HL Deb 26 January 1960 vol 220 cc627-38

2.37 p.m.

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (THE EARL OF HOME)

My Lords, just before Christmas Lord Halifax died, and the nation lost a statesman of long and eminent and selflessly devoted service, and this House its most distinguished Member. If that claim may be thought to be bold, it is only necessary to list the public offices which Lord Halifax held and the honours which came to him. He filled during his time six different offices of State in the Government of his country. He was Minister of Agriculture; he was twice President of the Board of Education; he was Secretary of State for War and Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council, and crowned everything by being Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He was Viceroy of India, Ambassador to the United States of America, and for two different periods he led your Lordships' House. He was a Fellow of All Souls, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and Chancellor of the Order of the Garter. And so the list goes on. In most cases, my Lords, the office adds stature to the man, but in the case of Edward Halifax, however great the post, it gained in dignity and authority by reason of his association with it.

That unadorned recital of his achievements and honours is enough to prove the eminence which I have claimed for him. It is indeed a dazzling story, although I must at once say that he was the last person to be dazzled, because he was a humble man and unconscious of any claim to greatness. Integer vitœ scelerisque purus, he was above all worldly considerations, a practising Christian. Duty to his God was the first of his duties and observed with scrupulous care and with the joy of a faith which knew no shaking.

But, my Lords, if honour sat easily on his shoulders, that is not to say that his actions were always approved by the public—indeed, he found himself a figure of controversy. As Viceroy of India his conviction that he must come some way to meet the tide of Indian nationalism aroused deep emotions in this country and bitterness among some of his political contemporaries. As Foreign Secretary he was criticised and attacked because he sought, or because he was thought to have sought, to appease rather than stand firm against Hitler. And your Lordships will remember the tense moment—perhaps one of the most dramatic of this turbulent century—when he stood here and announced to your Lordships the meeting at Munich which was attended by Mr. Chamberlain, who was Prime Minister at that time.

The historians will weigh the evidence and will seek a judgment, but his contemporaries to-day can testify to this: that, whatever his actions, they were always guided by what his religion, his very fine intellect and his true character told him to be the truth. It was this quality of integrity and of moral courage, always plain and constant, which earned the respect of Gandhi, the Indian nationalist leader, which assuaged some of the fever in the transfer of power and perhaps made possible a new relationship between India and Britain, and, we pray, a new trust.

As a Christian man of peace, Lord Halifax had to be certain beyond any doubt that Hitler was the embodiment of evil, out to destroy all the Christian values, before he could go himself or lead others to war. Your Lordships will recall that he stood at this Box in 1939, at the beginning of war, and told your Lordships that he felt that the conscience of the nation was clear. And perhaps it was the public knowledge that he, and men of like integrity, had searched to the limits for peace that brought the nation united to fight to the end. After the war he saw with absolute clarity that the hope of free men lay in the most intimate understanding between the English-speaking peoples of the world. Here was constructive work to be done, work in the field of fellowship and goodwill which held out the promise of peace. And during his time as Ambassador in the United States he used all his talents to weld an alliance which would be at once a decisive instrument of strength and a guarantee of peace for the free peoples. He left his post in the United Slates with universal acclaim.

So, my Lords, fate decreed that this man of peace should be at the centre of the great political convulsions of our century; at the birth of nationalism in Asia, out of the travail of which has perhaps been born the conception of the new Commonwealth; in the middle of the titanic struggle between international communism and the free peoples. And through all these trials and tests he remained calm and serene and sure. When he needed inspiration and refreshment he always found it with Lady Halifax, in that most ideal partnership and most happy marriage, in his family and in his Yorkshire home; and our sympathy to-day goes to Lady Halifax and his family, for she shared all the sorrows and all the prizes of his life. This public figure answered the continuous calls of duty, but his first love was in his home, in his family, on his farm, with his horses and with the countrymen of whom he was one. For there he found values which he thought were true, and there he found peace. And so we send our heartfelt sympathy from this House to-day, sorrow mingled with joy for a life which was great and good.

2.47 p.m.

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friends I should like to join very sincerely in that beautiful tribute which the noble Earl the Leader of the House has just paid to our departed friend, Lord Halifax. It is particularly poignant to me because, as your Lordships will remember, a day or two before we adjourned for the Christmas vacation Lord Halifax came to the House, having been away for some time through indisposition. He sat very briefly on the Cross Benches, and I just had a word with him. I felt, as I went away, that he was not quite so certain as one normally would be that he would be seeing your Lordships again.

We all have very tender memories, especially those of us who were with him for a long time in the House of Commons, of Edward Halifax. He was a man quite extraordinary in his makeup. As the noble Earl the Leader of the House says, his integrity was unchallenged in everything that he did. The noble Earl said of his great activities that some, no doubt, would be controversial and would be a question for the judgment of history. But what I remember most of Lord Halifax was his personal approach to us, sometimes to myself in the other place when he was a Minister, on controversial issues. As I look back upon some of the great decisions he had to be associated with, on some of which I differed from him, it seems to me that the manner in which he heard our case, the manner in which he responded to it, showed us that he had learned one great lesson, which we so often sing without knowing very much about it: For the love of God is broader Than the measure of man's mind, And the heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully kind. So we always had a great example of what it was to be a sincere Christian and a great gentleman.

In regard to some of the very important public appointments he held with such distinction, I would say that when I went with my noble friend Lord Pethick-Lawrence on the Cabinet Mission to India in 1946 we found there was a great affection remaining for him. But I appreciated more than anything, on that particular question, having read, and re-read, the late noble Earl's own biography, written in such happy fashion, The Fulness of Days, and his tribute, quite lengthy and sincere, to the late Mr. Gandhi, how much his heart was in making real friends with men who had different objectives sometimes but the same ultimate human ideals to attain. Nor do I forget our experience of him when Mr. Churchill, as he then was, formed his Cabinet in 1940: the immense services he rendered to this country, not least in times when we were still awaiting the formal accession to our war-time alliance of the United States and when we were badly in need of the help which at all times Lord Halifax was able to give in negotiations which were going on.

We note his passing with great sadness. The noble Earl the Leader of the House referred to some joy. Well, if there is anybody who has departed the public service in the Christian sense and who gained as much or more joy than was gained in the life of Edward Halifax, he would be difficult to find. I pray that the comfort of the Divine Holy Spirit will be with his family as they mourn their loss.

2.51 p.m.

LORD REA

My Lords, if I may, I should like to add a few words from these Benches to the most eloquent tributes which have already been given. The image which is at this moment in our minds and in our memories really needs no emphasis, no raising in high relief by words of admiration or of sorrow, which are merely expressions outwardly of an emotion which I think we are all feeling regarding the fine life and the deeply-to-be-regretted death of a great man. Among the great variety of high qualities which Lord Halifax possessed there were two which, I think, taken together, probably represent the best aspirations of all sincere men in public life: first, the ability to envisage in great depth and in great length the ideals and possibilities of human improvement; and secondly, the character, the moral strength and the capacity to pursue those ideals and possibilities with transparent sincerity and inflexible faith.

My Lords, though we all may not have agreed with everything which came from the noble Earl, this House has indeed lost one of its great figures and one of its wisest counsellors; the country has lost a statesman who was a deeply respected champion of its best causes, and the world is the poorer by the loss of an idealist of realism and of integrity.

2.53 p.m.

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

My Lords, I wish only to associate myself quite briefly with all that has been most movingly said by those who have already spoken; and even though I can only echo one or two of the things they have said, I have a particular reason for wishing to add a word. As your Lordships know, Lord Halifax was a most faithful and devoted member of the Church of England. As such, he was enabled to display its Christian graces, which are open indeed to any faithful Christian and are abundantly displayed by many Christians in many walks of life. But it was given to Lord Halifax to display them for all men to see in the conspicuous position to which he was born and in the series of high responsibilities of the offices to which he was called. There he made his contribution, in the special graces and gifts of his own distinction of character and devotion. In every action of his always distinctive career and in the strangely diverse demands made upon him, as your Lordships have heard, in times of great public anxiety and danger, the quality of what he contributed was directly drawn from his Christian dedication.

Those who knew him best knew him in his Yorkshire home and his Yorkshire environment. As your Lordships have been reminded, there he was always happiest to be himself; and the Church in the North derived most from his saintly life. But as your Lordships might like to recall, in the larger field of his activities here as Leader of the House, in critical days as Minister, Viceroy and Ambassador it was the Christian character, sincerity, courage and, most of all, humility which shone through all his actions and overcame every spiritual foe—and he knew no other kind of enemy. None will ever forget, I think, the impression which he made in India and on the world on his first arrival on Good Friday, in India, when his first act, before all else, was to go to church, for no other reason than that it was his natural duty and desire. Said India,"Here is an Englishman who believes in God." Many from this country also served India most faithfully in that same belief, but not all have had the opportunity, the unself-consciousness, the simplicity, the certainty of faith, to seize the opportunity as Lord Halifax naturally seized it. So he brought into great affairs and small affairs alike not only his great spirit but also this Christian spirit. As you have heard, all of us recognised it, all of us valued it; and it was that which made his public service so illustrious and his life so full of loveliness and of good report.

2.58 p.m.

THE EARL OF SWINTON

My Lords, I think it is perhaps fitting that a fellow-Yorkshireman should join in the moving tributes which have been paid to Lord Halifax in this place, for he was the greatest and the best Yorkshireman of our time. He loved Yorkshire and Yorkshire loved him. The happiest days of his life were spent at his home at Garrowby. He was never happier than when he was riding over the Yorkshire Wolds. That brings to my mind a story I heard in the United States. Lord Halifax had gone to see a great—I suppose the greatest of all American horses,"Man o' War." As he was standing by the horse the coloured groom who had had charge of"Man o' War" ever since his racing days were over said,"I never saw two greater gentlemen together". I bracket that with another tribute that I heard, also in America, from a rather unexpected quarter. One day Lord Halifax had gone over to the State Department in Washington, and as he was going in at the little door for Ambassadors an Irish-American policeman who was on duty turned to a friend of Lord Halifax who had walked across with him and said,"There goes everything that is best in the British Empire". My Lords, with characteristic modesty Edward Halifax would have disclaimed both those tributes; but both of them were true.

3.0 p.m.

VISCOUNT STANSGATE

My Lords, I remember the return to Parliament of Mr. Edward Wood as Member for Ripon. I had been for four years a Member of Parliament, and I was his Parliamentary companion right up to the day of his death. I can add nothing especially personal or in general to the fine words of the noble Earl the Leader of the House and of his personal friends. But for a little over two years I was in daily, indeed, hourly, contact with Lord Halifax, and I wondered whether it would be out of place if I stated very briefly the impression that he created on my mind in that personal daily contact among difficulties and the affection which he inspired in my heart. This touches matters which were at one time of deep controversy; and when the noble Earl the Leader of the House said that the life of Lord Halifax was a controversial one that was, of course, true. But I believe that I can risk it, because those battles are over and have passed into history; and, after all, it is only in battle, or mainly in battle, that one finds out of what stuff a man is made.

Your Lordships will remember that in 1929 a Labour Government came into office. Lord Halifax was then Viceroy of India, and had been for three years. The state of public opinion in India was violently disturbed, and it was only with difficulty that public order could be maintained. Lord Halifax suggested that some statement of British purpose in India should be made in order to reassure the Indians and to make a new start. I remember his speech, in which he spoke of"clouds of mistrust". He drew up such a statement and came to London with it. It was approved by the Cabinet and he returned immediately to India; and for the moment that had a good effect.

My duty then, as Secretary of State, was to collect the opinions of political leaders of the Parties on his statement. I sent it first to Mr. Baldwin, who was in France. I do not remember getting a written reply but his answer was quite clear:"I appointed Edward. I trust Edward, and what he says goes." And that reply, I believe, from my experience of him in those years, was very typical of Mr. Baldwin. I was very cheered because I was passionately in favour of the statement. Then I wrote to Mr. Lloyd George. He said,"I must consult Lord Reading," who was the out-going Viceroy. I saw Lord Reading and my immediate predecessor, Lord Birkenhead. My cheerfulness soon disappeared. I was faced with a stone wall of fierce resistance. They approved the Conference but the wording of the statement was fiercely opposed. Mr. MacDonald was in America and Mr. Snowden was in charge; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Labour Party had plenty to think about. Our Whip had no majority in the House of Commons, and we were faced, as I knew then, with the strongest opposition from the most powerful political figure of the day. We dared not put a Resolution on the Paper in case it should be defeated, so we had a debate on the Adjournment and went forward; and the Resolution, which in the judgment of Lord Halifax (and history has proved that he was right) was necessary, was made as drafted. That was due to one thing, the steadfastness of the Viceroy. For I knew, and everybody knew, that he would not budge. That was the first indication that I had of his character.

The second was even more testing from his point of view, because after the Conference, which was successful in improving relations between our two countries, there came the difficult question of making peace; and Lord Halifax had to decide what to do. He decided that he would see the Mahatma Gandhi in his Palace I think that the noble Earl the Leader of the House made some reference to that. Can your Lordships, whose House is full of great administrators of Empire, imagine what it meant that the Viceroy, the Emperor's representative, should there, in the Palace, permit this political prisoner to come forward in his peasant raiment and sit down with him to discuss peace between that country and ours?

A discussion took place and it went on and on. At about nine o'clock Miss Slade, who was one of the Mahatma's attendants, brought in half a pound of dates and a jug of milk, and the discussion went on until half past one that morning. And it succeeded. The Delhi Pact was made, and it was the foundation of the relations which we have at present with India. Why was that possible? I can say in more general terms what has been said by others. There was a fundamental faith which Lord Halifax shared with the Mahatma Gandhi. It was that this matter could never be settled by force. On that common faith the Delhi Pact was made, and a beginning was made; and that alone would be an eternal memorial to the man.

But that is now thirty years ago. Your Lordships may say that it was only a dream, and one which it would be very foolish to follow here. That is what is always said. But thirty years later we know that Lord Halifax helped to establish the principle that international relations can never be settled by force, that it is only by human contact, common humanity and common submission to the rule of the universe that that can be done. Therefore I shall always love the man, and shall always feel that I learned a very great deal from him. But more than this: his name will go down as that of a man who established an international philosophy for peace for which mankind may be grateful.

3.6 p.m.

EARL WINTERTON

My Lords, I recognise the need on these occasions for keeping speeches as few as possible, but my reason for speaking is, I think, a valid one—that I was certainly the oldest friend of Lord Halifax in this House, and one of the closest. We were at Eton together and we were together at Oxford where we were great friends and used to hunt together in those days. We took a course of instruction at the Cavalry School as yeomen together and I stayed with him at All Souls. After the 1914 war he and I, my noble friend beside me, Lord Swinton, and others worked in a group in another place, and all of us afterwards attained office. I was Under-Secretary for India when Lord Halifax was Viceroy. I went to India on a semi-official visit and I should like to say, in parenthesis, that having moved to some extent behind the scenes, as the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, knows, I can confirm everything he has just told your Lordships about those days and of the courage Lord Halifax displayed, and the formidable task with which those of us in the Conservative Party who supported him were faced, in our own constituencies and elsewhere.

I do not think it would be appropriate for me to say anything more after the very fine tributes (if I may say so without impertinence) which we have heard paid to Lord Halifax by the noble Earl the Leader of the House and other distinguished speakers. I will end only with this aphorism: I was devoted to Edward and no man that I ever knew had a more beneficial effect upon the friends of his own generation than did Edward Halifax. I believe your Lordships will agree with me that no finer tribute could be paid to any man.

3.9 p.m.

LORD PETHICK-LAWRENCE

My Lords, I trust your Lordships will forgive me if I add to those tributes, so fully justified, which have already been paid to Lord Halifax, by saying just a word or two about my own personal contacts with him. I first met Lord Irwin (as he was then) when I was a young Back-Bencher and went out to India at the time when he was Viceroy. I paid a visit to him and also visited other politicians in India who were at that time resentful of the policy of the British Crown. I found that, in spite of that, they had for Lord Irwin an esteem, owing to his knowledge and his steadfastness; and, more than that, they had for him an affection which I believe was remarkable in all those circumstances.

The second occasion when I was brought into direct contact with Lord Halifax was in this House. I was then myself Secretary of State for India, and it was my duty in that capacity, on behalf of my Government, to introduce a proposal which seemed to noble Lords opposite to be fraught with the gravest danger. When Lord Halifax rose to speak, speaking with all that quiet emphasis which he always showed, and with a great sense of reality, he begged noble Lords opposite not to oppose the Motion. He said that, in his opinion, it was one of very great importance and he himself was in favour of it. And, as very rarely happens in either of these two Houses, his speech completely changed the attitude of the whole House; and the noble Lords who had intended to oppose the Motion desisted from doing so. I shall always cherish the memory with gratitude of what he did on that occasion. He did it because he felt, from the love and affection that he bore to that country—which he shared with me and with great numbers of the British people—a desire for its welfare and the hope that, through the right action, we should remain permanent friends and bring benefit to the world.

3.12 p.m.

LORD SALTER

My Lords, I wish to say only one thing. Though I knew Lord Halifax at the time of his Viceroyalty, and saw him then in Delhi, it was only much later that I saw him intimately, especially in Oxford as Chancellor of the University and at All Souls, and then in Washington during his Ambassadorship in the war. There is to me one outstanding quality among the many that have been recalled this afternoon, a quality which I think many of us have seen with respect and reverence. It was his calm and courageous serenity in the face of public anxieties and personal distress. It was a serenity reflecting neither indifference nor inertia, but an inner strength rooted in his character and in his religion; and, as is so clearly visible in his autobiography, the impulse to a public career was less personal ambition than a sense of public duty, for his deep affections and interests were in the countryside, in its pursuits, its activities, its duties; and in the life of a country gentleman, a great gentleman, and a Christian.

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