HL Deb 28 November 1939 vol 115 cc3-26

The King's Speech reported by the LORD CHANCELLOR.

3.38 p.m.

THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERY

My Lords, I beg to move that an humble Address be presented to His Majesty in reply to the gracious Speech from the Throne. Before proceeding to make any further remarks, which, following the example of the gracious Speech, will be short and, I hope, to the point, I should like to express my great appreciation of the honour of being allowed to address your Lordships this afternoon. I thank the noble Earl who leads your Lordships' House for having entrusted me with this duty. The fact that I, a serving naval officer, am carrying it out, and that I am to be followed by the noble and gallant Field Marshal, both of us speaking from the Cross Benches, indicates that no question of Party arises in this crisis in the Empire's affairs. His Majesty's Government have the united and determined support of your Lordships' House in carrying on vigorous war until victory is achieved. On the main principles for which we fight we are all agreed, and in that your Lordships' attitude typifies the attitude of all the peoples of this Empire.

It would seem right that in moving the Address in reply to the gracious Speech, which deals entirely with war, some allusion should be made to the universal sympathy felt, not only in your Lordships' House but throughout the length and breadth of the land, with Their Majesties the King and Queen in that this calamity should have fallen on their Empire so soon after the start of a reign they began so auspiciously. The silver lining to the cloud of war is in this case, as in 1914, the whole-hearted and effective support of the great Dominions, which was alluded to in the Speech from the Throne, and this is equally true of all the component parts of the British Empire, be they Crown Colonies, Protectorates or Mandated Territories. Surely the fact that all these free minded, independently-thinking peoples are enthusiastic for the cause in which we fight, and that we know we have the sympathy of great masses of the people of the United States, is a clear proof that the motives for which we fight are pure, that we are fighting to uphold the principles upon which depends the future happiness of mankind.

There are those who say that nothing can be gained by war. No, nothing can be gained by war, but something can be saved by war, and that is our national honour. The memorable scene in the House of Commons on September 28, 1938, clearly showed how eagerly peace was hoped for, and it was typical of the relief that was felt up and down the land by all men in the hope that war had been averted. Those high hopes soon faded. The last flicker was extinguished by the occupation of Czecho-Slovakia and the cruel and callous invasion to which our Ally, Poland, was subjected. Although the war has now lasted some twelve weeks, we have not yet had to face those long casualty lists which, it is to be feared, we shall have to study in the very near future. We have already lost many gallant men both at sea and in the air, and by the manner of their death they have proved that the spirit of the younger generation is just as high as it was in 1914 and just as high as it has been at any time in our previous history. We mourn the death of many young warriors, among whom were representatives of every part of His Majesty's Dominions, but we can take some comfort in the thought that how different is their fate—that of free men dying in a great cause, fighting for their country in a profession of their own choice—from that of their unfortunate contemporaries in Czecho-Slovakia and Poland, where men are being murdered in batches by their cruel conquerors for the mere showing of resentment at the conditions of slavery to which their countries have been subjected.

His Majesty in his Speech refers to the work of his Navies, together with that of the Merchant Service and Fishing Fleets, in keeping "free and open the highways of the seas." That duty has, of course, entailed long and incessant work under arduous conditions for all classes of ships, but more particularly the smaller vessels. It does not become me to say anything to extol the Royal Navy in which I have spent my life. I must allow the episodes, including the episode of which we heard this morning, to speak for themselves. There is, however, one section of my younger comrades of whom I should like to remind your Lordships, and they are the young officers both of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Forces who are serving in the Fleet Air Arm. They are flying over miles of sea in all parts of the world, over wastes of water, and when they return they do not return to some spacious area on which to land, they return to a platform 700 ft. by 80 ft. in width. The alternative to that is to land in the sea and hope to be picked up by the vessel to which they belong. In those conditions a parachute is of doubtful value.

But the brunt of the naval war is now being borne by our gallant Mercantile Marine, the members of which are carrying on their calling with the same bravery and diligence that their sea ancestors have shown throughout the centuries, and they are showing that they are worthy of the trust that the nation reposes in them. Many fine ships and many brave crews have been lost, not only our own but neutrals, for our enemy does not discriminate between the two. We must perhaps expect further sinkings and more heavy losses, and only after a period of hard fighting can we hope to see the Sea Service of the Empire prevail. It will be a hard and long struggle for we are fighting a brave, efficient and unscrupulous enemy. But of the ultimate result there can be no doubt.

To the Army I should like to pay a tribute, but there is no need to do that as the noble and gallant Field-Marshal will so soon be addressing your Lordships. The magnificent Air Force has already given ample proof of its spirit and efficiency and has worked in successful co-operation with the Navy in defence of our coastal waters. The three Services must certainly, to quote His Majesty's Speech, be prepared for "any efforts and sacrifices" in order to achieve victory, however distant that end may be. I say "the three Services," for that is a colloquial expression. I like to think of what are called "the three Services" as three branches of one Service and my personal hope is that, however good cooperation may be now, this war will bring the Services far closer together, that we shall always share our troubles in common, and that we shall take as a motto "United we stand, divided we fall."

The gracious Speech indicates that further measures will be brought forward for the welfare of the people of this realm during the war conditions under which they live to-day. Your Lordships will have heard with satisfaction of the increased allowances for the dependants of those who are in our fighting Services. We cannot allow those who are bearing the brunt to have added to their worries and trials anxieties as to how their families are faring, and we cannot allow the wives of those who are at the front to have added to their anxieties and troubles the task of eking out a precarious existence for a family on an insufficient allowance. The children of the nation are to-day of very much greater importance than they were even a short time ago. We must see to-day that they are well cared for, and that every child is allowed to develop to the fullest extent, not only for its own sake but for the future of cur race. May I express a hope that the measures foreshadowed will include steps which will prevent children being kept in dangerous areas or allowed to return to dangerous areas? Parents have no right to risk exposing their children to the horrors of an aerial bombardment. Even if physical injury is escaped, many would have their nerves wrecked for life.

We live in a gloomy world—it is hard to keep cheerful without light; but in my own opinion it is a sign of weakening to be clamouring for a relaxation of all the regulations, regulations which were thought out in times of peace, when men had an opportunity to think. To me there seems danger in relaxing those rules before they have been proved to be excessive on trial. I submit that it would be better to wait for any extensive relaxation until we know how safe it is to relax. We must avoid being lulled into a sense of security before the struggle with which we are faced has really begun. His Majesty's Speech refers to the attainment of the purpose upon which all our efforts are set. That purpose may perhaps be described as such a victory as will ensure that the years which follow the close of this war will not be those of an uneasy truce, but the beginning of an era of peace, freedom and happiness for all men of all nations.

I beg to move, that an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as followeth— Most Gracious Sovereign,—We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament. Moved, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as followeth—

"Most Gracious Sovereign,—We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament."—(The Earl of Cork and Orrery.)

3.51 p.m.

LORD MILNE

My Lords, I rise to second the Motion for an humble Address which has been presented in such weighty words by a distinguished Admiral of the Fleet. I do so, if I may say so, with great diffidence as one who has but lately entered your Lordships' House, but I do it with a very great pride and a just appreciation of the high compliment that His Majesty's Ministers at this time of stress and crisis—I think the greatest crisis in the history of this great Empire—have paid to the fighting Services by asking representatives of the fighting Services to propose and second this Motion.

When I was asked to undertake this duty my mind went back two and a half years ago to that wonderful and unforgettable scene in Westminster Abbey where in front of His Majesty was carried by the proposer of this Motion the Sword of Mercy, flanked on either side by the drawn Swords of Temporal and Spiritual Justice. I wondered myself, as I suppose many others did in that great audience, what these emblems meant. Were they simply relics of old pageantry, quite out of keeping with modern ideas, or did they stand for something? Now, my Lords, we know. They stood for something which was real, for something that was tangible. They stood in my estimation for the determined belief of this nation in the quality of mercy, and for our fixed resolution that to every man should be granted justice in things spiritual as well as in things temporal. These seem to me the ideals for which this nation has drawn the sword to-day. If the sword had not been drawn on this occasion, these swords of pageantry, to my mind, would have been for ever empty baubles of no meaning.

Twenty-two years ago the noble Earl, the Leader of this House, when addressing your Lordships on a similar occasion, stated that the ideals for which this country had taken up arms were as lofty as any for which any country could ever draw the sword. He pointed out that without their achievement no nation, no people, no human being in this or any other country could be safe. How very true were those words. The situation has again arisen in this world. Freedom, liberty, all that we fought for before, are again at stake. At the cost of millions of British lives those ideals were achieved. I feel that we owe a very great debt to the dead, because with their lives we achieved something which was never really carried out. It has been said that we gained nothing by the last victory and that we will gain nothing from victory in this war. But surely it was not the victory that was to blame in the last war. Surely the troubles of the whole world were due to uses that were made of that victory.

Now, our ideals, our aims are the same, but to-day the crisis is much more acute. The burden on the nation is going to be much heavier, and I can assure you that the danger at the present moment is infinitely greater than in the last war. What we are fighting for surely has been sufficiently clearly stated time after time by His Majesty's Ministers. If not, could anything be clearer than what was stated only a few hours ago by the Prime Minister? We fight to win the war, to be in a position when we have won the war, to settle such terms of a real and settled peace as will guarantee lasting security. The gist is in the words "We fight to win the war," and it seems to me, speaking as a soldier to your Lordships, that every bit of our energy, of the energy of every man and woman in this country, should be devoted to that one aim and that one aim only—victory in the war.

As a soldier of fifty-five years service, who has served under five different Sovereigns, nothing has caused greater admiration to me than the attitude of this country at this crisis—an attitude, if I may say so, different from the nervous excitement of a year ago and also very different from the enthusiasm, the aimless enthusiasm, of 1914. The country to-day is distinguished by a grim determination to carry this war to its logical conclusion. But in the grimness of that determination there seems to me to lie a certain danger. The noble Lord, Lord Davies, speaking in a debate in your Lordships' House on the aims of the war, said that it was necessary to clarify those aims to keep up the morale of the nation. I agree with much that he has said, except that for "morale" I should rather say "enthusiasm." I feel that there is beginning to spread throughout the nation a very dangerous feeling almost of self-sufficiency and boredom, and I think everything ought to be done to keep up the enthusiasm. I know the difficulties that are suffered from various restrictions, and I hope it may be possible in some way to reduce some of them. But I agree most entirely with what has been said by the distinguished mover of this Motion: that very great care should be taken in making any change simply because nothing has happened in the past two months. We do not know that that may not be a trap to catch us unprepared. I feel that the last round of this war is going to be fought and won on the home front. I am certain that nobody knows that better than our enemy, from the way he is carrying on.

It has been said that this is not a religious war. If by that is meant that it is not a war of the representatives of one religion against those of another, I entirely agree with that statement. But surely it is something else. Surely it is a war of those who believe in a standard of right and morality against those who by their actions seem to be full of nothing but paganism and barbarism. Before the end of this great contest many are going to sacrifice their lives, and I feel that they will die more willingly and we shall part with them more willingly if they have given their lives for a great ideal rather than for a mere strip of territory.

Again, we are said not to be fighting the German people. That is a very dangerous theory. One has to delve back many hundreds of years into the horrors of warfare before one finds anything to equal the atrocities which have taken place in the name of civilised warfare in the past few months. A nation obtains the Government it desires, or, if it does not, it gets the Government it deserves, and a nation is generally well represented by its Army and its Navy. Are not the actions of the German Navy at sea, and the actions of the German Army and the way in which they carried out the operations in Poland, fully typical of the innate brutality of the German nation as a whole? I should like to say as a soldier that it is a very dangerous principle to inculcate into your fighting men that they are not fighting the men whom they are going to meet in the field. I have no desire in any way to lower the humane spirit that has been shown by the youth of the Navy and of the Royal Air Force during the past few months, but war is war, and the sooner those who have drawn the sword learn that they are liable to perish by the sword, the sooner this contest will come to an end.

It is a strange thing that a cultured people like the German nation, preeminent in art, in science and in literature, should have behaved as such barbarians. But from what I have seen of the Germans and what I know of them, leniency and kindness are to them merely signs of weakness. The youth of the German nation—I do not say the German-speaking nation—are, as far as I know, thoroughly behind their Leader, and though we may think that we are not fighting the German nation, I can assure you, my Lords, that the German nation are fighting us and they are a very stubborn lot. We have embarked on a long and bitter contest. The difficulties are going to be very severe, the losses are going to be heavy, and it is difficult to visualise when the end may come. But to me one thing is as clear as the day: no economic pressure, however severe, will make the German sue for peace, will bring him to his knees, until he has received blow after blow from land, sea and air. However much you may wishfully think it, there is no short cut to victory in this war. It is for His Majesty's Government to organise these blows. They alone, with full knowledge of all the circumstances, can decide when and where these blows are to fall, and we are grateful to the Prime Minister for his explanation in his broadcast the other day. But once that decision is come to, I trust that these blows will be hard, strenuous, relentless and absolutely pitiless. We have been cheered by the gallant deeds of His Majesty's Navy and His Majesty's Air Force, but I trust they may induce no false confidence, because I know that the whole nation is calling out for reprisals—reprisals for the action that has been taken in Poland against our gallant Allies, to whom we owe a great responsibility, and also reprisals for those dastardly actions that have taken place at sea in the last few days, which will for ever tarnish the arms and the honour of the German nation.

We welcome the announcement that this great Empire is rallying round the Mother Country, as it did in 1914, in a spirit of self-sacrifice and loyal co-operation. Men from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, India, South Africa are all hastening to our aid. The plains of Canada are rapidly becoming one great aerodrome for the production of pilots; the foundries and the furnaces of Australia are working level with our own; and the great Princes of India have put their arms and their resources at the disposal of their King-Emperor. I feel that, propelled by those sturdy arms of the Empire, this great snowball of national effort and military efficiency is gradually but steadily gaining weight and, if rightly directed, will crush to pieces the German menace. I say, advisedly, if rightly directed. The country is fortunate in having among His Majesty's Ministers men of knowledge and experience in war. The Cabinet is especially fortunate in having among its members two men, members of your Lordships' House, men of wide experience, great knowledge, wise judgment, and I should like to say to them that they carry the full confidence of all three Services, and I think I can also add the confidence of the country as a whole. At the head of the three fighting Services we have men trained in the last war, men of courage, daring, wisdom, men who have won their high positions not through any fortuitous circumstances but in the hard school of merit alone.

It has been stated somewhere—I think it was the Prime Minister who said so—that no military action would be taken without the concurrence of the military advisers. I trust that in order to avoid the mistakes of the last war, and that in the future forces may not be dissipated, but concentrated at the right and essential point, that advice may be encouraged and not, as it was on one lamentable occasion, only waited for. Our co-operation with the French, our gallant Allies, seems to be excellent, and that thorny and difficult question of command has been solved in a very wise manner and at a suitably early date. We are fortunate in having in France two great commanders, warriors of the last war, General Gamelin and General Georges, both personal friends of my own. I can assure your Lordships that you can have perfect confidence in their judgment, and they are great lovers of this country.

I tender my admiration to His Majesty's Navy, and my sympathy for the losses that they have incurred, and to the Air Force, that wonderful new arm of which when we are praising youth we sometimes forget that a member of your Lordships' House, to whom we owe a great deal, was the father. We have great hopes and perfect confidence in what they can do. Of the Army I shall say little; but I can tell you that it is as good as it ever has been, which is saying a good deal, and that it is magnificently commanded by men skilled and trained in war. I feel that so long as we are prepared in this country to stand the buffets of adversity the course of the ship of State is well set for victory. We ourselves have only to trust in the wonderful youth of this nation who are giving up everything to the cause—and may I say the youth of both sexes? I am certain that, however hard the course, success is bound to be achieved by a united nation, who are offering their unswerving loyalty to their Sovereign and to the Royal House and showing their confidence and giving their support to His Majesty's Ministers, not only in words but in deeds.

4.19 p.m.

LORD SNELL

My Lords, my first pleasant duty is to congratulate the two noble and gallant Lords who have proposed and seconded the Address in answer to the gracious Speech for the way in which they have performed what is always a very difficult task. It is the practice of His Majesty's Government on these occasions to commandeer the political innocence of its most youthful members in order to justify their present, and commend their future, policy—their past is wisely not brought into consideration. But on this occasion we have had, first of all, to lament the absence of those young and engaging personalities, who are employed upon sterner and more urgent duties, and in their place we have had two more seasoned members of your Lordships' House, who have done their task with grace and distinction.

The speech of the noble and gallant Admiral was based upon his long and solid experience of warfare and the service of the sea. I have never been quite sure that the Royal Navy has earned the right to be called "the silent Service." I have a suspicion that in moments of great stress and urgency, when things have not gone quite right, when noble Admirals feel they must have a private word with the universe and with the midshipman who is responsible, they reveal a power of rhetoric which we have not had before us to-day. But I am grateful, as I am sure all your Lordships are, for the speech which the noble Admiral gave to us in words which it was good to hear. The noble and gallant Field-Marshal has also had a long experience, and his words must carry great weight with all who listen to them. He warned us against any easy optimism on this occasion and suggested that all that we have and are is involved in the present struggle. The noble and gallant Field-Marshal's own experience gives to his words a very special quality and value, and I repeat that I am grateful to both the noble Lords for what they have said to us.

If we turn to the gracious Speech itself, one notices First of all what it says and secondly what is not said. The Government apparently do not propose to allow anything to distract their attention from the grim business of the war; and the nation will tolerate that so long as the war is conducted with efficiency and with vigour. But there are some notable omissions from the gracious Speech which I feel I must indicate in passing. First of all, one would have expected some reference to have been made to the life of this Parliament; whether any arrangement was going to be made whereby it would be extended under present circumstances: or must we assume that the Government are going to have a blitzkrieg Election sprung upon us as a matter of surprise? Then the legislative needs of the nation, which are very great at this time, are not mentioned and barely indicated. They are limited to a reference to measures "for the welfare of My people." That is not a very inspiring programme. There is no indication given to us as to any steps towards the reorganisation of our national life that will have to take place. Even the Prime Minister in recent words did not help us much in that direction. The present situation is almost completely ignored. We have one and a-half millions of unemployed in the land, notwithstanding that vast numbers have been withdrawn from industry for war purposes.

The great question of transport is not mentioned; and there is the question of Supply, which continues to give many of us some anxiety. I will do no more on this occasion than say that we may have to take the risk of criticisms on the floor of the House in that respect; but I do not propose to enter into those matters to-day, for my noble friends and I will place upon the Order Paper in the near future a Motion which will permit the whole of the issues at stake to be considered, and a Motion which I hope will be wide enough in its terms to enable noble Lords of all Parties and of all opinions to make whatever contribution they feel they can make to the service of the nation at this great crisis. I conclude by saying that the Opposition with which I am connected will continue to give their full support to His Majesty's Government in their prosecution of the war and in their effort to secure a just and righteous peace. My final word must be a repetition of thanks to the two noble and gallant Lords who moved and seconded the Motion.

4.27 p.m.

THE MARQUESS OF CREWE

My Lords, it was indeed fitting that the duty of moving and seconding the Address in reply to the gracious Speech should have been committed to the two noble and gallant Lords who have addressed us with so much knowledge and so much experience. The noble and gallant Admiral of the Fleet has inherited an historic name familiar both in the annals of England and of Ireland, and has added distinction to it by his long career of service. Unless I am mistaken, his first experience of active service dates from the last century, and ever since he has been serving in important capacities, including a high command in the last war, and has reached the very highest grade in his profession.

The noble and gallant Field-Marshal, Lord Milne, also I think can trace his active service back to the last century. He has served in many campaigns and, as we all know, he was Commander-in-Chief in an important theatre of war in the Great War. Perhaps I may be allowed as a personal reminiscence to recall the short but not altogether uneventful period at which I was Secretary of State at the War Office, when the noble and gallant Field-Marshal was Chief of the Imperial General Staff and gave me all the benefit of his advice and his assistance. But, while paying a tribute to those two noble Lords and to their Services, that does not mean that we, any more than they, forget the third great Service, that of the Air Force. There is hardly a moment when, on opening a newspaper, imaginations are not stirred and pulses quickened by some story of feats of skill and daring performed by the young heroes of the Air Force. We know that in all three Services the traditions of bravery and discipline with which our history is so full will remain untarnished through the whole course of this war.

The ceremony of opening Parliament this year was shorn of much of its pomp and circumstance. That does not mean, as the solemnities of the Coronation bore witness, that the nation and the Empire under-value the symbolism of the splendid pageant in which the Sovereign is the central figure. But we all feel that at this time, when there is greater simplicity of life everywhere, and when there is anxiety in many homes, that it is well to limit any form of public display as far as possible, even on occasions like this. But the occasion was marked by the presence of the King and Queen. We have all observed and all appreciated the manner in which Their Majesties, day by day, spend their time in encouraging and inspiring the efforts made by those who are trying to help the national cause, not only the most conspicuous efforts, but also many of the humbler. They have, indeed, entered deeply and thoroughly into the life of the nation, and therefore it is well that in Parliament, which may be called the focus of that life, and of the anxieties and the confident hopes of the country, Their Majesties should take part—and indeed, had they been absent, a gap would have been left which nothing could have filled.

The gracious Speech, as the noble Lord, the Leader of the Opposition, reminded us, differs greatly from the gracious Speeches of most former years, in that it does not contain a long list of measures which His Majesty's Government propose to introduce, some of which, as a rule, it is known, will be carried, and a great many which, it is equally well known, will not; but on this occasion, and as I think, myself, quite rightly, it has not been attempted to indicate any future legislation of that sort. As the noble Lord, Lord Snell, observed, there will be opportunities later for bringing forward on the floor of the House measures and the criticism of measures which the coming Session may produce. As the Speech deals only with the war, I venture to spend a few moments in considering how the war is regarded, not so much by ourselves—because we know why we are fighting and what we are fighting for—but by others. It is undoubtedly true that by many Germans—not only those who are simply enslaved by the present German system of Government, but some of those of more independent mind—we are regarded as a nation somewhat spoiled by our domination over a great Empire for centuries past, and consequently jealous of the advance and the expansion of other countries, particularly of themselves. If that view is taken there would undoubtedly be in various parts of the world some sympathy with the Germans and the cause for which they pretend to be fighting—that is to say, to avoid being encircled and shut off from any kind of expansion.

What view is taken by the rest of the world? Let us look first at our Dominions. Every one of the Dominions is entitled, and would be ready, to take a purely detached view of the merits of this conflict, but, as we all know, not one of them is prepared to show any sympathy with the German standpoint. Then India and the Colonies, with their vast conglomeration of millions of different races who, according to the German belief, may have been discontented and oppressed under our rule for years and years. In no one of them has a note of sympathy been heard for the German aggression. What is surely still more remarkable—look at neutral countries. In 1914 there were several neutral countries who would have been not sorry to see Germany get the best of it, or at any rate were anxious not to see Germany completely defeated. Is there any neutral country now of which that could be said? I think there is none. Surely that unanimous verdict of the world stands for something, and we know that that verdict is founded on the fact that the rulers of Germany have deliberately entered upon and persistently followed a campaign of rapacity and mendacity to which the darkest pages of history can hardly show a parallel. And that being so, there is nothing that we can do but to go on in the spirit of the Prime Minister's memorable broadcast of Sunday last—go on until united opinion brings about the creation of a wiser Europe and a better world.

4.42 p.m.

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (EARL STANHOPE)

My Lords, as the noble Lord the leader of the Opposition said, the task of moving and seconding the Address in reply to the gracious Speech is never an easy one. On this occasion it seems to me to have been one of exceptional difficulty because the gracious Speech was in itself very short, and, as the noble Lord opposite pointed out, there was no mention of legislative measures to which the mover and seconder of the reply could devote a part of their speeches. Moreover, they had this further difficulty that there has been no outstanding event of importance affecting any of the three fighting Services which has yet occurred to fasten the attention of the nation and to direct our thoughts to it. Therefore I think the whole House is the more appreciative of the manner in which my two noble and gallant friends on the Cross Benches have carried out their most difficult task, and we are indeed grateful to them for the way in which they have performed that duty. When I visited Portsmouth early this year as First Lord, I found the noble and gallant Earl there as Commander-in-Chief with his flag as Admiral of the Fleet flying in the "Victory," and it needed no suggestion from anybody to discover that the keenness and efficiency of all ranks in that command derived their inspiration from him. I do not know yet who most regretted the hauling down of his flag at the termination of his duty there—the Commander-in-Chief or those who had the privilege of serving under him.

As regards the noble and gallant Field-Marshal, he probably does not remember, but I did serve under him as a G.S.O.3 when he was Chief of Staff to Lord Plumer in the second battle of Ypres. But probably he does remember our serving together on the Army Council during a part of the period of seven years when he was Chief of the Imperial General Staff. I do not know that I am saying anything the noble Marquess opposite (the Marquess of Crewe) will object to when I say that perhaps they were amongst the most difficult years that the Army has ever had to pass through, because the Chief of the Imperial General Staff had to preserve some tiny Army from the attacks which were made by a succession of Governments who gave him no money with which to do it. Both my noble and gallant friends took a very distinguished part in the last war, and I do not suppose that they have any wish nearer to their hearts than that the age limit should be abolished so that they could once again take as active a part in operations as they did twenty-five years ago. I seem to remember the noble and gallant Admiral of the Fleet saying to me that the one thing he would like to do more than anything else was to take the broad band off his arm and go to sea once more in command of one of the new destroyers, and I know that right well he would do it.

Perhaps it is just as well that we should remind ourselves of what the situation was twenty-five years ago when the last Great War began. For my own guidance to-day I have been reading through the debate which took place in your Lordships' House when His late Majesty King George V opened Parliament on the 11th November, 1914. The noble Marquess, the Leader of the Liberal Party, was then in my place as Leader of the House, and I derived a good deal of assistance from reading what he said on that occasion. May I remind him of some of the things that were said? Several noble Lords referred to the fact that Turkey had recently come in as an enemy of this country. Now what has been said by the noble Marquess to-day shows how different is the situation in which we are, for Turkey is not an enemy of this country to-day but is a country with which we have made a friendly arrangement that is to run for a long period of years, and which everyone of us believes will be as valuable to the people of this country as it will also be to the people of Turkey itself. Furthermore, as the noble Marquess reminded us, there is not a neutral in these days who desires to see the success of Germany, unless it might be the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which perhaps desire no one to win this war at all in order that they may derive such advantages as they think may come from such a stalemate.

What was the situation in regard to the Forces twenty-five years ago? There was lack of co-operation between the higher French and British Commands, there had been very heavy casualties inflicted on the French Army in an attack which they made in the early days of the war, and our own Expeditionary Force was only saved from complete annihilation by a most masterly retreat, after which it had to fight a series of desperate battles culminating, just before that debate took place in your Lordships' House, in the first battle of Ypres. Not many of the original Expeditionary Force, officers or men, were left to fight at that period. When I joined my battalion a few days later there was only one officer and I think some 150 in the ranks left of those who had originally gone out. In the same debate reference was made to the chaotic condition of training for the men who had joined the Army since the war broke out, and certainly some of the noble Lords who took part in that debate referred with some anxiety to a possible shortage of recruits joining the Army in spite of all the enthusiasm that existed in those days. The noble Marquess, on behalf of the Government, did not deny that there was—I will not say anxiety, but at any rate that considerable thought had been given to that matter. There was a very serious shortage of ammunition, and as regards the Senior Service, there, too, they had had incidents which caused anxiety and deep regret in this country—the loss of several valuable cruisers in the Channel, and the severe reverse that our squadron suffered in the battle of Coronel.

On this occasion, His Majesty's Navy has had perhaps a far more difficult task to face than it had in the last war. Not unexpectedly the Germans, from the very first day of war, have launched a series of submarine attacks in spite of all the international agreements they had made to the contrary—attacks which have been launched without warning and with scant mercy for the lives of women and children and other non-combatants in the ships that were attacked. Our pre-arranged plans to protect shipping were brought into operation without delay and the convoy system got into its stride. Of course we have had losses—losses of an aircraft carrier, of a battleship, of a destroyer, of a submarine and now of an armed merchant cruiser—but I think we are justified in saying that the Fleet and the Fleet of our Allies have taken a heavy toll of the German submarines and have foiled this method of closing our sea routes.

The enemy has therefore turned to a new weapon, contrary to all International Law to which Germany had willingly acceded. There was no question of a Diktat at Versailles in regard to that. The enemy are now sowing mines in the shipping lanes with the avowed object of destroying peaceful merchantmen of all nations, not merely British but also neutral. We have every reason to believe that we hold and can continue to hold the submarine menace, and we have every reason to believe that we shall similarly find methods of dealing with indiscriminate mine laying. We are not prepared to accept without retaliation this further breach of the rules of warfare and, as has already been announced, German exports will not be allowed to enjoy the protection of neutral flags. By this means German trade by sea, both import and export, will be brought to an end. Of course His Majesty's Government recognise that our action must cause some inconvenience and loss to neutrals, although that loss is as nothing to the sinking of their ships by Germany, by the mine and submarine, but it is our intention to apply this reprisal with as little inconvenience to shipowners and traders as possible.

Once again the Navy has enabled a large British Army to be transported to France and this time that Army has arrived without a single adverse incident. Very different is the situation of our Expeditionary Force in France from what it was in 1914. As the noble and gallant Field Marshal pointed out, it was only very late in the last war that unity of command was established between the British and French Forces. On this occasion it has existed since the first day of the war. And that co-operation is not confined only to the land forces. It exists equally at sea, is the air, in economic action and in means of supply, indeed in everything which tends to the successful prosecution of the war by the Allied Powers. But look further, my Lords. When I went to France in the last war to join my battalion the first trench I occupied was a very muddy ditch, with no traverses, which was enfiladed by the enemy. There were hardly any sandbags to be had, there were no gas masks, there were no gum boots or anything of that kind for the men. We had two machine guns per battalion, and after the first turn of duty in the trenches men in my Company suffered so severely from frost and wet that a large number of them went sick when they came out. Their feet were so swollen that they could not possibly put their boots on again, and I am afraid several of them must have lost their feet as a result of exposure. It is right to say that never in our history, or perhaps the history of the world, has a force been sent overseas equipped so completely as the British Expeditionary Force in France is to-day.

Nor has the attention of the Government been confined solely to those serving in France. Our garrisons in the near East and in the defended ports abroad have been increased and their defences have been improved. Instead of a doubt as to whether we shall get sufficient recruits there is under the Act for national service a steady flow of recruits going into the camps as equipment and accommodation are provided. Those of your Lordships who have had the privilege of visiting those camps, to whichever of the three Forces those camps belong, cannot have been other than favourably impressed by the great keenness of those young men and the rapidity with which they are making themselves efficient to undertake whatever duty may lie in front of them. Nor must we forget those who are keeping constant vigil in our Antiaircraft Defences. By night and by day those men stand ready to take immediate action for the defence not merely of their homes but of ours.

To-day the Royal Air Force has had no spokesman of its own, but, as the noble and gallant Field-Marshal said, that by no means implies that the Air Force is ever far from our thoughts. The torpedo and the mine, the shell and the machine gun have taken the glamour out of war both at sea and on land, but still personal combat takes place in the air, and I doubt if any of us can read the accounts of those combats without a thrill when we realise how these young men undertake those combats at a speed and at an elevation that would have seemed incredible only a few years ago. In speed and in armament our fighter aircraft have shown marked superiority over the German bomber machines and we have exacted a heavy toll on enemy raiders. Our reconnaissance machines have penetrated deeply into Germany in spite of the enemy defences. Our Coastal Command have carried out incessant patrols over the sea in all sorts of weather, at all times, by day and night. They have been engaged in protecting our merchant shipping and attacking enemy submarines. The co-operation between the Navy and the Royal Air Force has had the happiest results, except, perhaps, for the German submarine.

In recent years we have been described as a decadent nation, but those who have thought of what it means to fly long distances over the sea, as was pointed out by my noble and gallant friend the Earl of Cork and Orrery, to keep careful navigation at the speeds at which these young men fly, to be ready for instant action, to carry out the work that they are doing in all sorts of weather, will know that the spirit of our people is as good as that which any people can show. As a landsman I have never been able to understand how men manage to go to sea in small vessels day after day, night after night, week after week, driving through the cold North Sea, covered with sea spray, exposed not only to all the dangers inherent in life at sea but exposed to instant death by torpedo or mine. Our Forces in France, too, although they have not been exposed to such dangers, are working with that grim determination to which the noble and gallant Field-Marshal referred, to perfect defences which they found strong already when they arrived and which are daily becoming stronger. They are facing the discomforts, the mud, the crowded accommodation and the rest of it in the manner we expected of them. Similarly, in the Anti-Aircraft Defence Force little groups of men, very often in isolated places, with boredom resulting from having so little to do, are yet carrying out their work with such efficiency as to be immediately alert to take such action as may be needed if the Germans threaten this country.

Nor is the spirit shown by our Forces confined to those who live in these islands. Vessels of the Dominion Navies are operating with our own forces far from their homes and keeping the seas free for lawful commerce. On land the first elements of the special forces which are being raised in Canada, Australia and New Zealand for service at home or overseas as required have received intensive training and will soon be ready to take their part. The Union of South Africa is steadily increasing its land forces, and has made it plain that these will be available to assist in the defence of our African possessions if and when required. The air training scheme has been readily accepted in principle by the Governments of this country, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and we are now in a position to be able to decide on the necessary measures to bring this scheme into full operation at a very early date.

From Newfoundland over six hundred men are being recruited for service in the Royal Navy for that most dangerous of all duties, patrol duty in the North Sea, and a further contingent is expected shortly for general service with the Royal Navy. Southern Rhodesia at the very outset mobilised her land and air forces, and some of these are already serving outside her own borders. She has recently offered to man three air squadrons for service in the field, an offer which, of course, has been most gratefully accepted by this country, and measures have been taken to bring it into effect. India is making her contribution in men, money and war materials. Regular units of the Army in India have been sent overseas to Malaya, Aden and Egypt. Contributions in money and kind have been received from all quarters, especially from the Indian Princes, and are being collected into the Viceroy's War Purposes Fund. India's production of munitions of war and also of such essential war materials as jute, textiles, steel and leather is being pressed forward with the greatest energy. Recruitment in the Indian Army is being eagerly sought by all classes and races. Pilots and mechanics for the Air Force are being trained in India. Throughout the country, whatever political differences exist, there is a settled conviction that Hitlerism must be defeated.

Similar unanimous support has come from the Colonial Empire. Gifts of substantial sums of money have been made to His Majesty's Government for the express purpose of relieving the heavy burden which falls on the taxpayers of this country, and offers of personal service have poured in from residents throughout the Colonies. Every effort is being made by each Colony to ensure that its resources shall be used to the best possible advantage to win the war, which they, no less than we, feel is being waged to preserve that liberty and freedom which they and we enjoy under the British flag. Nor is that sentiment confined to British-born subjects, for striking testimonies have been received from persons who have had to leave their own homes to escape from tyranny in Europe and who, now living in one or other of the Colonies, have testified since the outbreak of war to the good treatment and liberty they enjoy under British rule. Indeed, in the words of the gracious Speech, the King's Dominion's overseas are co-operating "wholeheartedly and with an effectiveness that is most gratifying" to His Majesty. When Germans are told by their propaganda service that Mahomedans are severing their allegiance from the Crown, we do well to remind ourselves and our enemies that there are fewer troops in India and Palestine together to-day than they find it necessary to maintain in Bohemia and in Poland—or indeed in the Reich itself—apart altogether from their considerable force of secret police.

As the Prime Minister said in his broadcast speech on Sunday, there must be few to whom this war has not meant anxiety or disturbance of mind, discomfort, material loss or even severe hardship. The noble Lord opposite mentioned that we shall no doubt hear some of these referred to in a speech in this House at an early date. I recognise that it is the privilege of people in this country to grumble, and therefore we shall expect some grumbles from the Bench opposite. But I venture to think that although we have our grumbles, some of them no doubt with some foundation, some perhaps quite legitimate and some perhaps a little imaginary, yet everyone is determined, as was stated by both noble Lords on the Front Benches, to carry this war through to a complete and successful conclusion. Whatever we are enduring or may have to endure—and I agree with the noble and gallant Field-Marshal that serious and anxious times may lie ahead—we shall not relax our efforts until victory is won.

The people of this country, I fear, do not attend church and chapel so well these days as perhaps their parents did, but I am convinced that they are still deeply religious at heart. We believe that we are fighting for a just cause. As the Prime Minister said in his broadcast speech, we are fighting for liberty and peace. We are fighting for liberty of thought, for liberty to practise the religion which appeals to us, for the right of this and other nations, great or small, to live at peace, for toleration as opposed to violence and oppression. It is not for us to invoke the Almighty as a tribal God, but we can pray that we shall be guided aright in all our doings, that we may keep the objectives I have named clearly before our eyes and that we shall do nothing unworthy or inconsistent with their attainment. So can we commit our cause to Providence and be strengthened in our determination to fight on till right shall achieve the victory over persecution, oppression and wrong.

On Question, Motion agreed to nemine dissentiente; the said Address to be presented to His Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.