MEMORIES OF THE 10 YEARS PARLIAMENT

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24631, 30 July 1945, Page 4

MEMORIES OF THE 10 YEARS PARLIAMENT

BALDWIN TO CHURCHILL

The Parliament elected in November, 1935, ... has lasted nearly 10 years, two and a half years fewer than the Long Parliament. By reason of mere duration, therefore, it must rank as one of the memorable Parliaments of British history. Judged, however by the number and magnitude of events to fall within those 10 years—a period of almost uninterrupted international crisis, ending in the greatest of all threats to the safety of these islands— judged by that standard, the Parliament that goes out to-day must take a place second to none in British history. It is possible to maintain that this was not one but two Parliaments, so great is the contrast between the first four years of its life and the last five. For the first phase, from 1935 to IW9, it shares with the Government of the day the responsibility for the uninterrupted retreat of British P°wer, as Mr Churchill described it. Jut the last five years redeemed all. No Parliament ever became so “vowed and dedicate” to a single task—victory—or pursued it with such an undeviating will. . • Political Palsy The Parliament began in a palsy. The great Tory majority was secretly and radically sceptical of the League, though it had been returned by paying lip-service to it.- This corrupting dualism ran like a dry rot through the early years until, in the end, Mr Chamberlain, dropping all disguise, made his direct bid over Mr Edens head and the Leagues for a settlement with Mussolini. Even after war had come hair tne nation doubted whether the palsy had been lifted, as well it might, when it could hear Mr Chamberlain declare that Hitler had “missed the bus a few days before he overran Denmark and Norway and a couple of months before his armies had overwhelmed the Low Countries and France. It was in the purifying fires of those calamities that Parliament found its soul The crash of France brought a revolutionary simplification of everybody’s task. Now it was victory or slavery. Parliament, like the nation, was caught up in the national r«urgence that began with Mr Churchill s assumption of office. Parties coalesced in a unity behind the Government that never weakened until Germany made unconditional surrender. We can all set impatient with Parliament at times, but no one but art indurated cynic or an open enemy of. Parliamentary democracy would refuse a large meed of honour to the Parliament that through five years of peril—even physical peril to itself—and five years of great, endeavour did so much to sustain the Coalition Government and the nation. The “Madness” of Sanctions The Parliament began badly. It was only a month old when the HoareLaval Pact was signed condoning Mussolini’s felony in Abyssinia. A month or two earlier Sir Samuel Hoare (now Lord Templewood) had proclaimed "" i

This article was contributed to the “Manchester Guardian’’ by its political correspondent on the day Parliament was dissolved. (Published by Arrangement.)’

Britain’s constancy to the full League doctrine with a fervour beyond that of even Lord Cecil or M. Paul Boncour, Now here was Sir Samuel, sacrificed by Mr Baldwin (as he then was) to an indignant country, making his resignation speech. In the early sUm. mer Mr Chamberlain, then Chancel!* ’ of the Exchequer, burst into the do- v main of foreign policy to proclaim sanctions against Italy’s ‘'midsummer madness.” So off came sanctions in June. Mr Chamberlain’s word was becoming Tory law. Then opened the long-drawn-out tragic farce of nonintervention in Spain, where the world-wide ideological conflict was being rehearsed on a small stage. • “Negotiate or Surrender?” And who can forget the highwrought emotion of the country in the days leading up to King Edward VIIIV abdication, contrasting so sharply with'. " 'the serene England that, almost defenceless, faced imminent invasionfour years later? The rejoicings at the Coronation of King George VI copld not dispel the darkening clou* over Europe. Mr Chamberlain arrivedin Downing Street to replace Mr Baldwin, who had gone down to Worcester, shire to spend his days in a rural at-' mosphere impregnated with wood- ■ smoke. The change-over synchronised with the first sharp explosions of the ’ avalanche that was beginning to move. There is no need, to recount the familiar and depressing story of the'aggressions and the diplomatic surrenders. I remember asking Mr Lloyd George his view of Mr Chamberlain's Munich mission a few moments after the historic scene in the House. like a flash came an answer that cut.to .the bone of the business: “Is he going td negotiate or to surrender? That is the test.” Chore hill's Speeches The high and passionate debate on the Norwegian fiasco (one of the greatest debates of this century); the succession of noble speeches from Mr Churchill in 1940, each the equivalent of a victory; the memory of Ur Churchill, Lord Beaverbrookf and) Lord Keith looking into the rectangle- - of ruin that was once the Chamber of the House of Commons on the morting of the May 10 raid; the long month of slogging application by Parliament; to the material problems of .war, dark* ened by the disasters of Singapore, Libya, Tobruk—so the days wore on. And then the sun of Alamein—as truly? sun for the British people as ever .the sun of Austerlitz for Napoleon. The- ’ rest is too well known. But any mem.' ber of this Parliament would recognise', this an incomplete picture if mention was not made of those more re-V cent days of congestion and strain atChurch House, when the ‘ ‘imminent danger” Jjell and' the roar and ex-' plosion, near or far, of the flying bomb were the almost continuous accompaniment of debate. Those days spent in' the lee of the menaced but mercifully inviolate Abbey will shine with) a lustre all their own in the long histdjy ' of Parliament. ii i :