§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL AND PAYMASTER-GENERAL (VISCOUNT ADDISON)My Lords, I am sure that it is in accordance with the wish of the whole House that, at the opening of our proceedings to-day, we should pay tribute to the late Lord Donoughmore, who died at the beginning of last week. He is best known to most of us for the work he performed for many years in this House as Chairman of Committees. Although before that time he had held office, he had been less than ten years in this House when he was elected Chairman of Committees. That post he held for twenty years, during which it is fair to say that he so added to the reputation of that high office that it became almost synonymous with the name of Donoughmore, so that his period as Chairman of Committees will be proudly and gratefully remembered in the annals of this House. It was only in the year 1933 that, owing to ill health, he was compelled to resign his office. Moreover, during the time he had held that office, not only had he been 28 Chairman of the original Ceylon Commission whose Report contributed the first step (shall we say?) in the development of self-government for Ceylon, but later on, as Chairman of the Committee on Ministers' Powers appointed by Lord Sankey, he did a piece of work which is still looked upon as the classic on delegated legislation. Still, from first to last, we think of Lord Donoughmore as an outstanding Chairman of Committees of this House. We should remember also that in 1933, notwithstanding his ill health, he took the chairmanship of the National Radium Commission and retained that office until the day of his death. He was prominently associated with the persistent endeavour that humanity is still making to use the powers of radium for the treatment of malignant disease.
I am sure that we were all most disturbed when, only a few months ago, knowing how Lord Donoughmore had been crippled with arthritis for so many years, we heard that he had had a very serious motor accident. From this unfortunately he never completely recovered, and from that time we missed him from this Chamber. As one who was responsible in different ways for the conduct of the business of this House, I can say that on many occasions I was greatly indebted to Lord Donoughmore for his wise counsel and useful guidance on many matters. I think myself—indeed, I am sure—that there was no one in this House who felt any hostility towards him. We were all his friends. Political allegiance had nothing whatever to do with it. He was a good friend and a wise counsellor to every member of the House. He stands out as one of the many examples which British life furnishes of unselfish devotion to public duty. In that, he has a record in the annals of this House of which every one of us is proud and to which we are glad to pay our tribute.
§ 2.50 p.m.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, on behalf of those who sit on these Benches I should like to support what has been so well said by the noble Viscount the Leader of the House. The death of the noble Earl, Lord Donoughmore, whom we mourn to-day, is indeed an irreparable loss to your Lordships' House. Although he was a lifelong Conservative, as the Leader of the House 29 very truly said, no one was ever less open to the accusation of sectional pleading or Party bias. Temperate and kindly, his whole mind was always devoted, not to what was convenient but to what was right. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—that was the guiding principle of his political life. One could not anticipate what would be Lord Donoughmore's view on any given subject. All one knew was that it would be scrupulously fair and deeply interesting.
In recent years, during the time that I have been in this House, on the rare occasions that he intervened in our debates he always made weighty contributions, and I think there can be no one who was present who was not deeply moved by the sight of that sturdy figure, crippled by disease, in constant pain, but indomitably courageous and actuated by an unshakable integrity. He never put himself forward in any way, and it was perhaps for that reason above all others that he won the admiration and respect of us all. He had, as your Lordships know, a profound knowledge of constitutional matters.
The noble Viscount the Leader of the House has already referred to his activities and achievements in many spheres of public life, and I do not wish to repeat what the noble Viscount has said. But, my Lords, I would like to say that we here owe him a very special debt of gratitude in that he served this House, as Lord Addison has said, for many years with rare distinction as Lord Chairman of Committees; and after ill-health compelled his retirement he remained to all of us, in all Parties, a wise counsellor and friend. He was a great man, in the truest sense that he was great in spirit, and there can be none of us who is not the better for having known him. I feel sure that your Lordships would wish me to express our very deep sympathy with his family, whose loss we share.
§ 2.53 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, by Lord Donoughmore's passing your Lordships' House has lost one of its most devoted members. For nearly fifty years he took an active part in its work, for twenty of them holding the highest office within its gift—that of its Chairman of Committees. That was indeed a classic Chairmanship of Committees and has long since been remembered. Outside the 30 House he took a part in many matters. He was the Chairman of a famous Committee on the powers of Ministers, and he helped forward the constitutional development of Ceylon. Crippled though he was by arthritis, he strove to nearly the end to perform his public duties, and in all quarters of the House we mourn his death.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, I hope you will allow me to say one word on the termination, at least for a time, of a warm friendship of over forty years. In company with many others, I can say that no man ever had such a friend as the noble Earl who has just passed. When I was in America the other day, of all the questions that were asked me about this country the one most frequently put to me was about the health of the Earl of Donoughmore. If it be a legitimate object of ambition of a man to be widely and deeply mourned, then there is no man that I know who has more richly earned that guerdon than the noble Earl who has just passed to his rest.