HL Deb 05 February 1936 vol 99 cc425-32
THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (VISCOUNT HALIFAX)

My Lords, I think before we pass to the other business on the Paper it will be in accordance with your Lordships' wish that we should turn aside to say a few words by way of tribute to one, Lord Reading, who played so important a part in many spheres of government and who held so important a place in the public life of the country. The career of Lord Reading was a remarkable one, not least because, in an especially true sense, he was the sole architect of it. He started with few of the advantages that have helped other men in the winning of their place in the life of the nation, and had indeed little advantage other than the great advantage of his own character and his own qualities. So endowed, he was not slow, as many of your Lordships who were distinguished in the same profession would avow, to win for himself great eminence at the Bar, where, I suppose, he held a place that in some ways was unique. That position at the Bar, your Lordships will remember, he crowned in due course by occupying in turn the positions of Attorney-General and, finally, of Lord Chief Justice.

Then, when he had reached an age at which most men would have felt they had established the right to leisure, the War came, bringing for him, as, of course, for many others, new claims and new opportunities. He was largely responsible for the wise guiding of the financial policy of this country at the beginning of the War, and what was then done, and wisely done, owed much to his sagacity and to his knowledge. In pursuance of the same task he was sent on more than one special Mission to the United States, the difficulty and delicacy of which are not perhaps always so clearly remembered to-day as they were evident at the time he undertook them. I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that by what he was able to contribute to the discharge of these Missions he laid this country and the Allies under a very heavy debt of gratitude. There followed for him five very strenuous years in the post of His Majesty's Viceroy in India, years that happened to coincide with exceptional difficulties—difficulties political, difficulties economic and difficulties financial. We here in this House during the last few years have had some direct contact with those difficulties from a distance, but he dealt with them at first hand, and I can indeed speak from my own personal knowledge of how great in his day those difficulties were. He showed in his treatment of them, I think, how it was possible to combine great patience and great powers of conciliation on the one hand with, on the other, a determination to discharge his duty for the securing of justice and order in the country for which he was made responsible. And that great and wise interest in India Lord Reading never lost.

Those of us who were on the Joint Select Committee of the two Houses of Parliament considering the Bill that became an Act last year remember how assiduous, in spite of many other claims, he was in his attendance on the work of that Committee, and that Committee itself only succeeded, for him, the manifold and great demands made by the previous Round-Table Conferences on which he had played so leading a part. Whether what he did secured the agreement of all men in the State or not, all must agree that he had played a very vital and formative part in the Round-Table Conference by the contribution that he there made to the work of drawing the future Constitution of India. Many of your Lordships will remember the last speech that he made in this House on that subject when he was suffering under grave physical disability, but none the less felt that it was his duty to place your Lordships in possession of his considered view on that subject.

Such a record as that is plain evidence of quite outstanding gifts. In this House, of which we remember he was Leader for a time after he had joined the National Government in 1931, we were accustomed to his regular presence when any business, important or less important, was under consideration. We were accustomed to the great courtesy and great fairness that he brought to all our public debates. He was of course, as in a sense we all are, a Party politician, but I think he never liked controversy for controversy's sake. He never conducted any controversy with us, it seemed, with any desire but, by means of controversy, to reach the truth. He exhibited constantly a great power of understanding of the case of the side to which he was opposed, and from that, as I myself always felt, flowed the great power of persuasiveness that he was fortunate enough to enjoy. Along with the great intellectual power that we admired and the power that he possessed of marshalling the facts in his argument, he seemed to many of us to be singularly free of the danger that besets us all when we are convinced of the truth, or at least the desirability, of any case—the temptation to evade or to shut our eyes to awkward, unpalatable facts. Lord Reading never made that mistake. He faced all the facts. He was conscious that the facts would remain as they were, and he was o accordingly singularly prudent in reaching a decision; but once he had reached a decision, having weighed all the difficulties, he was equally firm in adhering to it. And few men, I think, had greater capacity than he for seeing all round a question before reaching a final decision.

I have said a word of him as a great lawyer, and it is obviously impossible for me to appraise the contribution that he made in that sphere of our national life. Nor is it within my power or my duty to weigh the services that he rendered to the political Party of which he was so distinguished a member. But I am quite certain that no cause to which he gave his allegiance could possibly have had a more persuasive advocate or a more loyal supporter. Many had occasion to know during these last years how ungrudingly he devoted all his time and all his labour to the cause of his Jewish co-religionists, and they are not likely to forget how much they owed to his unflinching support in difficult days. By them, I suppose, his loss will be felt as the loss of a great representative of the Jewish race and the Jewish cause. By many of us—I would wish if I might to include myself in that number—his loss will be felt as that of a generous friend and a wise counsellor; and by this House and by the State at large his loss will be felt as that of a devoted and most distinguished public servant.

LORD SNELL

My Lords, it is my privilege on behalf of my noble friends to associate myself and them with the tribute which has been paid by the Leader of the House to a valued colleague and a man who had become distinguished in many departments of the nation's life. It may be that only members of his own profession can properly estimate his place as an advocate and as a lawyer and as a Judge. My own knowledge of him is limited to his work as a Party Leader, and in that regard may I express the special sympathy of my noble friends and myself to the members of the Liberal Party which he led with such distinction. But it is as Party Leader and as statesman and as Viceroy that members of the general public, including myself, mostly knew him.

I was privileged to work with him closely for more than two years at the Round-Table Conference and in the Indian Joint Select Committee to which reference has been made. It was a Committee in which the quality of a man's mind was tested to the full and where the value of his judgment was very quickly appraised. I think I am right in saying on behalf of all his colleagues that our daily experience of him revealed his close knowledge of India, his wise counsel and, above all, his deep sympathy with the aspirations of the Indian people. I am personally quite impartial in my judgment of Lord Reading, for only in a very few instances did he support proposals that were made by my colleagues and myself on that Committee, but I knew that his hesitations about what we proposed were not concerned with fundamental objections out were based upon questions of extent and expediency. We wanted more of what he wanted than he thought it expedient at that time to concede. His own people had a rightful pride in the position that he had attained among his fellow citizens. They had joy in the general esteem in which he was held and that justified their love of, and loyalty to, the principles of our English State, in which racial discrimination is neither admired nor practiced.

How can we account for a career so striking as that of Lord Reading? My Lords, we can very rarely estimate with reasonable accuracy the extent to which even in our own lives the elements of luck and opportunity account for our small successes, but I personally believe it to be true that when these incalculable hazards have been allowed for the achievements of must men who have risen to eminence in public affairs represent not merely a lucky turn of fortune's fickle wheel but also, and perhaps predominantly, native gifts carefully developed and wisely used. I feel that what makes a career such as that of the late Lord Reading, to whom we are to-day paying tribute, is in the main just industry polished until it shines. We shall miss him as a colleague in this House and my noble friends and myself join most carnestly in the tribute that has been paid to him.

LORD GAINFORD

My Lords, it is to be regretted that the noble Marquess, Lord Crewe, is unable to pay that tribute to the memory of his colleague and our friend the late Marquess of Reading that he hoped to be able to pay this afternoon. It is not easy to dwell on the magnitude of the services Lord Reading rendered to the Empire, or to Great Britain, or even to this House. It is difficult for me to dissociate from the manifold achievements of Lord Reading his self as a man. The variety of positions which he occupied is almost without parallel in the history of this country, and the qualities which he possessed—some of them at any rate—are unique and, if I may repeat the description, almost without parallel.

His phenomenal success at the Bar has been referred to by the noble Viscount the Leader of the House. From 1898 to 1910 his conduct of cases and his success at the Bar were quite phenomenal and left the world wondering. In 1904 he entered the House of Commons and for a third of a century he was recognised as a statesman of very great value. As Law Officer of the Crown and as Lord Chief Justice he did invaluable work, and throughout this period he showed himself to be a pre-eminent statesman. The noble Viscount the Leader of the House alluded to his interest in India. As Viceroy it was his one great object to try to remove all causes of discontent. The abolition of the Excise Duty on cotton and the reduction of the Salt Duty were instances of how he tried to show that he was a real friend of the Indian peoples. He once said to me: "My difficulties in India were greatly enhanced because of my training. I was trained to deal with questions collectively and to regard precedent. When I went to India I had to face the individual responsibility of taking innumerable decisions of very great moment." I believe that success attended his efforts in that country, and I am very glad that Viscount Halifax has paid a tribute to the excellence of the work which he accomplished. As art Ambassador his term of service was very short, but again I think he showed that lie possessed almost unrivalled qualities as a diplomat. As a financier his help was invaluable at Washington and throughout the period of the War.

He had ambition, and I think he was ready to accept power and place. His achievements are inscribed upon the archives of our history. It is not upon them, however, that I desire to dwell this afternoon but rather upon the great nobility of his character. He had, as has already been said, a passionate attachment to his own faith. He was loyal to, his race. He loathed and hated persecution, intolerance and suffering and did everything he could to mitigate any of those things. He was influenced by strong emotion, and yet those of us who knew him intimately realised that whilst he might show indignation he never lost his temper or his self-control. He was one of the most rapid thinkers I have ever met. No matter how complicated the subject he saw it in all its bearings. He seized with alacrity the main point and he came to a wise decision, surmounted difficulties and achieved a solution of the problem. In speech he was endowed with great fluency and a resonant voice. He was never abusive in the words that he used, and was never vindictive. On the contrary, he was always sympathetic, conciliatory and helpful, and easily approached, even by the very humblest of those who sought his aid.

But I think his greatest characteristic was his devotion to duty. His health suffered, as was apparent to many of us in this House, in consequence of his constant attendance at our sittings. Whenever any question of duty arose he never considered his own health, whether the duty was political, or industrial, or was laid upon him as Warden of the Cinque Ports. He attended to his engagements in spite of personal inconvenience. He had a great charm of manner, he was very patient, and he was full of tact, but the great gift that he possessed was that of being able to make warm friendships. That was due to the lovable nature with which he was endowed. He secured the affection and respect of everyone with whom he came in contact. On these Benches we shall miss him. We feel that the world is richer by -his life, and we shall all retain a vivid and happy memory of the example of unselfish devotion to duty which he set to everyone in this House. I cannot sit down, my Lords, without expressing, as I believe I can express, on behalf of those whom I have the privilege of addressing, the deepest sympathy with Lady Reading and the members of his family in their overwhelming sorrow.