HL Deb 30 October 1945 vol 137 cc529-42

2.3 p.m.

VISCOUNT ADDISON

My Lords, in submitting the Motion that is printed on the Order Paper in my name, it would, I think, meet with your lordships' approval if I were to suggest that when it is formally put to the House I should ask the Lord Chancellor to read it throughout. I think that all your Lordships must feel how great a difficulty confronts any man who is called upon to move a Resolution of this kind. How can one compress into the limits of a formal speech the infinite relief and the conflict of emotions, that must stir the heart of everyone of us when we contemplate the dramatic events of the past six years? We remember how, for a long time, from day to day, sometimes almost from hour to hour, we waited for the news with dread; how every respite was a comfort, although our minds were never free from apprehension. We rejoiced so far as opportunity allowed in the valour of our seamen, in the endurance and audacity of our troops in various places, in the exploits of our matchless airmen, in the glorious bravery and fortitude of those who fought the fires and withstood the bombs, who ministered to the wounded, who sheltered the homeless, who sought by every means in their power, in workshop, field and home to make their contribution to national resistance. We cannot measure what we owe to them. We owe every right and every liberty we possess to those whom we seek to thank to-day. The memory of that greatest year of danger, from June, 1940, to June, 1941, when, with our brethren in the British Commonwealth and Empire, we stood alone, always forces itself to the front of our minds. We were, I think, so intent then upon the day-to-day struggle, upon the work in which we individually were engaged, upon the thousand and one solicitudes that crowded upon us, that we did not appreciate in our never-relaxing effort how great was the danger and how near it was. Looking back, with fuller knowledge and a clearer realization, we see how great it was—how terribly great it was. There might have been a dozen Buchenwalds in this country, slave-labour everywhere, and our priceless heritage of beauty and liberty blotted out. But we were kept safe by those referred to in this Resolution, in a spirit that refused ever to be daunted. In the history of a nation a year is but a fragment of time, but I think that, in Mr. Churchill's immortal phrase, it may be that those who tell the story hereafter may well say that "This was, our finest hour."

The year that followed until Alamein was scarcely less full of peril, and we all remember, if we reflect, the anxieties that possessed us as we watched and waited the gradual, long-drawn-out gathering of strength and of equipment by our Forces on sea, on land and in the air. The bombing, it is true, had died away, but it was a critical test of our national patience and of our dogged perseverance. And these qualities were displayed in every field of effort. Our rejoicings in the triumphs of our soldiers from home and from the Dominions in Africa were soon succeeded, as we remember, by the disasters that led to the long stand before the gates of Egypt. And all the time, as we know, the battle on the sea for our life was still going on. Then the breakthrough came which was celebrated the other day. Thereafter, no longer alone, but with our mighty Allies, we saw the slow climb out of the valley of danger.

In all this long struggle from peril to victory we cannot distinguish between those mentioned in the different parts of this Resolution. These are they, all of them, who, in their several services, combined to give us victory. It is they who wrought this transformation. It is they who effected our deliverance. Through all they wrought, there are superb courage, defiance of danger, infinite ingenuity and never-failing resolution. It would, I think, be well nigh impossible to distinguish amongst them without failing to speak of some that should be mentioned. And all the time there were other things here at home behind the fighting line that I think we should recall. I do not remember that even in our grimmest days the unquenchable cheerfulness of the British people ever deserted them, any more than it did our troops abroad. In that regard, I suggest, we should remember what is owing to those who, in broadcast and in entertainment, sought to sustain the spirit of our fighting men and women.

Then there is another matter. Never have we owed so much to science and invention. We can justly claim, I think, that British scientists and inventors led the world, notwithstanding the handicaps that attended their early efforts. Through countless experiments, and with what must have been numerous and unavoidable failures, they reached success. Despite the enemy's persistence and ingenuity they were always ready, in a remarkably short time, to meet the enemy's newly-invented weapons. They threw around us that unseen, mysterious guard that directed our airmen, whom they equipped with instruments of precision that defied the elements, that almost gave them eyes in the dark. They gave us fabrications that defied the storm, huge machines that went through angry breakers on to the enemy's shore, that crossed rivers as if they had been on land—uncanny, gigantic things, but yet manageable and accurate. They saved our men also in fever-ridden pestilential jungles and made conquests possible which before that time would have been judged impossible.

I think, too, we should remember with gratitude the Staff work and supervision which lay behind all the Forces mentioned in the Resolution. It grew from strength to strength and its responsibilities became world-wide in the management and direction of our manifold forces. It has never, I think, as a piece of combined Staff work, been surpassed. I question if it has ever been equalled.

We speak also for all the people, in unquestioned unity, when we pay our tribute to those who died; to all those whose homes and firesides have a vacant place that never will be filled; to the widows, and the children who will never again see their fathers; and to those whom the war has crippled and handicapped in the battle of life. And while we thank them to-day, we must remember that for them continued help is a national obligation. Truly, my Lords, the years that lie behind this Motion provide as great a story as ever was in the history of nations.

Finally, deeply conscious as we must be of the inadequacy of our thanks, there is, I believe, in the minds of all of us to-day, a sense of the grave responsibility that rests upon us to do everything we possibly can to make sure that this is no transient deliverance—that it is not only an interval before another and worse catastrophe is hurled upon us. We remember the war's dramatic, terrifying ending. The lesson of it, and the obligation of it, cannot be escaped. Surely science, my Lords, does not exist that death may triumph. Rather it should be used to extend the frontiers of life. The responsibility for resolving to prevent any repetition of this ghastly event rests upon every nation, but most of all upon the powerful nations. God grant, my Lords, that that resolution may be worldwide. God grant that it may never falter, that no short-sighted, narrow selfishness may ever be allowed to weaken it. By the maintenance of this resolve, more than by anything else, shall we be worthy to-day of those to whom we pay our tribute. My Lords, I beg to move.

Moved to resolve, That the thanks of this House be accorded to all ranks of the Royal. Navy and of the Royal Marines for the untiring vigilance and resource with which they have frustrated each new stratagem of the enemy: for their courage and devotion to duty which beat the U-boats by which the enemy planned to reduce these islands to starvation and submission: for the unflagging zeal which they brought to the arduous duties of protecting the flow of food and materials vital to the life and work of our people and Allies: and when the long period of defence at last made way for attack, for the matchless skill and courage with which the great forces for the assaults were landed, supported and maintained in campaigns in both hemispheres:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to all ranks of the Army for the indomitable resolution with which they met early adversity: for the thoroughness and patience with which they trained and planned for the assault: for their cheerful endurance of the perils and trials of warfare in many lands: for the gallantry and enterprise with which they wrested the initiative from the enemy and routed him from the shores of the English Channel to the furthest limits of Asia; and for to-day assisting in the restoration of those lands which have been liberated and in the administration of occupied enemy territory: and to the Hone Guard for the keenness and self-sacrifice with which they undertook voluntarily and in addition to their normal work the defence of these islands against the threat of imminent invasion:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to all ranks of the Royal Air Force for the dauntless heroism with which, in 1940, they faced overwhelming odds, and, in doing so, saved our beloved country and all humanity: for the resolute courage with which, undeterred by heavy losses, they harried the enemy's war industries and communications and crippled his powers of resistance: for the bravery with which they co-operated with the Navies and Armies seeking out and destroying the forces of the enemy wherever they could be found; and for their sustenance of those who carried on the fight for liberty behind the enemy's and to the air transport crews for their resource and endurance in keeping the air routes open: and to the Royal Observer Corps for their ceaseless vigil in defence of their homeland:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to all those who, as volunteers in peace-time, sacrificed their leisure in order that, when the time came, they could give the greatest possible service to their country:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to the forces of the Dominions, India and the Colonial Empire who, in gallant comradeship with their brothers from these islands, shared to the full the dark hours of adversity, the arduous toil of the struggle and the honours of final victory:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to the women of the Auxiliary and Nursing Services for the ready self-sacrifice and efficiency with which they performed their arduous duties of sustaining their brothers in action against the enemy:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to the officers and men of the Merchant Navy for the steadfastness with which they maintained our stocks of food and materials: for their services in transporting men and munitions to all the battles over all the seas: and for the gallantry with which, though a civilian service, they met and fought the constant attacks of the enemy: and to the skippers and crews of the fishing fleets who in the face of every danger went about their business undismayed and brought back urgently needed food for the nation:

That the thanks of this House be accorded to the Police, the Fire Service, the Civil Defence and Hospital Services and to all those who worked with them in combating the effects of air raids: for the relief and comfort they brought to many thousands in suffering and distress: and for their unflinching endurance of hardship and dangers: and to the ferry pilots for their resourceful courage in keeping the fighting lines supplied with aircraft:

That this House doth acknowledge with humble gratitude the sacrifice of all those who, on land or sea or in the air, have given their lives that others to-day may live as free men and its heartfelt sympathy with their relatives in their proud sorrow:

That the Lord Chancellor do signify the said Resolutions to the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral, and to the Army Council and Air Council: to His Majesty's Secretaries of State for Dominion Affairs, for India and Burma, and for the Colonies: for the Home Department and for Scotland: and to the Ministers of Health, War Transport, Agriculture and Fisheries and Supply and Aircraft Production to communicate the same to the persons referred to therein.—(Viscount Addison.)

2.46 p.m.

VISCOUNT CRANBORNE

My Lords, I rise to support, on behalf of those who sit on these Benches, the Resolution of Thanks to the Armed Forces of the Crown which has been so finely moved by the Leader of the House. We are apt, in this House, to speak perhaps rather too often of "historic" occasions, but this Resolution which the Leader of the House has moved this afternoon surely, beyond all question, merits that appellation. It is historic in the very fullest sense of the term. This afternoon Parliament, and through Parliament the British nation, gives thanks to its fighting men for the part they played in the deliverance of our country from the most hideous peril that in all its long history has ever threatened us.

At such a time as this our minds inevitably go back to the heroes of the past. We think of Drake, of Marlborough, of Nelson and of Wellington. We think of the tired and dauntless little band of men on the field of Agincourt, of the daring seamen who drove the great Armada of Spain from the narrow seas to perish in the storms of the Atlantic, and we think of the steadfast unbroken squares of Waterloo. Those were great fights. Some of them were among the decisive battles of the world. But, my Lords, they were mere skirmishes in comparison with the vast campaigns of the last six years. With that development of scientific invention to which the Leader of the House has referred, war has become invested with a new and yet more terrible character. We had a foretaste of this in the last Great War. But we have moved far since then. The military leaders of to-day have to be not merely fighting men but technicians of a high order. Moreover, nowadays, when we have to deal with the new element of the air, war is no longer a problem of two, but of three dimensions, infinitely more complex and more dangerous. War has become a more cold-blooded affair. And with this development there has come into being the need for a yet more finely tempered courage.

To-day men have to be ready to fight through the concealed minefields of the modern battlefield, or at 20,000 feet above the earth, or beneath the surface of the sea, often against enemies unseen and armed with deadly weapons. That is the test to which our soldiers, sailors and airmen have been put; that is the test which they have passed triumphantly. Under appalling conditions in the seas of the Arctic, in the tropical heat of Africa and the Far East, far up in the freezing air, they have met and defeated the enemy. To them their country owes a debt which we can never repay. These men went out from the towns and villages, from the great centres of industry and from the quiet countryside, that we might live in freedom and peace. They showed a courage and an endurance that have never been surpassed. To-day we celebrate their deeds and we give them our heartfelt thanks.

The names of their leaders—Wavell, Alexander, Montgomery, Mountbatten, Tedder, Cunningham, Dowding, to name only a few—will go down to history with the greatest of our race. But there are countless others, nameless but unforgotten and unforgettable, the record of whose courage the passage of time will not dim. And, in particular, we honour to-day those who fell in this great struggle, who, to use the words of an officer who was killed in the last war—"who were once so strong and active and now are so still." In nameless graves they lie a memorial to supreme human endeavour. They have died, but their memory will not die. In this moment of victory we salute them and we dedicate ourselves anew to that great cause of human liberty which, but for them, might well have perished from the earth.

2.53 p.m.

VISCOUNT SAMUEL

My Lords, my noble friends sitting in this quarter of the House desire to be associated with the Resolution now before us. A distinguished American, an Ambassador to this country, speaking in a broadcast in the United States towards the end of 1940, used these words. He said "This is a war not of men but of machines." I feel sure that Mr. Kennedy, after further experience and reflection, would not now use those words. A war of machines has been, indeed. Never before has mechanism been employed with such elaboration and variety and to such extent, but never before also have individual men been called upon to a greater degree to show the military virtues never before have cold-blooded courage, sell-sacrifice, valour been more demanded fro n soldiers, sailors and airmen. The machines themselves have brought new perils and new terrors. The soldier faces more deadly fire, tanks, flame-throwers, mines, attacks from the air to which he car give no reply. The sailor serves below decks in battle on some battleship or cruiser, or in the fragile and vulnerable submarine which at any moment may prove to be a death-trap. The airmail and the airborne troops have also to face new dangers undreamt of in an earlier age. They have all not only been fighting with the machines but fighting against the machines.

We read of the valiant deeds of the heroes of the Iliad or of the knights of the age of chivalry, or in more modern times of the soldiers and sailors of the Napoleonic Wars, but all those have been far outmatched in our own age, as we can see if we read the deeply moving citations of those, the most heroic of all, who have won the Victoria Cross. So we pay to our fighting men our tribute of admiration and of gratitude. We thank all those whom this comprehensive Resolution recites, and also, as mentioned by the noble Viscount the Leader of the House, those scientists whose technical skill and inventiveness have contributed so greatly to the victory. The list of casualties in this war has been a terrible list. We mourn to-day with hundreds and thousands of mourners, throughout the land and throughout the Commonwealth and Empire, but we may be thankful that the list is no greater than it is. This war has lasted for a longer period over a larger area and involved a greater national effort than the first world war, and yet the numbers of the casualties were no more than half those that we then suffered. We have not been called upon to read again, as we then read day by day and week by week, the terrible casualty lists that came from the battles of Flanders and of France. That that has been so is due mainly perhaps to the skill and caution and restraint of the great Commanders who have directed our campaigns. They have won a victory as complete as was won in the first war with a human cost only half as great. Our tribute in this regard should be paid also to the highly efficient medical services of the three arms, as well as to the Red Cross, for their efficiency and devotion have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands and the health of millions.

Following precedent this Resolution refers only to our own Forces, but we must have in our minds also to-day the forces of our Allies who, though they fought for a period less prolonged than our own, did so with no less determination and valour. If in the years that have followed 1940 we had still been without the support of the United States of America or Russia and our other Allies, the struggle would inevitably have been far longer, more costly, more desperate. In all probability it would still be continuing at this very hour. Our gratitude therefore should go out also to the soldiers, sailors and airmen of all our Allies who have fought beside our own.

Parliament expresses the thanks of the Nation to the Forces. The Forces have no opportunity of expressing their thanks to the nation. Yet their success is due in great measure to the unwavering steadfastness of the civilian population at home under attacks on their homes and on their families which also nave peen unprecedented in former times. They gave an effort that was unstinted, at a cost which was uncounted, with resolution that never faltered. Is there any fundamental reason for this stable unity? Is there a single clue to the victory that has been won? I think there is, and a very simple one. The nation and the Forces together felt convinced, from the beginning to the end—and had good reason to feel convinced—that they were fighting for the right and that their cause was a just cause; and it is that which ultimately determines the issue.

3.1 p.m.

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

My Lords, I wish to associate myself and those for whom I have any claim to speak, whole-heartedly with the Resolution which is before the House and with the speeches which have been delivered in support of it. There is no need for me to attempt to cover again ground which has been already so admirably covered, and what has been said here this afternoon has been said for all.

But there is perhaps one thing that, not inappropriately, I might try to add. There is, very rightly and properly, no specific mention in this Resolution of the part played in this great struggle by the Christian forces and the Christian people of this country in the Fighting Services, in the Home Defence Services and in the population as a whole. And yet our cause and our conquest owe much indeed to the place of Christian values and Christian work in our midst. It is not easy to assess precisely how much is owed to that impetus of Christian faith, when over so many years there has been a general decline in the practice, the profession and even the knowledge of the Christian faith. Certainly nothing is gained by trying to exaggerate that contribution. But though this generation has lost not a little of the moral and religious earnestness of its forefathers, it has also inherited and preserved much indeed; and the Christian religion has, through the centuries, moulded and shaped our national character. On occasions like this all through our history, Church and State have spoken together. Thus has been bred in us a tradition of faithfulness to duty (of loyal service to the right and true, of thought for others, and comradeship, which has borne great fruit in these our days. And I will say that many who knew little of the source of it were, in their services, drawing upon the inherited strength of that tradition.

But, if I might, I would go a step further. I think it is to be noted that a very large number of the leaders of the Fighting Forces have led their men with the open profession of their faith and trust in God and their devotion to those high principles which, as Christians, they held. It is to be noted, too, that from His Majesty the King, in every address to his people, and from the leaders here at home, there was always, through this war, that constant emphasis that we were, as the noble Viscount has said, fighting in a just and righteous cause, and it was that which gave strength to our endeavours.

May I venture to add one further thing? As we recall those in the Services and the Home Defence forces and thank them for their contribution to the country's cause and victory, I think we might do well just to remember, with gratitude, the part played by the clergy and the ministers of every denomination throughout the country. There is no end to the unostentatious but unceasing work which they have done for our people through these years. They bore, every one of them, a double, nay a treble, burden, with half their number in the Forces as chaplains. Each one of them was bearing a double load of the ordinary day-to-day business of his profession. But more than that, in their pastoral work they were hearing the additional burdens the war threw upon them of administering constantly to the evacuated, the displaced, the bereaved, the strained and the overwrought. More than that: they were adding to all their other labours constant work as chaplains to fire services, balloon crews, pre-service training units, hostels for munition workers and every other kind of social activity of that nature. Many hundreds of them served as officiating chaplains to the Forces up and down the country, ministering direct to detachments of the Services, thus relieving the Service chaplains of great burdens. The Army Council only the other day issued a special message of appreciation for the work which they had done.

But there were many more who, with no position of that kind, never ceased to do their duty. When I was Bishop of London, I had, as many of your Lordships may have had, opportunities of seeing the amazing devotion and the work of clergy and ministers through the days of air raids; their constancy through their own peril; their immediate attendance at every incident; and their nights spent in the shelters for their people and with their people; and I saw the strain and the cost in health and well-being that many of them thus brought upon themselves. Never, I would say, have the clergy been nearer to their people, and the people to their clergy and pastors, than through those days.

If I may add one further word, I think we should not forget, as we pass this Resolution, the services of the chaplains, again of every denomination, in His Majesty's Forces. Many most moving tributes have been paid to them by Generals, Admirals and Air-Marshals.

Would to God that they could have been larger in number; but the service that they did render has been approved again and again. Your Lordships will perhaps know that over 120 of them were killed or died of wounds. There is a long list of decorations which I will not repeat, but over 300 of them were mentioned in dispatches. Wherever our Forces were—paratroops, commandos, ships, and other units—there were the men of God doing their duty. I think it is true to say that in this war, more than in any previous war, the chaplains have been recognized as, above all, men of God, there to live the Christian faith and preach it to their men. There have been the most moving tributes to what they have meant to our men, and to their service on the battlefield to the wounded and dying.

May I conclude by calling to your Lordships' minds two persons of whom you may have heard, who stand as an example of the kind of service which the chaplains in the Forces have been rendering all through? One, the Bishop of Singapore, only in his diocese as a bishop for a few months before the Japanese invasion, was, for thirteen months, astonishingly allowed to officiate and move about Singapore, where his cathedral was crowded to the utmost, whenever a service was held, with Malay and Chinese Christians. Ultimately, the Japanese could no longer stand the sight of this European thus drawing to himself the affection of the inhabitants of Singapore. He was imprisoned, and suffered foul and brutal torture at the hands of the Japanese. He survived; he was released, and has recovered his health. Out of all I could tell you of him I say only this: one known to me was walking with him through Singapore, and, afterwards, men of the Army said to him: "You are highly privileged. You have been walking with the bravest man in Singapore." His reputation has gone all through Malaya.

The other I would mention to bring to your minds, what all must have heard of, those crowded services in the cathedral of Cairo. Week by week the cathedral filled over and over again, all under the leadership of Bishop Gwyne. May these two men stand as symbols of what, in every denomination, the clergy and ministers have been doing in the Services as chaplains, and at home, to sustain our people through these great days. Let us remember it as we look backwards with thanksgiving, and as we look forward with resolution, for, indeed, the spiritual warfare which we began is by no means over, and we shall need all the resources of Christian faith to carry it through.

On Question, Resolution agreed to, nemine dissentiente.