MR. Duff Cooprr's Speech.

Part of Orders of the Day — Great Britain and France. – in the House of Commons at on 29 June 1936.

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Photo of Sir Sidney Herbert Sir Sidney Herbert , Westminster Abbey

In my membership of the House I do not recollect a Motion of this kind having been moved upon so frivolous an occasion as that to-night. Not a single quotation has been made from the speech of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War which has, for one second, borne out the contention that he advocated any policy contrary to that of His Majesty's Government. No Member who has risen to speak so far, either on the Liberal or the Labour benches, has quoted such a sentence. Of what does the speech consist? In what may be described as the wildest moment of that speech, my right hon. Friend repeated the statement of the Prime Minister, to the effect that the frontier of this country was on the Rhine. For the sake of greater accuracy, I have a copy of the speech here. I have read it in English and I have read it in French in various newspapers. I find that at the beginning it consists of the statement that my right hon. Friend's general culture had been improved by a knowledge of French literature and life, and that I know to be true, because I have known my right hon. Friend from boyhood to manhood. He went on to say that from time to time the English and the French liked each other and from time to time they disliked each other, but that particular likes and dislikes had very little to do with the case when they were like two sailors on a raft. They might dislike each other but they were bound to collaborate. Does any hon. Member opposite object to those statements?

I believe there is not a single statement in the speech which is contrary to the views expressed by His Majesty's Government, and what I ask the Opposition is: What statement is there in this speech which is contrary to their own views? My right hon. Friend went on to say—I am now translating from the French—that our affection for France was based on our belief in the value of the individual, our belief in liberty of speech and thought. Is there any objection to that? Secondly, he said, that that feeling was accompanied by a general hatred of violence and force. Thirdly, he said, and I hope the Opposition will not object to this sentiment, that in the regulation of international disputes we ought to have recourse to methods of reasonable and pacific legality. Liberty, he said, was our aim and he added, "La paix, c'est notre mot d'ordre." Is there any objection to that? He also said that there were certain quarters in Europe in which it was preached to all the winds that war was desirable, that youth should be impregnated by the desire to fight those like himself and that it was natural to man to seek the highest honour by death on the field of battle. Do they object to that? Is that not preached in at least three countries in Europe to-day, and why is it unfair that a Minister of this country should get up and say it?

The rest of the speech, except for a slight regret that we burned Joan of Arc and a note of pleasure that we imprisoned Napoleon, seems to me to have been one that might have been made at any debating society, or certainly by anyone who went to a foreign country or any society which exists to try and unite two countries in amity and friendship. Indeed, I wish that all Ministers or all Members of this House spoke in such terms. My right hon. Friend seemed to me to give us what I always wish for, namely, a truism which the people think expressed in exquisite language. There was not a word in that speech which contravenes the principles of the Treaty of Locarno. Is any hon. Member opposite going to deny the Treaty of Locarno? The principles of that speech seem to me to make a good deal clearer, but to go no farther than, the rest of the policy of His Majesty's Government. I belong to a generation which saw hundreds of thousands of men from this country shot down because the then existing Liberal Government refused to tell the truth either to Germany or to Europe. There are a great many dangers in foreign policy to-day, but the greatest of all is the fear of people in this country expressing what their real policy is. The Treaty of Locarno is embedded in the Covenant of the League of Nations. We have not gone any farther than that.

The right hon. Member for Carnarvon Boroughs (Mr. Lloyd George) said the other day that the people of this country would not fight for Austria. Why did he choose Austria, the country which his Treaties more than any others have mutilated? The greatness of this country or of any other country does not depend upon stating what you will not fight for, but rather on what you will be prepared, on behalf of the lives and liberties of your people, to fight for. On the actual facts of the Motion, I approve what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War said, and from a general point of view, for the good of the people of this country, I think he rendered to this country one of the greatest services which have been renered by a Minister for many years past.