§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (THE EARL OF BIRKENHEAD) moved, 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.
§ The noble Earl said: My Lords, in the absence, through indisposition, of the noble Marquess who leads the House, I rise to move, with the brevity which such a Motion demands and requires, the Motion which is on the Order Paper in the name of the noble Marquess, Lord Salisbury. I have said that it is altogether proper that such a Motion should be recommended briefly to the House, but none, I think, would desire that this solemn duty should be discharged in a purely perfunctory fashion. The relations between ourselves and that other great Island, confronted by so many comparable problems, have been too intimate to render it possible for us to pass by a moment of national mourning in Japan, without making plain that we attempt, as far as we can, to share their grief.
§ The terms of our relationship with Japan are well within the memory of all your Lordships. We were their Allies when the Great War began. Their conception of the obligations of a loyal Alliance has not been surpassed. We asked them to do nothing in the course of that struggle which they did not undertake. They undertook nothing which they did not carry to brilliant achievement. It was necessary, for reasons of maritime strategy which are well within the recollection of all your Lordships, that there should be a concentration of our naval strength within our home waters, and there presented itself at the same time a menace very great to our world-flung trade, springing from the presence of enemy cruisers in waters 79 which it was difficult indeed for us to protect. At that moment we were not failed by our great naval Ally. Their task was dicharged with as much efficiency as loyalty, and the serenity with which we were able to contemplate the first six months of the War, covering as that period did the transport of Indian troops to the central theatre of war, was in no small measure due to the assistance which we received from our Ally.
§ I can think of no country more fascinating to the historian than that which to-day is mourning the loss of its Ruler. How short the time is which has witnessed so complete a transformation among its citizens! They have known how, with cool and scientific precision, to grasp all that is best in Western civilisation, while retaining still the high traditions of their code of chivalry and the rural beauty of those enchanted Islands. It would not be right at a moment when we express condolence to the new Emperor who undertakes responsibilities so great, inherited by him from a lineage which goes back for thousands of years—it would not be right, I think, that we should not associate with that message a word of good wishes for him in the discharge of his public duties. Breaking the traditions of thousands of years the late Emperor sanctioned a memorable visit paid by his son to this country. He greatly endeared himself to all whom he met by his amiability and his accessibility. While, therefore, we send to him with deep sincerity a message of sympathy, it would not be altogether unsuitable that we should couple with that the expression of a hope that his own reign may be longer than and as fortunate and as beneficent as that of the Monarch whose loss we mourn to-day. I beg to move.
§ Moved, 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.—(The Earl of Birkenhead.)
§ VISCOUNT HALDANEMy Lords, this Motion will meet with the sympathy and 80 the warm concurrence of every section of your Lordships' House. With Japan, which has suffered this great national loss, we stand not merely on close but on affectionate terms. The Alliance with this country has been an Alliance distinguished by the scrupulous adherence to every term which our Ally undertook. The reliability of Japan as a friend and the co-operation which she has rendered are fresh in the memory of all of us. I do not think that the part that Japan took in the late War and the naval assistance to which the noble Earl has referred have yet been adequately recorded by the historian. It was a very great assistance that she rendered in that world-wide struggle and it had its part in determining the issue. And now she is in sorrow. She has risen, phenomenally risen, in a fashion which is really without parallel in the history of the nations, because it is the East adopting the spirit of the West without destroying the individuality of her own history. Japan is a Great World Power to-day and a Power that has attained to the highest levels in many of them regions of national life. She is our friend and in her sorrow we sorrow with her and express our deepest sympathy.
§ EARL BEAUCHAMPMy Lords, the general unanimity not only in this House but throughout the country in regard to this Motion makes it unnecessary for me to say more than a very few words in support of it. But I am anxious, in order to avoid any possible misunderstanding, to express my own concurrence and that of my noble friends behind me in this Motion. There are, as the noble Earl who has moved the Motion rightly reminded your Lordships, very ancient bonds of amity between this country and Japan; indeed I think this country, if not the first, was among the first to welcome Japan into the comity of nations and not unnaturally we have felt not a little proud that in the various changes which have taken place in the Constitution of Japan she should in many respects have copied the institutions of this country. If Japan has copied us in that respect we have learnt much from the art of Japan. We owe a great debt of gratitude for what we have learned from her in that direction. I am glad to think that in the past the bonds between this country and Japan have been very 81 close; we shall all of us wish that in the future they may not be less close and that we may be able to work together for the common welfare of the world.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to nemine dissentiente, and Address to be presented to His Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.