VICTORY IN EUROPE: ADDRESS TO THE KING. (Hansard, 15 May 1945)

HL Deb 15 May 1945 vol 136 cc164-84 164

§ 2.8 p.m.

§ THE MINISTER OF RECONSTRUCTION (LORD WOOLTON)
My Lords, before I address myself to the subject of the Motion which stands in my name—that an humble Address be presented to His Majesty—I know that your Lordships will join with me in a personal expression of regret that the noble Viscount who leads this House with such distinction and such authority should not be present on this historic occasion to move the Motion which, in his absence, I have the privilege and the honour to propose to your Lordships. In these days of victory the noble Viscount, Lord Cranborne, is engaged in the arduous task of devising a World Organization for securing peace, and most fervently do we here wish him and all who are with him out there at San Francisco God-speed in their all-important work.
165 Mr. Gladstone once described the rule of an obscure and petty Italian tyrant as "the negation of God erected into a system of government"; and Mr. Chamberlain when, five years and eight months ago, he announced as Prime Minister that we were at war with Germany, told us that we were engaged in "fighting the evil things." Those of us who heard that speech will remember its sadness—and its challenge. The Nazi rule in Germany was an evil thing. And when we were called on to draw the sword against it there was neither doubt nor faction in the nation. We might indeed with wisdom and with advantage have prepared ourselves to come to this decision some years earlier, but as a nation we are slow to anger and l0th to take our grievances from the council chanber to the battlefield. And we are quick to forget. When victory has been won the people of this country cannot for long exult over a defeated enemy. As I stood with the Prime Minister on the balcony of the Ministry of Health last Tuesday and saw below us that great mass of people, so orderly in their rejoicing, nowhere did I see the effigy of Hitler hoisted in vulgar glee. I have seen the greatness of our people in the days of the heavy "Blitz" when, as was my duty, I have gone among them, when their homes have been destroyed and the public services disrupted and when I went to see that they were being fed. They were grand in tribulation. But I felt even more pride in being an Englishman last week when I saw their emotion and their rejoicing expressed with such dignity.
I observe that a German General said a few days ago that to the professional soldier the end of a war was like the end of a football match, at which the opponents were able to mix together and shake hands. It is not like that. This has not been a game of war, with codes of professional conduct. There was no chivalry in the sinking of the "Athenia" by submarines in those early weeks of this war. There was neither risk nor credit to those soldiers who sent their weapons of destruction without warning to fall on the civilian population of this country and kill our women and children. One wonders that the intelligence that was so vivid and imaginative as to be able to devise these instruments of war could be so dulled or so gross as to permit the horrors of the concentration 166 camps at Belsen, at Buchenwald and, long before the war broke out, at Dachau. How right Mr. Chamberlain was when he said that we were fighting the evil things.
And yet perhaps there was excuse for us in not admitting earlier what we feared was the truth, for it was not a simple evil, stark and naked in its brutality. How could this abomination of desolation have come, in the twentieth century, from a country that had produced Goethe and Kant; that had added so much to the music of the world, and whose scientists had been in the forefront of the battle for the conquest of disease and suffering? That was what we could not understand as the stories came to us; and even now our rejoicing in victory is tempered by the sad and puzzling reflection that the people of Germany probably had the Government that they deserved. In their hour of triumph they supported it with enthusiasm and with gloating. Cannot you now still hear in your minds the cheering which we used to hear coming from those raucous demonstrations at Nuremburg? No, my Lords, we tell the German General and his kind that this war has not been a game that ends in hand-shaking. No one who has seen the wrecked homes of this country or the concentration camps abroad can sit down happily with those who, of foul and deliberate choice, have systematically despoiled and ravaged the Continent of Europe. And as our victorious advances have laid bare the marks of the beast, we see from what fate—surely under the guidance of God—we in this fair and lovely land have been spared.
I echo the words of the younger Pitt: "Once again England has saved herself by her exertions"—and this time not only Europe but, I think, the whole world, by her example. For it was these islands that were the rock on which the Nazi leviathan foundered. It was around us here that the Commonwealth and the Empire unified their own resistance with that of the old country. The British Empire became the symbol and the bastion of freedom, and bravely our Forces defended it. With the full tide of our military might and with cold justice we Will now avenge those who were wronged, and restore again the liberty for which we risked all that we had and for which we have mortgaged our future. Let us 167 be proud of the place that Britain, this small island of peace-loving people, has taken, not only in the counsels of the world, but in those martial endeavours on which, in 1939, we were so ill-fitted to embark.
In spite of man's conquests of the air, this is still an island kingdom; every military operation on the Continent of Europe or beyond it, based on these islands, is an amphibious enterprise, subject to all the old hazards of the sea with the added danger of attack from below the waters and from the air above. Neither we nor the world have ever doubted the fighting capacity of the British Navy. The Royal Air Force draws its traditions from this ancient Service, and we are not surprised to find ourselves excelling in this field of combat once our men had the toods with which to fight. But the Navy and the Air Force alone do not claim to have won this victory. The final decision has always rested with our gallant Armies. With their Allies they have marched in an endless succession of almost breath-taking victories, until they stopped at length to gaze in wonder and in triumph—but, I suspect, with a sense of human pity—from the ruins of Hamburg and Kiel upon the estuary of the Elbe and the blue waters of the Baltic.
When the chroniclers describe the events of these days and write of the many great names that took part in them, once again it will be recorded that this country has produced in Field-Marshals Alexander and Montgomery and Brooke, Generals equal to the demands of the time and worthy of their race in its hour of greatness. They will speak in like terms of Lord Dowding of the Battle of Britain, of Air Marshal Portal and Admirals Dudley Pound and Andrew Cunningham. And as we praise these men of His Majesty's Forces, we think with gratitude of the magnificent leadership of the Armies of the United States of America and of the Union of Soviet Republics and of the skill and endurance of their fighting men.
And whilst we praise our warriors, we remember the forces that were behind them, not only the military forces but the whole united people of this country. Surely the great satisfaction during the last five years is that we have had unity 168 in the nation. Everything and everybody in some capacity or other has served the national need. We drew the sword to defend the honour of our given word but we knew that, as the champion of freedom for others, we were fighting also for our own survival, for dear life in the literal meaning of those words. In factory and in field, in workshop, in office and laboratory, in hospital and in the home itself this devoted nation has been toiling without stint behind the men and women in the front line of battle. My Lords, in those days of September, 1939, we prayed for fortitude, for endurance, that we should behave without flinching in our hours of trial—and since then we have had plenty to flinch about. But the answer of the embattled people of this proud capital, "London, thou pride of cities all," was never in doubt. The answer of all our bombed cities that according to the ridiculous and brutal Goering were to be rubbed out, has always been the same.
In this period of rejoicing we shall not forget the many tasks that remain to be done here and elsewhere, nor in the joy of victory in Europe are we forgetful of the false and treacherous enemy in the East who once called us friend and has so often and so cordially been welcomed on these shores. The Japanese sought to obtain advantage when our minds and energies were engaged a long way off, and they secured early success. But the shackles are already falling from the unhappy British and Allied areas that were at first overrun by this savage and very versatile foe. Island by island the Americans are advancing on the homeland of Japan, liberating as they go. The Australians have thrust the threat of invasion from their shores and are sweeping New Guinea clean of the pestilential human flood. Meanwhile a great military operation has been successfully conducted in Burma by a very gallant body of men working under great commanders. They have retrieved our fortunes there. They have flung the invader from the soil of India and they have driven him headlong until Mandalay is ours once more and we have again the great port and capital city of Rangoon. The Burma Road is open and along its lifeline aid is pouring into China, the first of the United Nations to stand against aggression and to fight.
The purpose of this Motion is to convey our congratulations in humble duty to His 169 Majesty the King. It is always difficult for a subject to speak of a King, but, my Lords, it has indeed been a blessing for this country and this Commonwealth and Empire that King George and Queen Elizabeth have been on the Throne these last five years, and it has been a peculiar blessing that they are the sort of people that they are. For His Majesty is the mirror of the nation; the rule of law and the dignity of service are joined in him and in his Queen. It has been my privilege to attend their Majesties when they were visiting the homeless people of this city and when enemy planes were overhead. Who would not be proud to serve the State when its rulers serve it so simply and with such human sympathy and understanding. The most willing of his country's servants is His Majesty himself. In these long years of trial the King and Queen have shared their people's fortunes, fair or foul; and to-day they share with them the joys of victory and we, my Lords, tender them our proud and humble homage.

§ I beg to move, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as followeth:

§ "Most Gracious Sovereign:

§ "We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, ask permission to express to Your Majesty our united and deeply-felt congratulations on the cessation of hostilities in Europe by the unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allied Nations.

§ "Your Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen have throughout the war shared with Your people at home the trials and dangers through which they have had to pass. We cannot sufficiently express our admiration for the way in which You Sir, and the Queen have set an example at every stage of the struggle. You have been unwearied in encouraging Your Fighting Forces, in showing Your interest in the labours of war-workers of every kind, in visiting the wounded, in comforting the bereaved, and in going amongst those who have lost their homes through enemy destruction.

§ "For a whole year, Your Majesty's subjects, here and overseas, stood alone in resistance to the foes who planned to overthrow our liberties, and thereafter, 170 in comradeship with Your Allies, Your Majesty's forces, and the combined determination of all Your peoples, have delivered Europe from its threatened bondage and have vindicated the cause of freedom both for ourselves and for others.

§ "We rejoice with Your Majesty in the stalwart aid given to the old country by the peoples of Your Dominions, of India and of Your Empire throughout the world. Distance could not qualify their resolve to support the cause of their King. The spectacle of free and equal Dominions situated in other continents, who eagerly contributed their man-power and resources to resist and overthrow unbridled aggression in Europe, will stand in history as a proof of the happy link of union provided by the British Crown.

§ "We beg leave to assure Your Majesty that our rejoicings over the victory won in Europe do not blunt the edge of our resolve to support in full measure the continuing war against Japan. In the Far East, there are still areas under the British Crown which have been invaded, occupied, and despoiled. The liberation of British and allied territory has already begun, thanks to bold leadership and the endurance and gallantry of Your Majesty's forces, fighting in company with Your Allies in those regions. Their complete deliverance and the attainment of victory against our remaining enemy, in co-operation with Allies engaged upon the same task, will continue to be our united purpose.

§ "Lastly, we venture to express to Your Majesty our most earnest hope that Your reign, which has hitherto been so largely filled with war and the rumour of war, may, under Providence, long continue in conditions of peace at home and abroad; that progress along the British way of life may be happily achieved among us; and that aggression may be ended throughout the world."

§ Moved, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as followeth:

§ "Most Gracious Sovereign:

§ "We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, ask permission to express to Your Majesty our united and deeply-felt 171 congratulations on the cessation of hostilities in Europe by the unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allied Nations.

§ "For a whole year, Your Majesty's subjects, here and overseas, stood alone in resistance to the foes who planned to overthrow our liberties, and thereafter, in comradeship with Your Allies, Your Majesty's forces, and the combined determination of all Your peoples, have delivered Europe from its threatened bondage and have vindicated the cause of freedom both for ourselves and for others.

§ "We beg leave to assure Your Majesty that our rejoicings over the victory won in Europe do not blunt the edge of our resolve to support in full measure the continuing war against Japan. In the Far East, there are still areas under the British Crown which have been invaded, occupied, and despoiled. The liberation of British and allied territory has already begun, thanks to bold leadership and the endurance and gallantry of Your 172 Majesty's forces, fighting in company with Your Allies in those regions. Their complete deliverance and the attainment of victory against our remaining enemy, in co-operation with Allies engaged upon the same task, will continue to be our united purpose.

§ 2.30 p.m.

§ LORD ADDISON
My Lords, I should like in the first place to associate myself in all sincerity with what the noble Lord said about his colleague Viscount Cranborne, who is not able to be present today, and to join with him in wishing the noble Viscount success in the great matters on which he is engaged. In adopting the Motion that is before us today the feeling that must be uppermost within us is one of thankfulness to Almighty God that we are able to move it. In common with all our fellow countrymen and women pride, gladness and an infinite relief must possess our hearts. The immensity of the dangers that beset us, the immensity of the issues that were involved for all free peoples and the immensity of the victory that has been achieved are difficult to express in words, but it is right that we should do our best to place our gratitude on record.
As the Prime Minister said the other day, it is primarily a victory for the British people, and I think it would be a pity if for once we did not put aside our habitual national reserve and frankly rejoice in the example the people of these islands have set to all free peoples for all time. Even in the darkest days of the bombing, as the noble Lord said, we never heard anyone talk of abandoning the struggle or even of losing confidence in ultimate success. It was our people who provided the airmen, the seamen and the soldiers, the munition workers and those who fought the fires and tended the wounded. And we should not forget either the women in their homes who have endured the monotonous battle against 173 scarcity—coupons, points and all the rest of it—and who notwithstanding have kept their homes cheerful for their families.
Like those I have just mentioned who are often nameless, we remember also that multitude of seamen upon whom our whole life and effort have depended. We cannot estimate what we owe to their unfailing watchfulness and infinite resource against the enemy submarines. We remember particularly the service which the Royal Navy rendered in the Eastern Mediterranean under Admiral Cunningham in very critical days. They put to flight with almost impertinent daring the Italian Navy which on paper was much stronger than themselves. We remember, too, as the noble Lord said, those young men, so many of whom have perished, who fought for us the Battle of Britain. I think there are few things that the people of this country would appreciate more than some suitable memorial of the debt we owe to these men and the assurance that those who were dependent upon them and those of them who survive will never want. In speaking of them we remember, of course, those on the ground who kept their machines in perfect order and those who led them. We remember also, and I think we should say it, that we owe very much to those who in the pre-war years—the noble and gallant Viscount, Lord Trenchard, amongst them—with foresight insisted that what we had should be of superlative quality; because it was that superlative quality that won the Battle of Britain.
This great combat of the skies is only one of the many thrilling stories that the war will provide for the historian. Amongst them the stories of the Eighth Army from Alamein to the Alps will rank as an epic of remarkable dash, resolution and ingenuity under splendid leadership. Everyone of us felt a glow of gladness within us when Field-Marshal Alexander and Field-Marshal Montgomery both at the end of their long campaigns accepted the wholesale surrender of the enemies that they had beaten and battered continually. The war affords many examples of how the soldiers of the effete democracies turned upon the war lords of the tyrannies their own weapons with desolating effect, but few of them, I think, were more striking than the "Blitzkreig" method adopted by the American Armies under General Patton and other commanders across the whole of Germany.
174 Staff work is always behind the scenes; it has grown in scope and capacity all the time; and these operations present a foresight and efficiency of planning, a disciplining of supplies and war machines, a comprehensive team work such as have not previously been dreamed of and have no precedent in human endeavour. When I think of this Staff work I say to myself how glorious it would be if we could have that kind of thing in helping us to attack the problems of peace. I do not know the names of many of those who were responsible, except such as were mentioned by the Prime Minister, but it is clear that in General Eisenhower we have a man whose unrivalled and masterly direction has placed all free peoples in his debt. There are those also who planned and carried through the air attacks which apparently had in the end a decisive effect.
Quite naturally in this Motion we are thinking of ourselves and of the people of the British Empire and Commonwealth, but I am sure there cannot be absent from our minds a consciousness of the prodigious sacrifices and great military achievements of the Russian people. There is one man whom we also think about to-day—President Roosevelt. We in these islands particularly will be for ever in his debt, for he came to our help when we were practically disarmed; as we know, when Egypt was in danger, when we needed reinforcements against the submarines, he gave us generous help; and, above all, by Lend-Lease he opened to us, when we could not pay for them, the limitless supplies of American manufacture. One cannot avoid, amidst our rejoicing, a feeling of sadness when one reflects that but a few more weeks of life would have enabled him to join with us to-day.
I am glad that the Prime Minister in his broadcast told the people that we have still much to win. We see already how, in Europe, thorny and difficult problems are calling for the application of infinite patience and statesmanship, and we know that our enemies will still be on the look out to exploit them. Already, the German militarists are posturing as if they were a Government, and I was delighted—and I should think that all our fellow citizens were also—to read the statement by General Eisenhower that appeared yesterday. This man Goering is a criminal. The proved crimes against him make up a long catalogue, and he 175 should be treated as a criminal. I do not think the people want to read accounts of interviews with Goering, or to see his photographs in the newspapers. The prison is the right place for that man, and the sooner he is brought to judgment the better. It is right that we should use this occasion to protest that the German Generals who now seek to play themselves off against the Nazis, and to pose as a Government, are just as much responsible for the horrors of this war as are many of the Nazis themselves. They should be granted no privileges, they should have no special consideration. They should be given no publicity, and they should be allowed no broadcasts. I stress this because unless the whole German military system is crushed and stamped out we shall have fought this war in vain. I was glad that General Eisenhower, with a precision which he has displayed before, so promptly protested against this disposition to which I have referred. The proceedings at San Francisco show quite clearly that we have still to win the peace. It must be won; but I think that the winning of the peace will clearly demand continued fortitude and the utmost national unity of purpose.
I would not wish to conclude without referring to those who have directed our civil and national efforts. One cannot single out all the names, but I would like to mention two. I think that never has the mass of our people been directed in their lives and labours as they have been during the past five and a half years. It is a procedure essentially contrary to their national habit and tradition. The British public do not like being ordered about in their civil lives, but they have consented to it on a national scale with wonderful unanimity, and the process has been carried through with such smoothness that many of us scarcely knew that it was happening at all. I think that our thanks are due to Mr. Bevin and his Ministry for having carried through this great work, full as it was of immense difficulties, with such skill.
And, finally, my Lords, and all the time, there is the Prime Minister. He has been accepted as a national leader by all. His contribution to victory cannot be measured. I think that these last days, for him, must have been days of days, for the gratitude of our people has 176 been poured out to him with national acclaim. And, in my judgment, richly has he deserved it. His essential greatness, his understanding of his fellow countrymen, his frankness, his courage and his good nature have won for him a trust and an allegiance from the people, in this struggle, to an extent that I do not think has been equalled by any British statesman of the past. Moreover, his tireless activity and his disregard of petty things must have made him one of the chief architects of that partnership in operations with the United States and with Russia that played a determining part in securing the overthrow of our common enemies. I cannot help thinking, my Lords—to make use of words similar to Mr. Churchill's own—that history in passing judgment, hereafter, on his dramatic life will say that these were his finest hours.

§ 2.47 p.m.

§ VISCOUNT SAMUEL
My Lords, the Motion for an Address which has been moved in such felicitous terms by the noble Lord, Lord Woolton, and which receives the whole-hearted support of noble Lords on these and all the Benches of this House, emphasizes especially the gratitude of this House to Their Majesties the King and Queen. During the five years that have elapsed, as a computation published in The Times yesterday shows, Their Majesties, either together or separately, have fulfilled but a few short of 5,000 public engagements. They have indeed been unstinting in their service, and unresting in their example, and Parliament thanks them.
While we celebrate, here and throughout the nation, the victorious ending of the war in Europe, we are very fully conscious that the war still continues in the Far East, and that the nation must not, for a moment, forget that we still have a great and arduous duty there. In the first place we have a duty to Australia and New Zealand, not merely, or chiefly, because they sprang as one man to our assistance at the beginning of the war, but because they are of the family, are members of the Commonwealth. We have a duty in the East also to our American Ally, to whom our fullest help has been pledged and will certainly be given. We have a duty there, too, to China, who has suffered so long and so severely, and to the captured British territories. And 177 we have a duty to the whole world, for this globe will not be at peace if aggressive militarism survives in any part of it. And yet we feel—and it is right that we should give expression to it now—an immense relief that the war in Europe is over, chiefly because its ending removes the peril of millions of our young men, the peril of their lives in which they stood every day. Now we may hope and believe that the vast majority are in safety. Our thanks are clue to those especially who have borne the brunt throughout, and those thanks have been expressed to them to-day. We have suffered terrible casualties. Your Lordships' House has lost no fewer than 32 of its members, while of their sons go have perished in this war.
Others have spoken of the Armed Forces and their Commanders, of the Merchant Navy and of those engaged in Civil Defence. I would add a few words about others. There are, for instance, the officers and members of the Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John, who have done such admirable work. I am thinking especially of their efficient and provident care for our men in the prison camps, both in Europe and in the Far East. We have to thank not only the British branch of the International Red Cross but the organization throughout the world, and be grateful particularly for the part played in it and in the protection of our prisoners by the Governments of Switzerland and of Sweden.
I should like also to recall to your Lordships the debts that we owe to our British scientists. The art of war is now served by almost every branch of physical and chemical science, both fundamental and applied, in every branch of offensive and defensive warfare. If Germany alone had possessed that scientific knowledge and skill and efficiency, if Germany had been enabled to establish a scientific supremacy in this war, then our defeat would have been swift, complete and irremediable; not all the valour and the sacrifice of our fighting men could have saved us. But after three hundred years of development, British science has proved itself second to none in the world; and when fully mobilized, and especially when working in the closest mutual cooperation with the scientists of the United States, it proved a match, and more than a match, for so highly scientifically organized a country as Germany. It was that 178 which made victory possible which otherwise could not have been won.
There is one omission in the humble Address which has been moved and in the speech of the noble Lord who moved it. It was an unavoidable omission, for the Government could not, in drafting an Address to the Crown or in moving it in this House, pay tribute to their own services. But we can do so, and we have a duty to do so. Of the Prime Minister others have spoken, and popular feeling has evinced itself very clearly in the last few clays in admiration and gratitude for his outstanding services; but let us not forget, and let them not be overshadowed by his greatness, the services rendered by the colleagues who have stood by him through these years, and whose work has been of such high efficiency. So successful has been the management of our national finances that very little has been heard of it, and yet it has been an amazing achievement. With the assistance of America through Lease-Lend in the early years of the war it has been found possible to provide the almost immeasurable resources which have been needed for the expenditure upon the war. Let us remember also the admirable management of the control and distribution of our supplies. Here we can express to two members of your Lordships' House—Lord Woolton himself, whose conduct of the Ministry of Food will never be forgotten, and Lord Leathers, whose control of war shipping and transport in general has been so marvellously efficient—our thanks and our gratitude. If it is not invidious to select one other Minister, it might well be the Minister of Information, Mr. Brendan Bracken, who has had an exceedingly difficult task which has been performed to the general satisfaction of the country.
When we are praising His Majesty's Government it might not be unseemly to add a word about ourselves. The Government have had a firm base on which to stand in the support of the two Houses of Parliament, and that has been achieved by a truce between the Parties, honourably observed, though sometimes under considerable strain. That has not prevented wholesome criticism both in this House and in the other, which has frequently been recognized as valuable and which has borne good fruit. That political co-operation in Parliament has assisted the moral unity of the people, and that 179 has made possible a military and material effort which has not only been invaluable in itself but commanded the respect and confidence of our great Allies, and so contributed to that firm union throughout the alliance to which the victory has been due.
All this is, in the last resort, the triumph of the individual man. We speak of "Britain" or "Russia" or "America," but all these are names; they are abstractions; they are the names of unions or organizations of individual men and women. Germany overran and conquered sixteen countries, great and small, in Europe, but there was a seventeenth, which stood undismayed and remained inviolate; and that is the achievement of the citizens of this country. If things had been otherwise; if the decisions of the individual men and women had been different from what they were; if, for example, the conscientious objectors, instead of being a negligible number, had proved to be a quarter or a third or a half of our population; if after Dunkirk, when there was a call for the little ships to go and bring back 300,000 of our best-trained troops, there had been only a few forthcoming because it was thought to be too dangerous; if our fighter pilots had not been ready to fling themselves headlong into the conflict, but had held aloof because they thought the odds were too heavily against them; if when there was a call for a million men for the Home Guard, there had only come forward a hundred thousand; and if in our bombed cities the people had been panic-stricken, and had abandoned their war work, and begun to clamour for peace—the outcome would have been very different. All these things happily were inconceivable, and it was precisely because they were inconceivable that the victory has been won.
This terrible war, with its dreadful cruelties and devastations, is thought by some to be a reason for pessimism as to the future of the world, a discouragement to the spirit of man. It would have been so if the triumph had rested with the Nazi philosophy of life. But the end of this great ordeal has been the vindication of mankind. It is false to speak of Truth for ever on the scaffold. Wrong for ever on the Throne. 180 Scaffolds are being erected throughout Europe, but they are for the evildoers, for the followers of falsehood and for the authors of wickedness; and the throne, the British Throne, to which to-day in the name of the people we are offering our Addresses of loyalty and gratitude—that is a throne of triumphant right.

§ 3.3 P.m.

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
My Lords, I count it in one sense a happy circumstance that the first time I address your Lordships in my present office should be in connexion with an occasion of this sort, so notable, so significant in the history of our people, our nation, our Empire and the world. But I do not intend to attempt to say anything at all fit to match the nature of this occasion, for a number of reasons; one, to be frank, that in the course of my own duties I have had to speak, not once nor twice, within the last few days on similar themes, and the pressure of public duties upon unaccustomed shoulders has left me neither time nor energy to clothe in any appropriate words the kind of sentiments one might wish to utter here this afternoon. And indeed I do feel that it is unnecessary, for all that I should do would be to translate into less impressive words the themes which have been put before you in well considered and most impressive words by the speakers who have gone before me.
But though that be so, it is, I think, both right and necessary that one very brief word should be spoken by me. For the Address which it is proposed to present to His Majesty is from "the Lords Spiritual and Temporal," and it would be unfitting unless it were publicly stated here, obvious though it may be, that the Lords Spiritual feel most deeply and profoundly in agreement with all those emotions and utterances expressed in the course of this debate. Indeed, the presence on these Benches of an assembly of Lords Spiritual larger in number than is usual does, I think, profoundly indicate that in no formal sense I am able to say that the Lords Spiritual join with all their hearts in this Address. For the rest, I would endorse every word that the noble Lord leading this House spoke of our cause, of our people, and of our King.
It is, I think, quite obvious that in our people from beginning to end there has 181 been no hesitation in seeing that this was fundamentally a spiritual warfare and that behind it lay the greatness of the spirit. Never have we thought that it was a mere matter of gun against gun, or tank against tank, or 'plane against 'plane, or ship against ship. As the noble Viscount who has just spoken said, we knew that this conflict went back to the faith that was in men, and as the war has ended we have all been profoundly affected, I think, by the fact that men in this country have turned to God as the author and source and inspirer of all true faith, of all true principles, of all true human life. There has been, as the noble Lord said, a real sense of restraint, a sense of responsibility and of deep religion in the way in which the nation has expressed its thanksgiving, and the only word I would add is this. It is in a very godly manner, I think, that we address His Majesty the King. This Address sets out the manifold ways in which he has been the exemplar of the people, their leader, and the inspirer of their endeavours and the comforter of their sorrows. Let it be said also that from the very beginning he has bidden his people to put their faith and trust in God, to wait upon Him in prayer. By his own example and speech and by those of Her Majesty the Queen, by calling from time to time on his people for days of national prayer and supplication, and finally by leading them to a great act of thanksgiving in St. Paul's, he has, I believe, profoundly helped and influenced this nation; and not least for that I, in the name of my brethren on these Benches, beg to endorse all that has been said of the feelings with which we present this Address.

§ 3.8 p.m.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT SIMON)
My Lords, I trust that your Lordships will permit me to make a brief contribution, before from the Woolsack I gather the voices and ascertain, as will surely be the case, that the Motion for this Address is unanimously adopted. Like his Grace the Archbishop, I sincerely feel that it would be mere repetition to descant on many things which have been admirably expressed in the speeches already delivered, either as to the momentous character of the war in Europe, or as to the nature of the deliverence over which we rejoice, or as to the superb 182 gallantry and heavy sacrifice of our fighting men, or as to the skill of their leaders, or as to the tremendous contribution made by our Allies, or as to the glorious support of the Commonwealth and Empire, or as to the brave confidence shown by the men and women—and the children—of this country. These things are in all our thoughts, and I do not seek to find new words to express these deeply-felt emotions.
As to the Dominions, I would with your permission make one single quotation. It is apt, I think, to recall it now after five and a half years of war are over, because it was the declaration made, I think on the very first day of the war, by the most distant of all His Majesty's Dominions. The then Prime Minister of New Zealand on that day publicly declared: With gratitude for the past and with confidence for the future, we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes we go; where she stands we stand. It is not, I think, unfitting, now that this conflict is concluded, to remember that that was the spirit in which a Dominion right at the other end of the world entered into partnership in this conflict.
I have thought it might be of some interest to the House if I reminded them that, although the traditional procedure for communication from either House of Parliament to the Sovereign is by the presentation of an Address, the forms which have been adopted have varied with the occasion. Often in the past the loyal and dutiful Address has been a single sentence following an ancient formula, though there have been cases in which the document has been prepared by this House at greater length. It was so at the end of the Marlborough wars and sometimes it has been submitted to the other House in order to obtain their approval, and then, after adjustment, has become a single Joint Address. I believe that the procedure which is intended to be used on the present occasion is, to some extent, a departure from stereotyped precedence, because the intention is—and I may say that this is at His Majesty's own request—that the Addresses should be so framed that they can be actually read to him when he receives the two Houses of Parliament on Thursday in the Royal Gallery and before he makes his reply.
I venture to think that this modification is significant. We are not engaged, as perhaps sometimes in the past may have 183 been the case, merely in dutiful and loyal expression towards the Throne of feelings which are proper in your Lordships' House. We are doing much more than that. We are communicating to our Sovereign feelings most deeply implanted in the hearts of every one of us, and we are acting, together with the House of Commons, as the reflection—the true reflection—of the deep-seated sentiments of the King's subjects.
It is worth noticing that last week, when those great crowds assembled to which my noble friend who moved this Motion referred—enormous crowds of citizens in the principal streets of London, joyful, admirably behaved, quite un-drilled, relying for order on nothing but their own sense of discipline and decency, respecting, as your Lordships may perhaps have noticed, even the beds of tulips in front of Buckingham Palace—it is worth observing that there was no greater and no more constant collection of enthusiastic citizens than those who gathered for long hours, day and evening, in front of the residence of the King and Queen, with the Royal Standard flying aloft; citizens who felt that they had their complete satisfaction and their greatest reward when from time to time Their Majesties, often accompanied by the young Princesses, showed themselves on the balcony.
During the war, of course, many of the movements of the King and Queen were, for security reasons, kept secret. I was glad indeed that my noble friend Lord Samuel made the reference which he did as to the extent of this continuous service. We are but reflecting the feelings of every household in the land when we say in this Address with what sincere admiration we have regarded the way in which the King and Queen, setting an example by sticking to their posts and sharing with everybody else the trials and dangers of the time, have helped to promote the constancy and the courage of this country.
My Lords, the British monarchy is a very ancient institution. It has come down through the ages, when so much has been changed. Our Constitution, unlike the Constitution of most other countries, is, for the most part, unwritten; it is not protected by any special security; it is open to modification in any respect at any time by an ordinary Act of Parliament 184 to which the King assents. And yet not only has it continued through our history but, I say with confidence and I am sure your Lordships will all agree with me, it has never stood so securely as it stands at this moment. Let us see why that is. It is not merely because the British people, as a whole, whatever be the political outlook of any one of them, has a sensible view as to the importance of preserving ancient tradition when ancient traditions serve us well—it is not only that. It is not only that the Crown is the mystical symbol which brings together all the members of the Commonwealth and Empire—it is not only that. My Lords, it is nothing but the truth to say that the unshaken and unchallenged position of the Throne to-day is due to the fact that the people know that their Sovereigns have served the people well, and because the Crown and all that it stands for is enthroned in the hearts of the people.

§ On Question, Motion agreed to nemine dissentiente, and the said Address was ordered to be presented to His Majesty by the Whole House, and the Lords with White Staves were ordered to wait on His Majesty to know when His Majesty would be pleased to appoint to be attended with the said Address.