide of blood must, will rise higher—even, to use the emphatic imagery of the Apocalypse, unto the horses' bridles.

I will read only a few words more of the pontifical speeches, but they are words so strong, so emphatic, and so pathetic that I certainly do not consider they require any commentary or addition— We adjure you, rulers of belligerent nations, in God's name to stop this horrible slaughter which for a year has dishonoured Europe— He was speaking on the first anniversary. Appalling is the import of the message now! You bear a tremendous responsibility. Hear the voice of the Vicar of that Judge to Whom you must give an account of your public and private acts. We invite all friends of peace to assist us in hastening the end of the war. My Lords, those words commend themselves, not only to enemy countries, but to this Government and all the Governments on the face of the earth.

LORD STANMORE

My Lords, from the wording in the first part of the Notice on the Paper and from the noble Lord's speech I understand that he thinks His Majesty's Government have been wanting in respect and courtesy in the matter of the Pope's Note. Nothing could have been farther from the thoughts of the Government. The Note was received early in August. A few days later a reply was sent to the effect that His Majesty's Government had received the proposal of His Holiness with the most sincere appreciation of the lofty and benevolent intentions which animated him. A few days later—on August 29—the President of the United States sent an answer to the Note in some detail. His Majesty's Government associated themselves with this answer, and decided that there was nothing which they could usefully add to it. This was made public at the time.

In regard to the other matter that appears in the noble Lord's Notice, what Clause 15 does is to say that Great Britain will support Italy in the event of the Italian Government objecting to the Pope's sending a representative to the Peace Conference. This appears to be a perfectly reasonable course to take. The Conference will be attended by representatives of the belligerent Powers. The representative of a neutral Sovereign would not in any case be admitted unless with the general consent of all the belligerents. Of course, the clause cannot possibly be abandoned; it is part of the Treaty, and is just as binding as any other part. It can only be cancelled with the general consent of all the signatories to the Treaty.