LEADERS' TRIBUTES. (Hansard, 10 February 1927)

§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Baldwin)
I beg to move, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty to convey to His Majesty the expression of the deep regret with which this House has learned the news of the death of the Emperor of Japan, and to pray His Majesty that he will be graciously pleased to express to His Majesty, the present Emperor, the profound sympathy of this House with the Imperial Family and with the Government and people of Japan. In accordance with the precedent set by the Parliament of 1910, when the Earl of Oxford and Asquith was Prime Minister and Leader of this House, I beg to submit to the House the Motion which stands in my name. I am sure the country learned with profound regret of the death on Christmas Day of the Emperor of Japan after a reign of 14 years. The outstanding event in his reign was the Great War, during which time, as our ally, he and the gallant Japanese played a notable and a loyal part. Later, at the time of the Washington Conference, Japan and Great Britain abandoned the old form of alliance which had subsisted for some years from a feeling that a military alliance of that nature was less in accord with the feelings of the new world than it had been when that alliance was first entered into. That alliance was transferred into the basis of a wider fellowship in which other countries were able to co-operate with the object of maintaining peace throughout the Pacific. During the late Emperor's reign the industries of the country increased and their contribution to the world's advancement, both in knowledge and science, was considerable, and she is rightly recognised to-day as a nation standing in the forefront of the great nations. We are proud of this longstanding friendship, and we trust it may continue for years to come as one of the main pillars of the peace of the world.

§ Mr. RAMSAY MacDONALD
I rise to associate myself with the Resolution that has just been moved by the Prime Minister. For a very long time now the relations of Japan and Great Britain have 308 been of the most intimate and cordial kind. Sometimes we have been in formal alliance with Japan, sometimes we have not, but we have never ceased to be animated by mutual goodwill. Despite deep-seated differences, we have many things in common. Our political policies, for instance, have been influenced because we are island nations, adjoining great continents. We are both great maritime peoples. We have both responded to those developments in industry and art that have been a unique characteristic of this age, and we have had a very unique and very intimate cooperation with Japan in founding great educational institutions like the Imperial University, which have done so much to increase her power and respect in the world. Therefore, the sympathetic note is always sounding in each of our hearts when each other's distress and trials have come upon us. It is therefore meet that this House to-day should approach His Majesty and beg him to send to the present Emperor of Japan, his Government and his people, our most sincere sympathy with them in the national bereavement they suffered when the Emperor died at the end of last year. I therefore second the Resolution that has been moved by the Prime Minister.

§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGE
The sentiments of the House on this occasion have been so adequately expressed by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition that I only utter a few words in order to show that this Motion represents every section of opinion in this country. There is a special appropriateness in a Motion of this kind coming from the British House of Commons. The late Emperor throughout the whole of his reign had a friendship which was sincere and unfeigned for this country. He was the first to depart from an unbroken tradition of 2,000 years, that the heir to the throne should not leave the country, and he did so in order to send the heir to the throne to England. It was during his reign that the alliance between his great country and ours was put to its supreme test, and loyally and honourably did he and his ministers, with the backing of the whole nation, carry out the obligations of that alliance. At a time when we stood sadly in need of their assistance, when the whole of our 309 resources were concentrated upon our own coasts and upon the North Sea and the Atlantic, when we had not adequate forces to protect our trade and commerce in the Pacific or convoy the troops which came from the Dominions, Japan faithfully interpreted the obligations of the alliance and protected and convoyed these troops and protected our trade and commerce. It is therefore not merely a formal expression of the sentiments of this House, but a greal deal of recollection is added to the memory of the transaction.

§ Mr. THURTLE
I would not intervene to say one word in opposition to this Motion, but I wish to ask the Prime Minister whether I understood him aright when he said that this Motion was a formal Motion, which was moved in all cases where the head of a country died, with whom we were in diplomatic relations, irrespective of the form of Government which might exist in that country? I ask this question because I, for one, as a democrat and a Member of the House of Commons, do not wish to see any invidious distinctions made in matters of this kind.

§ The PRIME MINISTER
This Motion has been moved, as has been done in cases where we have special relations or have been on terms of special amity, and the late Emperor of Japan, as has been stated to-day, was a loyal and faithful Ally of ours during one of the periods of greatest crisis in this country.

§ The PRIME MINISTER
May I ask that this Motion be inscribed on the Journals of the House as having been passed nemine contradicente?

§ Mr. SPEAKER
Yes.