§ 4.4 p.m.
LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, I beg leave to ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any statement to make on the military operations in France and Belgium.
§ VISCOUNT CALDECOTEMy Lords, the events of the last few weeks in broad outline are already known to your Lordships. I propose to try to give your Lordships the substance of the facts which are now being recounted in another place by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister. My story will naturally not have the form or the flavour which my right honourable friend will give to it, but I know I shall have your Lordships' indulgence.
The breach in the French defences at Sedan and on the Meuse opened the door to a war of movement and contained a 456 threat of very grave developments. The formidable task of arraying the Allied Armies to deal with this menace was very soon entrusted, as your Lordships will know, to General Weygand. The Belgian Army of twenty divisions or more was on the left of the long line. To enable the French Army to take hold of the right hand of the British Army was General Weygand's first desire. The German force which was the spearhead of the main armies consisted of eight or nine armoured divisions each comprising something like 400 armoured vehicles. This formidable force cut our lines of communication as well as our contacts with the main French Armies. Our own lines ran from Amiens by way of Abbeville and along the coast to the Channel ports. The German armoured divisions burst their way with increasing momentum through these lines till they almost, but not quite, reached the places which will for ever be memorable in our history. Boulogne held out for several days under a gallant defence made possible by sending in two battalions of the Guards. When this force was withdrawn, Calais was in turn invested. A force of something like 4,000 in all, comprising the Rifle Brigade, the 60th and Queen Victoria's Rifles, with a battalion of tanks together with 1,000 French troops held this important bastion of the British positions. Your Lordships heard, I have no doubt, with emotion and admiration of the refusal of the British Brigadier of the chance offered to him to surrender. My Lords, thirty unwounded survivors have come away. The intrepid defence of the small force against two armoured divisions which had every advantage on their side held out for four invaluable days and then silence, which has not yet been broken, fell upon the place.
Dunkirk then became the centre of the hope of saving a remnant of the French and British Armies. Few of your Lordships would have thought that it was anything but a forlorn hope. The three northern Armies, the Belgian, French and our own Armies, which had not succeeded in re-establishing their lines of communication with the main French Armies, were undergoing a process of relentless encirclement. One hope, and only one, remained. Dunkirk and its beaches to the east and the west offered a possibility—a bare possibility—of withdrawal. The prospect of obtaining even 457 inadequate supplies of food and ammunition seemed to be of the slightest. When the day of prayer was observed just over a week ago, in obedience to His Majesty's command, those few who knew the sombre facts could only have felt that the deliverance of the force of over 300,000 men would be a miracle. My Lords, it was in these circumstances that the King of the Belgians surrendered. After months of refusal to emerge from the scanty shelter of neutrality, he had, at the very end, called us and our Allies to his rescue. Then, without warning, he laid bare not only our northern flank but our only line of retreat.
Your Lordships will not expect me to state more than the bare facts. Whatever has further to be said on this subject will be said by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister. King Leopold's Army—a magnificent Army—had at many points responded nobly to the demands made upon it. Now it laid down its arms at the order of its King and Commander-in-Chief. The action of the British Army under Lord Gort, in a position which was forced upon him by this unhappy submission, was to cover a flank of about thirty miles to the sea. The successful completion of this operation was in itself a performance of almost incredible skill and coolness. The enemy closed in upon our two Armies with ever increasing forces. As step by step the Allied Army closed their front to ever-narrowing dimensions, plans were being laid by the Royal Navy, and merchant seamen and volunteers of every sort, not counting the cost, vied with the Royal Navy in feats of almost unexampled audacity during those days. My Lords, 650 vessels of every sort and shape and size, with 220 light war vessels, bore the fierce bombardment of the land and air. The Royal Air Force, showing qualities that have made their name imperishable, provided a shelter for the harassed forces that were awaiting relief. Ceaseless energy, with scant hours for sleep in the course of days, as well as unfaltering courage, were displayed on every hand. The character of the efforts of those whom our forces were facing may be judged from the fact that they did not scorn to bombard two hospital ships. To-day we rejoice to know that over 330,000 men, French and British, have been brought back. This is a heroic story which, even told in faltering words, may be a 458 magnificent page in our history. Your Lordships mourn the loss of two members of your Lordships' House, and the relatives of the 30,000 or more who must be accounted to have been wounded, killed or missing will, I know, have your Lordships' true sympathy.
The events which I have tried to describe are not, of course, a defeat of the forces of the enemies of the human race against whom we are arrayed. A heavy toll of life has been taken, we must realise; but perhaps I may say that I am informed that it is only about one-third of the losses suffered in the battle of March, 1918. There has been, of course, a loss of material which will take time to repair. Guns and vehicles of all sorts have been lost in large numbers. The nation, as your Lordships have seen, has been and is responding to the demands made upon it. Neither capital nor labour now withholds its contribution or its services. Your Lordships will be glad to hear that fresh supplies in swiftly-increasing volume have already been obtained under the direction of my right honourable friend the Minister of Supply and his colleagues. Our general plan will proceed; in a few months we shall have repaired our losses. But, when all is said and done—your Lordships would not desire for a moment to disguise the facts—we must count the cost already suffered and the cost to come. Munitions have been lost and are now in the hands of the enemy. Armies, material, territory have all been swallowed up in what no one who faces the facts could for a moment describe as anything but a defeat.
The British nation awaits with confidence whatever events may flow from these circumstances. There are large forces in Great Britain at the present time, larger than at any time during the war. His Majesty's Government are engaged in putting our defences in order to meet the menace of invasion, whether or not that menace is likely to be fulfilled. Measures will be taken and are already being taken with increasing stringency not only against enemy aliens but also against suspicious characters of other nationalities, and also against British subjects who may be a danger or a nuisance to the war if so be this war should be transported to the United Kingdom. Parliament has been ungrudging in the powers it has conferred upon His 459 Majesty's Government. Your Lordships are so very familiar with those powers that I think it is unnecessary for me at the present time to say more in ending this statement than that your Lordships may be assured that, with the support of Parliament and the nation, this fight will be continued in France, in Great Britain, in the Empire, upon the sea, until we reach that victory upon which your Lordships and the whole nation are determined.
§ 4.16 p.m.
LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, certain changes in the representation in your Lordships' House have imposed on me the temporary duty of following very briefly my noble friend. He has told us a magnificent story. It is obvious that the splendid traditions of His Majesty's Army have been upheld to the full. He began by speaking of a disaster in a part of the French lines. I wish to begin, and I am sure I speak for the whole of your Lordships, by paying tribute to the gallantry of those French divisions, especially those round Lille under General Prioux, who rallied, inflicted terrible losses on their ruthless enemy, and made possible this magnificent withdrawal of our own men and certain of the Belgian survivors. No praise is too high for our French Allies, and never must it be heard for one moment, in your Lordships' House or elsewhere, that there was a failure of the French soldier. How has this thing happened, my Lords? I have had the honour of speaking with some of the men who have returned: the trouble was the lack of aeroplanes and of guns. That lack will be made good in the future. I felt great sympathy with my noble and learned friend Lord Caldecote in having to make the statement. What I say now does not give me any pleasure: a heavy responsibility lies on the shoulders of himself and his colleagues of the former Government for this lack of necessary equipment; and that is all I will say on this occasion.
Now may I re-echo with some pleasure what the noble Viscount has said about the response of the British people? I spent the week-end in the Midlands with workpeople for whom I have some responsibility. The response is unhesitating and magnificent. Those men and women, 460 doing heavy monotonous work, are sacrificing the whole of their leisure, their strength, their health even, after a period of great pressure already, to respond to the call for aeroplanes, guns, munitions and equipment of all kinds. They realise that the next few weeks will be vital for the history of our country and for the future of civilisation. From what I have seen and heard of the efforts of the workpeople of the Black Country, they will be worthy of the courageous example set by our Fighting Forces in the great retreat and the evacuation.
§ 4.20 p.m.
THE MARQUESS OF CREWEMy Lords, in the first place I wish to say a word on what fell from the noble Viscount opposite on the loss which this House has sustained by the death of two of its young members. Both the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Erne were greatly beloved in their homes and by their friends, and they had also both made a rather unusually good start in taking part in the debates in your Lordships' House. Some of your Lordships, I am sure, can recall occasions on which both those noble Lords took part in the debates, with an amount of promise which led us to hope that in future years they would become active participants in our discussions.
The statement of the noble Viscount has marked a milestone on the road of which we cannot see the end, except to be certain that the end will not be the triumph of brute force and the destruction of civilization. I think that we have all been impressed by the absolute can-dour with which His Majesty's Government have stated the facts. That is in marked difference from the German practice; the German public statements are a farrago of empty boasts or of futile excuses. The statement which the noble Viscount made, on the other hand, offered no attempt whatever to disguise the fact that a serious reverse to the Allied arms has occurred, and it gave, so far as it can be given without damage to military considerations, an explanation of how that event occurred. The unlucky breaking up of the defences of the Meuse has not been veiled in obscurity, either by the French statements or by the statements that are made here. I think the facts are clear, and undoubtedly they do show that there was a want of foresight as to the kind of 461 attack which might be made if the German force was prepared, so to speak, to throw the whole stake into the pool, and as to the place at which such an attack might be pressed, the means of meeting it there having proved not to be adequate.
Then the noble Viscount stated the position arising out of the surrender of the Belgian Army. It will probably be better to leave it to future history, when more is known, to say what precisely actuated the King of the Belgians in coming to his decision against the unanimous desire of his Ministers. It may be that he never joined heartily in the desire to see the Allies victorious, and it may be that he was not whole-hearted in joining in the call to the French and to ourselves. If that is so, he found himself in the miserable dilemma of having to see heavier and heavier losses inflicted on his own people, for whom we need not doubt he deeply cared, or of deserting and throwing over the Allies whom he had called in. That is the picture on which history will have to pass its judgment.
We are all agreed as to the marvellous skill and heroism with which this reverse has been met. In the first place, we all wish to pay the heartiest possible tribute to Lord Gort. He has shown not only the qualities of a fighting soldier but those of a master of strategy. We all feel the same about the men of the Navy, the Army and the Air Force; but I should like to say a special word of admiration for the civilian element of those who played such a prominent part in this wonderful rescue. In one sense I think that it is even more striking than the discipline and perfect devotion of those in the Forces. We all feel that our most unstinted admiration should be given both to those who belong to the Fighting Services of the Crown and to those civilians who came to help them.
§ 4.28 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT CECIL OF CHELWOODMy Lords, I do not know whether my noble friend can enlighten the House on one point on which I am sure that enlightenment must be very much desired by every member of your Lordships' House, and that is whether General Prioux has or has not been taken prisoner. The Germans have claimed it, and I have seen no contradiction of it. It would be a matter of very great satisfaction to everyone in this House if we could learn 462 that it was not true, because we do owe so very much to him and to his Army. Before I sit down I should like to add one word. I entirely agree with everything that has been said in admiration for what has been done, but there is one aspect of it which perhaps has not been actually mentioned, although it must have been in the minds of every one of your Lordships. I refer to the extraordinary spirit of the men who have come out of this terrific trial. None of them has the slightest doubt that they are better men than the Germans. I most earnestly believe that to be true, and it is a spirit which I believe is unconquerable and which will bring us the victory, apart from all other considerations.
§ 4.29 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT CALDECOTEMy Lords, I am sure that you will join wholeheartedly in what the noble Viscount has just said as to the spirit of the men who have come out from this inferno. With regard to the question which the noble Viscount put as to the safety of the gallant soldier to whom he referred, there has been no information up till a few hours or so ago as to his fate.