§ 3 p.m.
§ The Lord President of the Council (Viscount Whitelaw)My Lords, I am sure that you have all been saddened by the deaths during the recess of a number of noble Lords who have given considerable service to your Lordships' House over the years. In accordance with the traditions of the House, I shall refer in particular to one of my predecessors as Leader, Lord Soames. The many tributes in the press have given details of his outstanding political career and assessments of his considerable achievements in a wide variety of fields. As your Lordships will be aware, those started when he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Winston Churchill when he was Prime Minister and continued in his many other offices and appointments, including Minister of 2 Agriculture, Ambassador to Paris, Commissioner of the European Commission and the last Governor of Rhodesia.
I shall confine myself to a few more personal comments about the Christopher Soames we knew either as Leader or as a Member of your Lordships' House. I know from what I have been told how much your Lordships valued his work as Leader and his interest in the working of the House. It is also worth recalling that the presence of television in your Lordships' House owes much to his initiative and enthusiasm for greater publicity for our proceedings.
In personal terms, I have little doubt that your Lordships will all remember him best as a big man in every sense of the word, for there was nothing small or small-minded about him. He loved to have his devoted wife Mary and his family around him. He enjoyed to the full the company of his friends and he gave generously of his friendship, for he had a big heart. He enjoyed entertaining and being entertained. Few who visited him, particularly when he was Ambassador in Paris, will ever forget his generosity and his hospitality. I know that he would like best to be remembered for all those qualities, and I have no doubt that such is the memory of him which will live in your Lordships' House.
No doubt there will also be the memory, most precious of all in your Lordships' minds, of the courage with which he faced his last illness. I know we should all like to send our sympathy to his wife Mary and all his family.
§ Lord Cledwyn of PenrhosMy Lords, as the noble Viscount has said, we have been greatly saddened by the death of a number of our colleagues during the recess. The noble Viscount has referred in moving terms to the death of Christopher Soames. We all know the wide range of his interests and the great offices, both political and diplomatic, which he held with great distinction. He had a varied and colourful career.
I first came to know him about 35 years ago when he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to his illustrious father-in-law. It is an interesting historical fact that he was probably the most influential Parliamentary Private Secretary in the annals of 3 Parliament. But there are others in this House who served with him and who will speak with greater authority about his role at that time.
Shortly after I entered the other place, I was walking with a colleague along the Library corridor when the Prime Minister and his Parliamentary Private Secretary passed by. We nodded respectfully to the great man. Later that day, Christopher came to me laughing and said that the Prime Minister had asked who we were and he had replied, "Some new Welsh Members"; whereupon Winston Churchill remarked, "They can be quite nice, but you have got to observe them carefully".
Lord Soames also occupied several ministerial positions, including that of Minister at the Ministry of Agriculture, where I followed him in due course and where I discovered immediately that he was very much respected. As the noble Viscount has said, he was an arresting personality and he liked and indeed insisted as Minister upon having his own way.
He was also probably one of the few Members of Parliament who was fortunate in losing his seat, as he did in 1966, for it opened the door to the Paris Embassy—where he was a welcoming and generous host—and to the EC Commission. As a committed European he filled that post with well-known enthusiasm. His return to politics as Leader of this House will be remembered best in history for his short but historic tenure in Rhodesia and Mr. Mugabe's presence at his funeral was a fitting tribute to his service there. This House has lost one of its outstanding personalities and we shall miss him. We send our deep sympathies to Lady Soames and the family.
§ Lord DiamondMy Lords, the long recess almost always results in our returning with some new and very sad memories, and that is the case today. In particular we mourn the loss of one who was our Leader. But our first thoughts must go not to our own sense of bereavement but to the loss sustained by his family. It is to them, on behalf of all my friends, that we offer our most sincere condolences.
I was fortunate in getting to know Christopher Soames quite well, mainly in the other House, but there is nothing remarkable about that, for there were few people whom it was easier to get to know. He was always a very friendly, outgoing and warm-hearted personality. In particular in his personal relationships he refused to take any account of the difference in status or even of party of those to whom he was showing friendship. He was totally devoid of stuffiness. He was a great man in every sense, as has been said. He had a most remarkable endowment of talents and a remarkable tally of achievements. He was a great soldier, he was a great ambassador and he was a great minister; indeed a Cabinet Minister. Which of us, as has already been referred to, will ever forget his achievement as the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia, and as we all know he was Lord President of the Council and Leader of our House.
Perhaps my first and greatest memory of him will always be for the steadfast way in which he promoted and supported the European cause. Not only did he do remarkable work in this country but there he was in Europe to be seen plainly as the most English of 4 Englishmen, behaving and speaking (incidentally in good French) as a European. He was a great ambassador in Paris and an equally great ambassador in the EC. I am sure that there are hundreds in this country, in Europe and in Africa who will share our sense of deep loss.
§ Baroness Hylton-FosterMy Lords, on behalf of the Cross-Bench Peers I should like to associate this part of the House with what has already with eloquence been said about the late Lord Soames. Not much has been said in the press about his distinguished leadership of this House from May 1979 to 1981, interrupted as it was by his five months as Governor General. Despite this interruption he made a wholly beneficial impact on the House not only because he had great presence as Leader of the House but primarily because he clearly cared about the House, its traditions and its future. We on the Cross-Benches appreciated his quality and his respect for Back-Benchers and for those who hold no party political allegiance.
As has already been said, he was the prime mover in promoting television in this House. It was his Motion in December 1983 that led to the initial inquiry, the experimental period and now to the coverage which we have all grown so used to. This was just one aspect of his intense and close interest in the House and its future. We also send our deep sympathy to Lady Soames and her family.