THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DOMINION AFFAIRS (VISCOUNT CRANBORNE) (Lord Cecil)My Lords, I have received a communication from the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, saying that on account of illness he will be obliged to resign his post of Lord Chairman of Committees. As your Lordships know, the noble Earl has not for many months now been in good health and the strain of his duties has become too great for him. I am quite certain that the House will receive this news with very deep regret. For the twelve years—nearly thirteen years—in which Lord Onslow has 272 performed the extremely important and exacting duties of Lord Chairman he has won the respect of the whole House. His long experience of your Lordships' affairs, his patience and his absolute impartiality have commended themselves to every section of opinion among your Lordships. I am quite certain that the House will wish me to express to him on your Lordships' behalf the very deep regret that we feel at his decision, our warm gratitude for his long and meritorious services, and our whole-hearted good wishes to him for a rapid return to health.
The task of selecting a noble Lord who may be able to fill the post of Lord Chairman Session by Session for many years to come—for that is, of course, the ideal for which we must seek—is a task which will no doubt require further consideration by all concerned, but I would Impose with your Lordships' agreement to move a Resolution at our next sitting asking the House to approve the appointment of a successor to the noble Earl for the remainder of the present Session. That, I feel sure, is the course which will commend itself to your Lordships.
§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, on behalf of my noble friends I should like to associate myself very sincerely with the tribute which the noble Viscount has paid to the Lord Chairman of Committees and to express our appreciation of his long and loyal service to this House. The noble Earl, Lord Onslow, immersed in the best traditions of your Lordships' House, served the House with distinction. I desire also on behalf of my noble friends to associate myself with the good wishes which the noble Viscount expressed on the subject of Lord Onslow's health.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, I feel sure the whole House will join the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in their expression of regret that ill-health should compel the Lord Chairman of Committees to lay down the task which he has performed for so many years with painstaking zeal. His occupancy of the post of Chairman of Committees of your Lordships' House has been, for Lord Onslow, the crown of a long and varied career of public service. Perhaps he had a hereditary aptitude for presiding over a Chamber, since the great Speaker Onslow, who presided for five Parliaments over the House of Commons, 273 left one of the greatest traditions of the Speakers hip that our history recalls. In bidding him farewell from office I am sure the whole House would wish to express to him deep thanks for his loyal and devoted service.
§ LORD HEMINGFORDMy Lords, I trust it will not be thought impertinent on my part to add a few words to the tributes paid to the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, because for the whole of the period that he was Lord Chairman—except the last twelve months—I was in constant touch with him as Chairman of Ways and Means in the other House. As many of your Lordships know, in connexion with Private Bill procedure there is a vast amount of work and a very large number of questions which have to be decided by the two Chairmen in agreement. What would happen the two Chairmen did rot agree, I have never, happily, discovered. It was always a real pleasure personally to meet Lord Onslow on those occasions, and although, over and over again, there were times when, to begin with, we took different views on those questions on which we had to agree, we never failed, ultimately, to come to an agreement. And when we did so, it was not a case of a formula meaning nothing except that we were managing to patch the thing up; it really meant that we were thoroughly agreed. During the whole of that time, I think I may say, the fact that we were able to agree on sometimes very difficult points was largely due to his very kindly attitude, to his earnest devotion to his work, and to the tasks which had to be carried through. I should just like to add those few words to what has already been said.