§ 2.46 p.m.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT KILMUIR)My Lords, with the leave of the House, I should like to make a personal statement. In my capacity as Lord Chancellor I have received from the Law Society of New Zealand an invitation to deliver the opening address at their Dominion Legal Conference, which is to be held in Wellington from April 19 to 22. These Conferences are held at intervals of three years, and are attended by all the leading lawyers of New Zealand. On this occasion a number of lawyers from Australia will also be present. I understand that there has been no previous instance when a Lord Chancellor has attended such a Conference. Your Lordships may think it fitting that I should take this opportunity to signify the high regard which we hold for New Zealand and for the profession of law in that country.
My attendance at this Conference makes it necessary for me to leave England on April 13. I hope to travel via Singapore, and while there to see the noble Earl, Lord Selkirk. I am sure that your Lordships would desire me to convey to him your good wishes on his important task. I should add that I have also been invited to attend Convocation at Chicago University on Sunday, May 1, in order that an honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws may be conferred upon me. It is therefore proposed that I should 671 return from New Zealand by way of Chicago, arriving in England on Tuesday, May 3. As the House reassembles on Tuesday, April 26, these arrangements would involve my missing the Sittings in that week. Accordingly I ask your Lordships' agreement to my being absent from my place on the Woolsack. If your Lordships are good enough to give me this leave of absence I am sure that I shall take with me to New Zealand and to the University of Chicago the good wishes of your Lordships from every quarter of the House.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am sure that the whole House will welcome the request that has been made for leave by the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack. I do not think we ought to let this occasion pass without just saying—certainly on behalf of the official Opposition, and I think the Whole House will agree with me—that we are very greatly indebted to the present Lord Chancellor for the great devotion he has shown in the service of the House in regard to all the great number of technical matters he has had to deal with. We appreciate so much his courtesy. I believe that he is really a man of quite strong emotions, and it therefore makes us all the more filled with admiration when we see the admirable way in which he controls those emotions and the always prevailing courtesy with which he deals with our dreadful rebellions on these Benches. I hope that the two visits he is to make will be not only of great assistance to the professional men who will be gathered in these Conferences but also of great enjoyment and pleasure to himself.
LORD REAMy Lords, in the interests of unanimity I should like on behalf of the less official Opposition to echo the words of the noble Viscount. We shall all miss the noble and learned Viscount when he is away, both those to whom he is such a support and those to whom he is in opposition, and many of us to whom he is an old or a new friend. I suggest that we have much to congratulate ourselves upon in his presence in his noble capacity of Casabianca and Sir Galahad, sitting on the wool-filled sack when all but he had fled; and in 672 his second rôle, his strength being as the strength of ten; and, my Lords, we all know his heart is pure.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, may I thank the noble Viscount who leads for the Opposition and the noble Lord the Leader of the Liberal Party in this House for those very kind words. I shall treasure them for as long as I live.