HL Deb 28 June 1906 vol 159 cc1084-8
THE EARL OF MEATH

rose to ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Flag on the Palace of Westminster was lowered to half-mast on the announcement of the death of the late Right Hon. Richard Seddon, P. C., Premier of New Zealand, or at the time of his funeral, or of the memorial service lately held in St. Paul's Cathedral, and if not, whether His Majesty's Government do not consider that the time has arrived in the history of the Empire when such a national tribute of respect and of sympathy should, on the death of a Premier of a British self-governing colony, be paid to his memory by the Parliament of the Mother Country.

The noble Earl said: My Lords, since I put my Question on the notice Paper of your Lordships' House I have been advised that the raising and lowering of the National Flag on the Houses of Parliament is within the prerogative of His Majesty the King, inasmuch as this building is a Royal palace. This information has come to me from a private source. In consequence of this fact I have given notice that I propose to add to the Question as it has already been printed the words— And will advise His Majesty the King, in the exercise of his prerogative, to give the necessary instructions in regard thereto. By the death of the Right Hon. Richard Seddon, P.O., Premier of New Zealand, the British Empire has sustained a very serious, and in some particulars an irreparable, loss. This successful statesman and devoted son of the Empire was a very remarkable man. The son of a Lancashire schoolmaster and schoolmistress, he laid no claim to classical culture; in fact, it is known that as a boy he resisted the efforts of his father to teach him Latin. But, on the other hand, his sound common-sense, his great knowledge of the work-a-day world and of all things connected with it, his strength of character and belief in himself, his courage, endurance, independence, and indifference to criticism, his power of impressing his will on others, his energy, and his evident earnestness in all that he took up, made his personality irresistible.

For fourteen years, until his recent death, Mr. Seddon held the reins of power in New Zealand, and during four general elections he was re-elected with large and ever increasing majorities, proving that he had obtained the love and affection of the people of New Zealand. None of his predecessors had ever remained in office longer than four years. Such was his hold on the affections of the people of New Zealand that, if he had not died at the comparatively early age of sixty-one, in all probability he would have remained at the head of affairs in that country so long as his working powers lasted. He told interviewers that he was neither a Radical, a Liberal, a Conservative, nor a Socialist. He said— I desire to improve the condition of the people socially, morally, and politically, to inspire them with hope and to give them every opportunity of securing comfort in old age without sacrificing their independence. Whatever we may think of the political and social measures for which he was responsible, there can be no doubt whatever that the vast majority of the people of New Zealand warmly supported them; and not only that, his popularity increased year by year so that he reversed the usual experience of Governments, who find that their popularity is in inverse ratio to the length of their tenure of office.

In New Zealand he will probably be remembered as the author of two important measures—the Female Suffrage Act and the Old Age Pension Law. But for us at home he will ever remain the great Imperialist statesman who, when the military resources of this country were at their very lowest ebb, sent to our assistance in South Africa a gallant band of trained marksmen and skilled horsemen who rendered yeoman service in defence of the Empire. Since the war in South Africa the relation towards the mother country of the Colonies has been altered in a great degree. By associating themselves actively with the mother country and with each other in mutual defence they have identified themselves with imperial interests and acquired a distinct right to be consulted in all matters of an imperial character. To my mind, my Lords, the British Empire owes a deep debt of gratitude to the late President Kruger for having been the means of uniting and solidifying the British Empire. New Zealand took a full share in this memorable struggle, sparing neither blood nor treasure.

The spirit which animated those men who fought for us was their own, but it was Richard Seddon who gave them the opportunity of showing what they were made of. He it was who set an example of patriotism to New Zealand by sending his own son to the war before asking others to follow his example. Does not the Empire, and especially the mother country, owe some gratitude to this sturdy imperialist of the Antipodes? Surely we do, and New Zealand may rest assured that his action in the hour of the Empire's need, and the gallant deeds of her sons, will never be forgotten as long as the sun in the course of its revolution sets on the folds of the Union Jack in New Zealand and rises in Great Britain to salute the well-known emblem of British sovereignty.

I do not know what Answer may be given to my Question with regard to the lowering of the National Flag to half-mast on the occasion of Mr. Seddon's decease. I fear it may possibly prove to be in the negative, but, if so, I am confident that such regrettable inaction will not have been due to any want of respect or sympathy but from lack of precedent and initiative in the perception by His Majesty's Government of the entirely altered position occupied by New Zealand and the other self-governing Colonies since the date of the Boer War.

THE LORD STEWARD OF THE HOUSEHOLD (The Earl of LIVERPOOL)

My Lords, the Answer to the first paragraph of the noble Earl's Question is in the negative. The flag on the Victoria Tower of the Palace of Westminster is only lowered to half-mast on the death of the Sovereign or of a member of the Royal Family, and the First Commissioner of Works does not see any reason for departing from the decision of the late Government in this matter. As to the supplementary Question, His Majesty's Government do not see their way to take the course suggested; but in saying that, I wish to associate myself entirely with the noble Earl's eulogium of the late Mr. Seddon, whom everyone must look upon as a great statesman, and whose loss to the Empire all must deplore. I have always kept in touch with New Zealand politics, through an old and valued friend, who was leader of the Opposition there during Mr. Seddon's earlier terms of office, and who has now passed away, and I know from him that all parties in New Zealand held Mr. Seddon in the highest respect. Perhaps I ought to point out that though the the Union Jack is a national flag, it is no more the national flag of this country than the American Jack or the Jack of Russia are national flags. A Royal palace moreover, is not in the same category as other buildings from which flags are flown.

LORD STANMORE

My Lords, may I be allowed to point out to the noble Earl who has brought this matter to the attention of your Lordships this afternoon, that if his suggestion had been adopted by His Majesty's Government there would be the greatest possible difficulty in discriminating between one Colonial Premier and another. You must either show this mark of respect in the case of the death of every Premier of an important Colony, which would reduce it to a mere matter of form, or you must discriminate between their respective merits, which it is not in. the province of this House or of His Majesty's Government to do.