THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES LORD MOYNEMy Lords, since we met last week, in the air raid last Saturday, very considerable damage was done to your Lordships' Chamber and a far greater destruction took place in the Chamber of the House of Commons. I feel sure your Lordships will wish to express your regret that the other House should have suffered so very heavily. Whatever it may be possible to arrange in the case of our House, it will be a very long time before the members of the House of Commons can meet in their accustomed place. Your Lordships will also regret to have learned from the Press of the death of Captain Elliott, a very old and valued member of the staff, in the same air raid last Saturday, and also of the deaths of two police officers who had been detailed for special fire-fighting duties in the Palace of West- 157 minister. Captain Elliott had been Resident Superintendent for twenty years, and many of us knew and liked him. He was always very helpful and anxious to do everything he could for your Lordships. I feel that we shall long miss him, and that your Lordships will wish to join with me in an expression of deep sympathy with his widow and children. Your Lordships will also no doubt wish to express your sympathy with the relatives of the two police officers who lost their lives while on duty in the Palace of Westminster at the same time.
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Addison and those of us who sit on these Benches, I should like to say that we concur in everything that has fallen from the noble Lord opposite. We deeply regret the loss of so valuable a public servant as Captain Elliott. Those of us who have been in this House for some time know how helpful he was and what excellent work he did for the members of this House. I wish also that our regret should be conveyed to his family and to the families of the two police officers who lost their lives on the same occasion.
THE MARQUESS OF CREWEMy Lords, may I add one word to what has fallen from the noble Lord who leads the House and from the noble Earl on the Front Opposition Bench, to express in the first place the sympathy we must all feel with the House of Commons in the loss they have sustained, to Mr. Speaker and the officers of the House and to all the members, to whatever Party they belong? Of course, we are even more closely touched by the loss of Captain Elliott, who was, as has been said, a valued and popular servant of Parliament, and also by the loss of the two constables. They have given their lives on the field of honour just as much as those who lie in the valleys and the Greek mountains, or in the sands of Africa. I am sure we would all wish to pay a tribute to the service they have done.