§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (LORD MOYNE)My Lords, since the House last met we have lost by enemy action three of our members, all of whom have fallen victims to air raids. Lord Auckland and Lord Kimberley were not often seen in your Lordships' House and took no part in our debates, but Lord Kimberley, who served in the last war with distinction, was a well known figure in the world of sport. In his early days he sat with many of us in another place for several years and was Assistant Private Secretary to the present Prime Minister when he was at the Colonial Office and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Besides the loss of these noble Lords we have to mourn that of Lord Stamp, a figure not only of national but of worldwide reputation and achievement. His death must leave many gaps, because his activities were so varied and so far-reaching. Lord Stamp came to the House of Lords with a long record of devotion to the public service in various capacities—first as a civil servant for nearly a quarter of a century, and then 2 successively as the presiding genius over the fortunes of two great industrial concerns of national importance; but his devotion to the general good over and above that which he owed to any particular interest was lifelong and continuous, so that when he left the Civil Service he was always ready to lend his great powers to the State to serve as Chairman or member of many important Government Committees and Commissions. I was first brought into contact with his dynamic abilities nearly twenty years ago when I was financial secretary to the Treasury and I remember how much weight the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, always attached to Lord Stamp's counsel, though he had some years before left Downing Street. Just before the outbreak of war he undertook a new task at the invitation of Mr. Chamberlain, that of Chief Economic Adviser. Lord Stamp showed himself not only a master of the theory of economics but also of its practice which, as noble Lords will recognise, is by no means always the case. The pace and sureness at which his intellect worked were prodigious.
If one looks at any book of reference one cannot fail to marvel at the manysidedness of his activities—business, philanthropic and academic—in the widest sense. With these wonderful endowments Lord Stamp combined a rare simplicity with kindliness and personal charm. His thoughts were so clear that he expressed them without effort in such a way that all could understand. He has been taken in the fulness of his powers at a time when we are 3 faced by economic issues of unparalleled complexity, and when we can least spare the experience and wisdom which he was applying to our everyday problems and which he would have brought to the problems of reconstruction. His end was shared by his devoted wife and eldest son, and I am sure I am voicing the feeling of the whole House in tendering to his stricken family, and to the families of the other noble Lords I have mentioned, our deepest and most heartfelt sympathy.
§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, I want in a few sentences to associate myself and those for whom I speak with everything that the noble Lord the Leader of the House has said. It was not my opportunity in life to be acquainted personally with the two noble Lords first mentioned, Lord Auckland and the Earl of Kimberley, but I did know personally the noble Lord, Lord Stamp, for a great many years. Like the noble Lord the Leader of the House I had the pleasure of working with him on many occasions. I have never known one who was more truly a many-sided man; and he had that singular distinction of many-sided men, so far as I have known them, that his knowledge on any one subject was not scrappy and superficial, but profound. He had a marvellous memory and a wonderful capacity for associating facts and distinguishing the important from the unimportant.
I do not think it is as well-known as it ought to be that during the last war, in the crisis of our shipping losses, we owed a great deal to a memorandum circulated by Lord Stamp, then at the Inland Revenue, in which he demonstrated what results he thought would attend a convoy system. The convoy system was under discussion during the time of our heavy shipping losses in 1917 and Lord Stamp's memorandum on that subject, I think I might almost say, had a deciding influence—at any rate a considerable influence—in favour of the establishment of convoys. That was only one of many instances of which I have had experience at first hand of Lord Stamp's singularly helpful ability. He combined with that, as all who knew him will agree, an entire friendliness and unassuming charm which made him beloved as well as revered by those who knew him.
4 At the present time when we have before us all the problems that the war presents one feels particularly the loss that we are likely to suffer from his death in view of the fact that the problems which are called the problems of reconstruction will be of bewildering complexity. It is a great loss to the nation that we should be deprived of his assistance at this time. Perhaps it is true to say that he will be remembered as a man who died in the fulness of his activities, and that we shall feel more acutely the loss that we have suffered because of his having been so suddenly taken from us. I should like to associate myself most sincerely with the noble Lord the Leader of the House in the expression of the sympathy we wish to tender to the friends of Lord Stamp and of the other two noble Lords mentioned.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, of all the tragic losses we have suffered lately that caused by the death of the noble Lord, Lord Stamp, is undoubtedly one of the greatest. I knew Lord Stamp as far back as his Civil Service days and ever since, and I well remember his doubt as to whether he could venture to give up his assured career in the Civil Service to accept the offers he had received from the world of industry. He did accept and we all know how greatly British industry has gained from his services. We know also what the nation has gained from the help he has given in so many ways to the Government of the day. He was a man of remarkably varied talent. I came across him also on the governing body of the London School of Economics, of which he was Chairman for several years, as well as in other capacities. He had a first-class brain, combined with a simple goodness of character. He was a lover of mankind, full of public spirit, devoted to many great causes, and whatever task came to his hand he did it with all his might. We deeply grieve for his loss.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SIMON)My Lords, I would ask to be allowed to add two or three words about the heavy loss which the country has suffered through the death of Lord Stamp. The speeches already made give, I think, a very accurate account or his qualities. He was a man of the most remarkable versatility and energy of mind. I do not think he ever tackled any subject half-heartedly or, multifarious as 5 were his duties and the tasks which he undertook, did anything without complete efficiency and thoroughness. I well remember what has been referred to by the Leader of the House, the time when Lord Stamp was appointed to be Principal Economic Adviser to the Government before the war, and when he became Chairman of a small body of economists who were given the task not only of dealing with some specific question referred to them but of maintaining a constant survey of all the economic policies and arrangements of the country. They did that both before the war, and for some months after the war broke out.
I recall how, at the time, some critics, perhaps nor completely acquainted with Lord Stamp's qualities, expressed doubt as to whether it could be wise to entrust to him the chief part in that all-important work while he was in a position where he had to give a portion of his time to non-Government work. I freely confess that I doubt if there was anybody else of his period who could have done it, but having had the duty of seeing constantly what he was doing and of listening to what he had to report, I feel convinced that whatever else may be said about him the country got from him, at that time, as complete and absolute service as could have been rendered by anybody even if it had been his single and undivided duty. I say that from personal knowledge. Lord Stamp was a man who worked without haste and without rest. Somebody, I see, observed in a contribution in The Times this morning that he was like a motor car that could always start at top speed. That exactly describes what, in my experience, was the special quality of his mind when he moved from one subject to another. He gave to this country the full service of his capacious mind in a way that we must always be glad to remember. His death is a very great loss to the country at this time.
I would like to add one or two observations, not about his intellectual qualities, which were most remarkable, but about the nature of his character which, I think, had a great deal to do with the value of the contribution he could make as an adviser and counsellor. In my experience of him—and I saw him sometimes in very difficult and troublous times—he was a man who maintained complete equanimity of mind and temper. Not only did I never 6 see him angry, but I never saw him seriously put out. That loss of power which comes from these human qualities, was, so far as I could see, entirely avoided in his case. I am very glad that the Leader of the House and others have spoken of his genuine kindliness and strong human sympathies. He was a man who was the best of colleagues and nobody could be more simple or more genuinely unaffected. The country has lost the services of an eminent economist, but it has also lost a good man.