§ 2.37 p.m.
§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY)My Lords, before we proceed to the Business of the day, your Lordships will, I know, wish me to express on your behalf our sense of the grievous loss which this House, and indeed, I think, the whole country, both North and South of the Tweed, have sustained by the sudden and untimely death of Lord Linlithgow, of which we heard with such sorrow during the Recess. It was not our good fortune during recent years to see very much of Lord Linlithgow in this House. His manifold activities and responsibilities in other spheres made that impossible, but he was, as we all know, in many ways one of the most eminent members of your Lordships' House. He was always listened to with deep attention when he took part in our debates.
The noble Marquess had a long and varied career of service to his fellow countrymen—indeed, I imagine that there were few spheres of public life at which he did not try his hand, either in this country or in India. But it is, of course, with India that his name will principally be connected when the history of our time comes to be written. First as Chairman of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, then as Chairman of the Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform and, finally, over a long period as Viceroy, it was to India that he devoted the best years of his life. The history of those years will, I imagine, always remain a matter of controversy but there will. I am certain, be no one who will not have honoured the selfless devotion which inspired Lord Linlithgow's own work during that difficult time: it 890 was in the highest traditions of British public service.
In the later years of his life, as we all know, he embarked on, and mastered with equal ease and success, an entirely new career as chairman of one of the great joint stock banks. A man of tremendous energy, he threw himself, as we who were fortunate enough to be his friends knew, into the labours and amenities of life with equal zest. It seemed that he had before him yet many years of useful work. But it was not to be. He died still in his prime, but he will not be forgotten. I am sure your Lordships will wish me to express your heartfelt sympathy to Lady Linlithgow and his family in their cruel bereavement.
§ 2.43 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT JOWITTMy Lords, I rise for a moment or two to identify noble Lords who sit on this side of the House completely and entirely with the eloquent tribute which has been paid by the Leader of the House. Lord Linlithgow was a typical example of a great public servant who gave himself to his work with enthusiasm and with idealism. We remember the comparatively rare occasions when he spoke in this House, and everybody who heard him must have been impressed with the sincerity of his observations.
It so happened that on several occasions during my time as Lord Chancellor I enlisted his services, though I had no possible claim to them. The Lord Chancellor nowadays frequently has to appoint to various tribunals and committees not only lawyers, in which regard he, of course, has the information, but also eminent people from the City. I cast about to find who could best advise me as to whom I ought to appoint. Greatly daring, I enlisted the services of Lord Linlithgow. I used to ask him whether "A," "B" or "C" would be the most suitable man for a particular position. Lord Linlithgow took infinite trouble in advising me. He would come round and see me and discuss the whole matter and be quite certain that in the end I had got the right man. I mention that only as an example of the great zeal which he showed for the public service. I had no right whatever to enlist his services, but he gave them because he felt that it was desirable—as it obviously was—that we should get the right people 891 for those posts. Therefore he did not spare himself in helping me to appoint the right people. That is an example of a great public servant, a man who can ill be spared, and on behalf of noble Lords on this side of the House I desire to identify myself with what has been said.
§ 2.45 p.m.
VISCOUNT MERSEYMy Lords, I should like to endorse and support what has been said. One personal memory I have of Lord Linlithgow is that about twenty years ago I sat next to him at a dinner party and he afterwards told me a great deal about banking and trade in the City of London. Next day he took the trouble to write out in his own hand three pages, all about inter-trade bills in London, a technical and little known subject. I was greatly impressed by his kindness to somebody who knew much less about the subject than he did. Another instance which I remember well was a party given in about the year 1938 by Lord Zetland, who was the Secretary of State at the India Office. It was a great occasion. The place was full of wealthy and important Indians, all clothed in their Orders and silks, and in the middle, towering above everybody, as he did above his own bodyguard in Delhi, was Lord Linlithgow, with a pleasant word to all and, apparently, knowing everybody in the room. It made a great impression on me, and I thought what an impression it should make in Delhi.
My third recollection of him is one of only a few years ago when I was writing something about Viceroys. I wanted some information on the subject, and I sent him a letter, to which he replied "See P.S.V." For those of your Lordships who are not familiar with the term, I may explain that "P.S.V." means "Private Secretary to the Viceroy"—sometimes almost as powerful a figure as the Viceroy himself. I then learned what I had never known before—namely, that before the war began, and when apparently nobody had much expectation of an attack from Japan, Lord Linlithgow, who was then in India, apprehended an attack from the East and was anxious that some means should be taken to meet it. I believe that he wanted to build a road round the north of the Bay of Bengal, 892 by Assam into Burma, but the expense, of course, would have been prodigious. The soldiers wanted other things more, and so his scheme did not come off.
My Lords, I always felt that Lord Linlithgow was rather like Lord Curzon, in that he took the greatest trouble to prepare himself for his duties. There was, for instance, his work on the Royal Commission on Agriculture and the constant attention which he paid in your Lordships' House to India. Perhaps I may remind your Lordships, too, that he alone outside the Royal Family had both the Garter and the Thistle. He was a man of great generosity, rather retiring, and a splendid example of devotion to duty. He always reminded me of a remark made by the first Duke of Wellington about Lord Harding, the Governor-General who was also Commander-in-Chief in this country. The Duke said: "Harding never undertakes anything that he does not understand, and he always understands what he undertakes.
§ 2.49 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT TEMPLEWOODMy Lords, during the most interesting and certainly the most exacting years of my life, as Secretary of State for India, I was brought into almost hourly contact with the late Lord Linlithgow. Day after day, month after month, I sat next to him in the Joint Select Committee upon Indian Constitutional Reform, and, perhaps more than anyone in this House (at any rate, as much as anyone in this House), I had an opportunity of judging his great worth and his power of concentration upon a series of very complicated problems. My Lords, the ways of Providence are very strange. I remember that at the time when we were forming the Joint Select Committee, a time that many of your Lordships will recall was filled with controversy upon Indian questions, the first problem that we had to face was the selection of a Chairman. I spent many days negotiating with the various Party representatives as to who would be the most suitable Chairman. We finally agreed upon the late Lord Peel. My memory of this matter is very vivid. Upon a certain day, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I was to propose Lord Peel as Chairman, and I had every reason to suppose that the rest of the Committee would accept the nomination. At half past one, when I 893 was in the Cabinet, a message was handed to me to the effect that Sir Findlater Stewart, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the India Office, wished to see me immediately. I went out to him, and he told me that, owing to doctor's orders, Lord Peel was unable to undertake the post. Within the next half hour, we had to find a Chairman for this very important Committee. I took a taxi to Chesham Place, where Lord Linlithgow lived, and with only those few minutes in hand I asked him to become Chairman of a body entrusted with what, at that moment, was one of the most difficult jobs in public life. After a little hesitation, he very patriotically accepted. From that time, he and I worked together, month after month, upon that Committee, and I am sure that I am right in saying that he made a most profound impression upon all its many representative members—the Indian Princes, the Indians of the Left, the Indians of the Right, the European representatives and the British representatives.
As time passed, I became profoundly impressed with his very remarkable qualities. He was a slow-mover, but he was a very wise man. He thought a great deal before he came to any decision, but when he reached one he was determined to carry it through. I think that fact became very evident in what he did in India during the war. I should instance the spirit with which he inspired the Indian Army, and the way in which he held the position in the face of almost overwhelming difficulties. Looking back, I naturally feel a deep regret that the chief aim which he and I had in view—namely, the creation of a united, federal India—was not achieved. None the less, I think he was able to comfort himself with the reflection that a great deal of the work which he did upon the Joint Select Committee bore very remarkable fruit. If anyone to-day examines the two Constitutions in India—the Constitution of India and the Constitution of Pakistan—he will find that the foundations and, indeed, many of the details were settled as the result of the work over which Lord Linlithgow presided at the Joint Select Committee. And that, in my view, will be regarded as perhaps the greatest of the services that he performed for the British Commonwealth. To-day I add this expression of my views to the speeches that have already been made. 894 I feel that we have lost a great public servant; one who possessed qualities that seem to me to be becoming rare in public life, and one whose memory will always be cherished in India and in this country.