§ LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKEMy Lords, I rise to ask His Majesty's Government why Sir Edward Carson has resigned his office. I am well aware that this is a question which may be very difficult to answer, but I think your Lordships will agree that it is not an unnatural one to be put. When at such a time as this a Minister whose integrity, courage, and strength of purpose must be a valuable national asset apparently tenders his resignation and leaves the Government, it is bound to excite a great deal of public curiosity and anxiety. The truth attending Sir Edward Carson's resignation will, I submit to your Lordships, have to be disclosed to the nation sooner or later; and perhaps it will be well, if it is not impertinent for me to offer advice to the Government to say that this public anxiety should be allayed at the earliest possible moment. For instance, people are asking one another whether Sir Edward Carson resigned on account of something to do with Home Rule for Ireland; whether his resignation is in any war connected with the question of National Service; 1105 whether he resigned because he had a policy and His Majesty's Government had no policy at all; whether he resigned because he had a different policy from that of His Majesty's Ministers, and, if so, what was that policy and what is the difference.
I know quite well that I shall not receive a very conclusive or satisfying answer to my Question. I shall probably be told that Sir Edward carson will make his own statement in his own House at the proper time. I hope that I shall get that answer. I am voicing what every one to whom I have spoken feels when I express the wish that if that statement is made it will be complete in every possible way and that we shall knew the whole story. On the other hand I may be told that it is undesirable in the public interest to lift even the corner of the veil of secrecy with regard to Sir EC ward Carson's resignation; that there are some things about which one ought not to speak for fear of disheartening our Allies and heartening our enemies.
I hope it will not be out of place if I say a word with regard to the suppression of news that has been going on since the war began. I have not mixed very much in political circles during the last twelve months, but I am not giving an unfair account of what being said by everybody with regard to the Censorship or suppression of news generally when I say that if the withholding of news is dictated purely by military and naval necessities—if an Adimiral or a Field-Marshal says that certain news is not to be published, and if the country was told that it was on military or naval authority that news was being so withheld—the people would cheerfully acquiesce. But there seems to be a very general impression——it may or may not be well founded—that news is being kept bark and things glossed over, not because the naval or the military operations demanded it, but because the position of politicians demanded that certain things should not be brought to light. With the greatest respect if suggest that this kind of thing breeds mistrust of the Government out of doors and is the one thing likely to react unfavourably and dangerously upon their authority in the country. Are you quite sure, my Lords, that the secrecy to which we have been treated is, after all, so very necessary? Will it make such a tremendous difference to the attitude of Germany towards this country? Is it not true that there are things published in 1106 the German newspapers which are suppressed from the British newspapers, things which we might very easily know?
I address this last remark to His Majesty's Government with all the sincerity that I can command. It seems to some of us that what is dragging us down now and is more likely to cause comfort and support to the enemy than the publication of news is a deliberate and well-organised pacifist, in effect pro-German, propaganda which is in progress all over the country. Why do you not suppress that? The people who are conducting this agitation are those whom we should like to see suppressed. I am not speaking without the book. I saw a well known citizen of this country yesterday afternoon, and I was informed beyond a shadow of doubt that there is a most dangerous anti-national campaign being carried on in this country which has for its object an inconclusive and premature peace which, if arrived at, would be the wickedest crime that this country could be guilty of, and would throw away every single thing for which British lives have been laid down and British money spent. I do hope that this aspect of the matter will engage the attention of Ministers. There is a body called the Union of Democratic Control, or something of the kind, the leaders of which are so democratic that they do not respond to the wishes of the majority of their constituents. If the Government want to suppress something, why do they not suppress that organisation? You would get the ardent support of the very best part of the nation. Unless we can get a clear idea that the Government of the day are going to proceed on inure healthy and more aggressive anti-German lines we shall feel that we are not putting forward all our strength, and our Allies will feel the same. And there will be a demand in this country for a national pro-English and anti-German policy which either this Government or some other Government, if we are going to win the war, will be bound to carry into effect. I do not apologise for having wandered rather far away from the subject with which I began. This is the only House now where you can really get up and say what you like. And, after all, if we do digress somewhat it is only a vindication of the ancient privileges that your Lordships have enjoyed, and, I hope, will continue to enjoy.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEMy Lords, I would be the last person in the world to suggest that the Question which my noble friend has put to His Majesty's Government is prompted by idle curiosity. We must all recognise that at a moment like this the resignation of a Minister, and particularly a Minister of Sir Edward Carson's importance, is a grave incident, and it is not surprising that it has attracted a great deal of public attention. My noble friend was good enough to suggest in anticipation one or two different forms of answer that I might possibly give to him. One of the formulæ which he suggested was an answer to the effect that Sir Edward Carson would make his own statement in his own House at the proper time. I am not going to give exactly that answer, but I am going to give one not very far off it. My answer is that Sir Edward Carson has already in his own House, and at the time which he thought convenient, made a statement of the reasons which have induced him to separate himself from his colleagues. That statement, I believe, is to be seen exhibited in a conspicuous place not far from where we are sitting. I really feel that I have not the right to add anything to that statement or to take away anything from it. But this I may be allowed to say. My noble friend said that it had been suggested that Sir Edward Carson's resignation might possibly have something to do with the old Home Rule controversy. Now, we who know Sir Edward Carson will feel perfectly confident that at a time like the present he would not allow himself to be deflected by an inch from what might seem to him his proper political course by any old political prepossessions on questions concerning domestic policy.
§ LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKEHear, hear.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEAll I can add is an expression of my own very deep regret, both on public and private grounds, that I should no longer have the satisfaction of counting Sir Edward Carson as one of my colleagues. I am sure my noble friend will excuse me if I do not attempt to follow him into the somewhat discursive remarks which he made upon what I think he described as the suppression of important intelligence. It is quite possible that mistakes have been made, and that in some cases news may have been withheld which might without any public disadvantage have been made public. All I will say is that these matters are being considered. My noble friend, as every one else, must realise that to set up the vast machinery which has been established on both sides of the Channel for regulating the publication of news does present immense difficulties, and if in those circumstances mistakes have been made one cannot be surprised. But the matter is being carefully attended to, and there certainly is no desire to keep back from the public any news which can be given without at the same time giving assistance to our enemies.