APOLOGY MADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 69, 23 March 1938, Page 11

APOLOGY MADE

INDISCREET SPEECH BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FRESH TO OFFICE (British Official wireless.) RUGBY, March 21. •On the motion for the adjournment ! in the House of Commons, Mr. Arthur Henderson (Labour) raised the question of the speech made in his constituency by Mr. A. T. Lennox-Boyd, the new Parliamentary Secretary of Labour, which he criticised as having caused consternation in Czechoslovakia. Mr. Lennox-Boyd, who is 6ft 7in tall, in apologising, said he would not attempt to deny his indiscretion in speaking on foreign affairs at the present time. "I am so recently translated to an important position that perhaps I have not begun to realise the importance that might be'attached to my chance words," he said." ,'T shall realise in future that my task is to support the Minister- of Labour and that any expression on foreign affairs must be very carefully weighed. "I apologise to the Under-Secretaries whose office has thus been brought into discussion, and especially to the Prime Minister. I told him, as he knows, that I was not attempting to speak for the Government, as I do not know Cabinet's policy." The Opposition greeted this naive declaration with a great laugh, for which Mr. Lennox-Boyd expressed his gratitude. Mr. P. J. Noel-Baker (Labour) contended that the speech misrepresented the facts, especially the Czechoslovaks' unwillingness to defend their country. Mr. G. Le M. Mander (Liberal) said that in his speech Mr. Lennox-Boyd used language gravely discourteous to France. Mr. Chamberlain, amid Mr. LennoxBoyd's furious blushes, accepted his apology, adding that he would be better advised to use more careful language at a moment of great delicacy. "I am satisfied he did not have a sinister object and was merely indis-. creet," he said. "He is fresh to office and did not fully realise its implications. I am certain he will not repeat it." In a speech in his constituency, (MidBedford), which has been widely cited on the Continent as representing the policy of the British ■ Government, Mr. Lennox-Boyd was reported to have said:—"l don't think Mr. Chamberlain will make a movement to guarantee the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. I can contemplate nothing more ridiculous than guaranteeing that her frontiers will not be violated when half the people of Czechoslovakia cannot be relied on loyally to support their Government. Germany could absorb Czechosovakia, leaving Britain -safe and secure."