VISCOUNT GORT'S DISPATCHES. (Hansard, 1 October 1941)

§ LORD NATHAN
My Lords, this is the fourth occasion on which I have addressed your Lordships' House upon this subject. On the first two occasions I raised the matter on my own initiative and on the other two I spoke in support of the noble Marquess. I think it was the general feeling of your Lordships' House that the answers given on those previous occasions were disappointing and that the arguments by which they were supported were unconvincing. I will not now repeat at length the arguments that I as well as the noble Marquess adduced to your Lordships' House on those previous occasions. There is, of course, the argument of precedent and tradition. There is the argument of the effect of non-publication upon the morale of the Army and of those who took part in the campaign in France and Flanders. There is the argument for enabling local patriotism to be enhanced in those districts from which particular regiments were recruited; in the counties the names of which they bear.
But a vast literature has grown up on the subject of these campaigns in France and Flanders. It has been contributed to by writers from France, from Belgium, from America and from this country. And the only omission, or, at least, the most signal omission, from that vast and growing literature is a publication containing the Dispatches of the British Commander-in-Chief. I greatly hope that the time has come when they may now be published. There could not have been—there could scarcely ever have been since the evacuation of Dunkirk certainly—arguments based on any ground either strategical or tactical for refraining from publishing them. The noble Lord the Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War, did, I think, indicate during the previous debate on this matter that the reason for refraining from publication might be political, but it seems to me that even that reason must have vanished now.
151 So far as France is concerned, while I know of no official publication there has been a very considerable number of books and articles written on this subject by Frenchmen holding different opinions, and above all there has now been published, as the noble Lord has reminded us, the Belgian Grey Book giving the Belgian official account of the transaction of affairs in Belgium up to the time of the evacuation of Dunkirk. This work really supplements a considered and semiofficial book recently issued—The Prisoner at Laeken, by Professor Cammaerts. Now that those books have been placed in the possession of the public there seems to be nothing lacking of an official character, so far as the present Allies are concerned, save the Dispatches of the British Commander-in-Chief. I greatly trust that the Government now feel themselves able to implement the undertaking which was given—but which was afterwards withdrawn by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the War Office—that these Dispatches should be published, as long ago, I think, as June last.

LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, I desire if you will allow me to thank the noble Marquess who put forward this Motion and very briefly to support him and my noble friend who has just spoken. In my case, unlike that of my noble friend, this is the first time I have given support to the noble Marquess in this matter, though I thought the case which he put before was quite unanswerable, as indeed was also that of my noble friend Lord Nathan. Surely a very weighty argument for the publication of these Dispatches can be found—as the noble Lords who have already spoken have pointed out—in the publication of the Belgian Government's official account of events. I feel, myself, that some injustice may have been done in some quarters, to the King of the Belgians. I may even have been guilty of it myself, for I am one of those who was referred to by Lord Nathan in that I perpetrated a book from such sources as were open to me, and, I am afraid that, with others, I may have passed judgment rather harshly. There have been public utterances in both Houses of Parliament which may have done the King of the Belgians injustice having regard to the extremely difficult circumstances in which he was placed.
152 As Lord Nathan has reminded your Lordships, there have been a great many other books written on this subject, some of them by politicians. May I remind your Lordships of one of these books, perhaps the most remarkable of them, which has had an enormous circulation in America, in our Dominions and in this country? The book to which I refer and with which I am sure the noble Lord is acquainted is The Diary of a Staff Officer. This anonymous officer who was on the staff of General Gort during the campaign abroad gives an extraordinary account of happenings there. It has the stamp of truth, but it requires amplification in an official manner. His statements in regard to the misuse under French higher direction of our Air Force are most disturbing, and we ought to have the official British account as soon as possible from the only source which is fully authoritative.
And now there is another matter to which I desire to make reference. There has been criticism of the decision—which perhaps was the most important decision of the campaign so far as we were concerned—to advance into the Low Countries to meet the German onslaught, and to leave our own fortified line. Your Lordships, I am sure, must have heard this matter discussed with great heat and must know that there has been a good deal of criticism directed at our own Higher Command. Now, quite obviously, this was a decision which had to be taken in Paris and London. I have never ventured to criticise it. Even in the light of what we now know, and in face of the enormous strength of the German Armoured Divisions, it is difficult to see how we could have avoided advancing into the Low Countries, if only for political reasons. Had we done otherwise we should, I feel sure, have done our cause harm and have felt our honour to be assailed. The military case against the decision to advance could, naturally, be put forward by the Commander-in-Chief if he should hold the view that there is one. There is no harm whatever in that fact being known. Up to the present criticism has, in some quarters, been unfairly directed against the British General Staff in France, and above all against the Commander-in-Chief, and that is a matter which should be cleared up. I want to say, in advance, that no member of the War Cabinet who took that decision need 153 be at all ashamed of it in spite of its sequel.
I have ventured to refer with great humility to the fact that I have perpetrated a book on the campaign in the Low Countries. I was assisted very greatly by a mass of valuable material put at my disposal by the War Office and by the Ministry of Information. Necessarily, of course, my book gave only a very incomplete account of the events, as all accounts must be until our generation has become extinct. Only the historian of the future will be able to tell the whole truth. One thing which does stand out is that the part played by the British Expeditionary Force and the General Staff is one of which the whole country and the Empire can be very proud indeed. From the soldier's point of view, there is nothing for the British Expeditionary Force to be ashamed of for one instant, and that fact should be brought cut officially. For that reason, I hope the noble Marquess will excuse me if I again thank him for bringing this matter forward, and say that I trust we may look forward to a sympathetic reply from the Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War.

§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (LORD CROFT)
My Lords, in 154 answer to the noble Marquess, Lord Londonderry, and to the other noble Lords who have addressed your Lordships' House, I am glad to be able to say that these Dispatches will be published during this month. In answer to a further question which the noble Marquess addressed to me, I may say that it is also intended simultaneously to publish a non-technical booklet written by Ian Hay. This short descriptive booklet is of a character which I think will be helpful to the general public, and, as I say, the two publications will come out simultaneously.

§ THE EARL OF MUNSTER
My Lords, for obvious reasons until to-day I have had to maintain silence on this question, but I should like to say this one word. I feel quite certain that the remarks of my noble friend Lord Croft will be universally appreciated by these tens of thousands of men who went to France inadequately equipped but very gallantly led.

§ THE MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY
My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord who has spoken on behalf of the Government for saying that my request will be accepted. I ask leave to withdraw my Motion.