§ 3.32 p.m.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, with your Lordships' permission I should like to repeat a statement being made in another place by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister on the Memorial to President Kennedy. These are the words of the Prime Minister:
§ "I have now received the report of the Committee under the Chairmanship of Lord Franks, and I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT. I have consulted the right honourable gentleman the 1269 Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberal Party. We all accept the Committee's recommendations.
§ "The Committee propose that the Memorial should take the form, first, of an acre of Runnymede, laid out simply, with a simple plinth and steps, which should be given in perpetuity to the United States in memory of President Kennedy. The second part of the Memorial proposed by the Committee is a scholarship fund for young men and women from the United Kingdom to go, as undergraduates or graduates, some to Harvard University or Radcliffe College, some to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
§ "The Government are deeply grateful to Lord Franks and the members of his Committee for the care with which they have examined all the proposals brought to their attention and we feel that the recommendations taken together will provide a worthy memorial.
§ "Both parts of the proposal will require consultations with various authorities and bodies in this country and the United States and these will be undertaken.
§ "It seems desirable that the task of giving effect to the Memorial should be supervised by a small Committee. I am glad to be able to tell the House that Sir Roger Makins has accepted my invitation to be the Chairman of this Committee and that the United States Ambassador in London and Sir Humphrey Mynors, lately Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, have generously agreed to serve on it.
§ "I am also glad to be able to inform the House that the Lord Mayor of London has most kindly agreed to make the President Kennedy Memorial the object of a Lord Mayor's Appeal. I am sure that this generous offer by the Lord Mayor of his time and energies will assist the whole nation in raising a worthy memorial to the late President."
§
Following is the copy of a letter from Lord Franks to the Prime Minister dated 29th February, 1964, referred to in the statement:
I am writing as Chairman of the Committee which you set up to consider what form
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the British memorial to President Kennedy should take. This letter contains the recommendations of the Committee.
You told Parliament on December 5 that, while public opinion was being given an opportunity to express itself on the tragedy of the assassination of President Kennedy, you were considering how best to facilitate discussion about the form of a British memorial to him; and you arranged consultations between the parties. You also told Parliament that Her Majesty the Queen had been graciously pleased to express her wish to be personally associated with whatever proposal might be decided upon.
You announced on January 21 the constitution of this Committee. We have held four meetings and a sub-committee has held a further two. We have received about 150 letters, nearly all of which reached us by the middle of February; few have come since then. We have considered every one. We wish to express our thanks to all who have helped us in this way.
We have had the privilege of the interest and counsel of Her Majesty the Queen, who received me as the representative of the Committee and discussed with me a number of ideas which we had formed in the light of the suggestions before us. I have visited Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Mr. Robert Kennedy and others in the United States and have had similar discussions with them; and I have had the honour to be received by Mrs. Kennedy, whose wishes we particularly desired to consult.
We have founded our recommendations on these consultations and on our examination of the many particular proposals before us. Trying to catch the spirit which pervaded these proposals, various though they were in content, and to interpert the general feeling of the country, we have sought for President Kennedy a living memorial in the service of men and women, including a permanent physical presence and infused with an imaginative quality which would always evoke the memory of his outlook and achievements.
President Kennedy gave a voice to the heritage which is enshrined for us in Runnymede: we propose that an acre of Runnymede, laid out simply, with a simple plinth and steps, should be given in perpetuity to the United States in memory of him.
This would be at the centre of our memorial. But it would not be the whole memorial. It would be completed by a link with the influences of his home country and of the world of thought and action which helped to mould his mind: we propose a scholarship fund for young men and women from the United Kingdom to go, as undergraduates or graduates, some to Harvard University or Radcliffe College, some to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. President Kennedy was particularly interested in bringing the two great disciplines of traditional humane studies and modern technology into fruitful combination and making their strength effective in the activities of Government and the direction of world affairs. The scholarships would be awarded within these fields of knowledge and thereby contribute, as we hope,
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to the advancement of his idea. The scholars would come from all over Britain, chosen on some regional sub-division of the country.
We make both parts of our proposal as a unanimous recommendation. The first part speaks for itself. We have chosen the second part because it relates to youth; Boston was President Kennedy's home, Harvard his university; and at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Kennedy family are providing the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library. It is a fitting tribute to President Kennedy's work for international understanding that a succession of young men and women from our country should be given an opportunity to live and work for a period in this environment.
I enclose with this letter a list of the members of the Committee.
§ THE PRESIDENT KENNEDY MEMORIAL COMMITTEE
§ Members
§ The Rt. Hon. The Lord Franks, P.C., G.C.M.G., K.C.B., C.B.E. (Chairman),
§ The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Chandos, P.C., D.S.O., M.C.,
§ The Rt. Hon. The Lord Evershed, P.C., F.S.A.,
§ The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor of London (Alderman C. James Harman),
§ The Rt. Hon. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Mr. Duncan M. Weatherstone, M.C., T.D.),
§ The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor of Belfast (Councillor W. Jenkins, J.P.).
§ The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor of Cardiff (Alderman Charles A. Horwood, J.P.),
§ The Viscount Harcourt, K.C.M.G., O.B.E.,
§ Sir Roger Makins, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.,
§ Sir Philip de Zulueta,
§ Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, D.B.E.,
§ Lady Jackson,
§ Mr. Victor Feather, C.B.E.,
§ Mr. John Freeman, M.B.E.,
§ Dr. T. Lupton.
§ EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, we are obliged to the Lord Chancellor for giving us the statement. A scheme which has been so received in the other place by all the Parties concerned is worthy of our support, and we think that a good deal can come from it in the strengthening of relationships with the United States.
LORD REAMy Lords, this scheme obviously has the support of those of all Parties and of no Party as a memorial to a great man. I think it will be very suitable to us that a bit of England at Runnymede which really saw the beginning of our independence should be dedicated to this great purpose. Of course, the interchange of young people between this country and America can do nothing but good. We welcome this scheme wholeheartedly.