PEERS' WAR MEMORIAL. (Hansard, 20 May 1925)

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE)
My Lords, I beg to move that the Report of the Peer's War Memorial Committee be now considered and adopted. The Report has been printed and circulated to your Lordships. The main facts of the situation will be fresh in your Lordships' minds and I will not, therefore, enlarge upon the subject. If any of your Lordships desire to ask any question I shall, of course, be glad to do my best to answer it.

§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE
My Lords, I was unfortunately not able to attend the meeting of the Committee at which this Report was agreed to and I should like to say in a very few words what my position is with regard to it. I welcome the Report of the Committee above all things because it is a unanimous Report and because it will, I hope, mark the end of the long period of uncertainty which has, most unfortunately, prevailed in regard to this matter. I will not attempt to discuss the details of the Report. It gives the coup de grâce to the proposal to set up our War Memorial in the Prince's Chamber. That proposal has been dead for a long time. It has been dead ever since, as the result of public discussion in the newspapers and elsewhere, it became clear that the Memorial to Queen Victoria which now occupies the Prince's Chamber could not be moved without giving violent offence to a large section of public opinion. I do not think that any one was more fully 422 aware that this was the ease than Lord Curzon, who worked so indefatigably in connection with this matter and was so untiring in his efforts to arrive at the knowledge of the opinion which prevailed in this House.
As to the alternative site, the site in the Royal Gallery, I have only one observation to make. I cannot help regretting at the bottom of my mind that it has not been possible to find a site for this Memorial, which is very near to the heart of many of us, in some part of these buildings less remote from the daily life and activities of your Lordships' House. The Royal Gallery provides a spacious and dignified site, but it is very remote from that daily life. I have had a pretty long experience of this House. I have been in the habit—and in that respect I am not singular—of going at long intervals into the Royal Gallery mainly because if I had a confidential conversation to enter into with any of my friends I would be sure of finding it absolutely silent and unfrequented. I am not quite consoled when I am told, as I have been told, that at certain periods of the year—I imagine when your Lordships are not in session—there will be a fitful stream of many thousands of tourists who will pass through the Royal Gallery and so have an opportunity of seeing the Memorial. I am not even quite consoled when I am told that, thanks to the wonderful liberality of certain members of your Lordships' House, the Royal Gallery is likely to be redecorated with sundry oil paintings on the walls and, I understand, ornaments in mosaic.
I am sure, however, that all these things have been considered by the Committee who have reported in favour of the Royal Gallery, and your Lordships may, I hope, infer that all other possible alternative sites have been considered and found impracticable. That being so, I am willing to range myself alongside of the other members of the Committee. I can only hope that your Lordships will give the Committee a mandate to proceed without loss of time with the work, and that there may result from their efforts something worthy of your Lordships' House and of the great 423 subject with which the Memorial will deal.

THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE
My Lords, I beg to move the Motion which is printed on the Paper for the appointment of the Select Committee and the confirmation of the terms of reference to that Committee.