§ 2.46 p.m.
§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (VISCOUNT ADDISON)My Lords, before we proceed to the Business of the day I am sure that it will be your Lordships' wish that we should pay tribute to a distinguished member of your Lordships' House, Viscount Runciman, who has lately died, and who, long before he came to this House, was known to many of us as Walter Runciman. When I myself came into Parliament in 1910 he was already a member of the great Liberal Government of that period. He held many offices. When I first knew him I think he was President of the Board of Education. There are some noble Lords sitting opposite me to-day who worked with him, and they knew him far better than I did. But as year succeeded year his service became more recognised in the nation generally, and especially in Parliament. I recall my first impression of him when I was a private Member, and I remember being struck then by the singular clarity and force of his expression.
He was a man of very great distinction in public service. He held many offices, and it is fair to say that he received, gained and held the deep respect of all the servants of the Departments over which he presided. He was a great Minister, and later, towards the end of 708 his political career, as we all remember, he did his best to contribute to a solution of the Czechoslovak difficulties—difficulties which Hitler intended should never be solved. He later held office as Lord President in your Lordships' House. In Government administration and business he was one of those highly distinguished public servants respected by everybody and of clear rectitude, like many others whom we are proud to say our race has produced. In Lady Runciman, his wife, he had a friend, a companion and a loyal helper, who has the respect and admiration of all who know her. I am sure your Lordships will gladly join in a tribute to this great public servant who has passed from us, and in an expression of sympathy with his family.
§ 2.50 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT SIMONMy Lords, my noble friend Lord Salisbury has asked me to say a few words on this occasion, following upon what has been so aptly expressed by the Leader of the House. I do so as one who has long enjoyed personal friendship with Walter Runciman and who was his colleague in several Ministries, beginning at a time before the First World War. He attained ministerial office when very young, first as an Under-Secretary in the Campbell-Bannerman Administration—to which the noble Viscount the leader of the House has just referred—which was formed in December, 1905, and swept the country in January, 1906. Of the strength of the personnel in that Administration there is no dispute. Apart from Campbell-Bannerman himself—and his qualities are not, I think, always adequately recognised—there were Asquith, Grey, Haldane, Lloyd-George, John Morley, Crewe and Loreburn, to name no others. It may be of interest to some of the younger members of the House if I remind your Lordships that outside the Cabinet there was a list of Under-Secretaries which included the names, along with that of Runciman, of McKenna, Samuel and Churchill. That was his beginning.
On these recurring occasions when we commemorate briefly the passing of a distinguished member of this House, we do not seek to use the language of indiscriminate eulogy, but rather try to pick out certain characteristics of the man which make him worthy of remembrance. I think the Leader of the House has done so very aptly. What then should be said 709 of Runciman? He brought to the work of a political Minister some qualities of a very high order. He had deep and sincere convictions, and his strong sense of loyalty to colleagues was untinged with intrigue. He had a businesslike mind, with an unusual command, at once practical and theoretic, of the problems of trade. He had remarkable powers of clear parliamentary exposition, a perfectly-controlled temper and the highest conception of public duty. I think all who had dealings with him during his long years at the Board of Trade will acknowledge his fine equipment for that office, and I am sure that, as the Leader of the House has just indicated, those who served under him there, or in other Cabinet posts, will remember with gratitude his excellence as a Departmental chief. Certainly, to an inner circle of intimates, he was a most charming companion. He was a host who made you feel really at home, whether on his rocky island in the Inner Hebrides, beside his English fireside, or on his yacht where he, the holder of a master mariner's certificate, rejoiced that his friends should share in his pleasure in the salt, salt sea.
One other thing should he mentioned. While he was a man of the highest principle, his own strict rules of personal conduct never dimmed his genial and tolerant outlook. I am glad that the noble Viscount, Lord Addison, mentioned his last public effort, for, at the end of his public career, he undertook, with the purest public spirit, a most difficut and thankless mission which did not divert the events that darkened his closing years. After this long span of public work, Lord Runciman has for some time past been laid aside in the complete seclusion of incurable illness, devotedly tended by the wife to whom we now offer our respectful sympathy. Time's winged chariot has hurried clattering on, and present anxieties tend to blunt past memories, while he has been lying in retreat in his native Northumberland. But we do right to pause for a few minutes, before entering upon the programme of the day, to remember a man who gave so much of his heart and mind to the honourable service of the State.
§ 2.57 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, noble Lords on these Benches desire to associate themselves with the tributes that have 710 been paid to the memory of Lord Runciman. For myself, I was closely associated with Walter Runciman for more than twenty-five years, from the days to which noble Lords have just referred when he and I were appointed Under-Secretaries in the Campbell-Bannerman Government on its formation. Indeed, he and I, with Mr. Winston Churchill, have for some time been the only survivors of those who held such offices in that Government.
Walter Runciman was a man of great abilities and untiring energy, and those qualities enabled him to render great service to the State in high office in several Administrations for many years. He was not an agriculturist yet his administrative capacity enabled him to be one of the best Ministers of Agriculture of our time. But it was in industry and commerce, a sphere of deep importance to the community, that, year after year and decade after decade, his best work was done. He came to your Lordships' House in 1937, but soon afterwards his health deteriorated, undermined by the labours, the tribulations and the disappointments of that mission to Czechoslovakia which made his name familiar all over the world. Now, after long illness, he has passed away. To Lady Runciman, who so actively participated in all the events of his distinguished career, and to the members of their family, we offer our sincere sympathies.