KING OPENS PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 23987, 30 November 1939, Page 5

KING OPENS PARLIAMENT

Customary Pageantry Abandoned TRIBUTE TO DOMINIONS’ EFFORTS (United Press Association —Telegraph Copyright) LONDON, November 28. The King opened the first war session of Parliament without ceremony. His plans were kept secret. The King and Queen drove from Buckingham Palace in a closed car instead of the traditional coach. “The prosecution of the war commands the energies of all my subjects,” said the King. “My Dominions overseas are participating wholeheartedly and with an effectiveness which is most gratifying to me. My navies throughout the world, together with the Merchant Navy and the fishing fleets, are keeping the highways of the sea free and open. My armies and air forces are fulfilling their tasks at Home and abroad. lam well assured that they will be equal to any efforts or sacrifices to which they may be called. “The House of Commons will be asked to make further financial provision for the conduct of the war. Grave responsibilities rest on you at this time. lam convinced that you will express the resolution of the nation. “The measures which will be submitted to you are such as seem necessary to my advisers for the welfare of my people and the attainment of the purpose upon which all our efforts are set,” said the King. “I pray that Almighty God will give His blessing to your counsels?’

Contrary to expectations, the King opened the new session of Parliament in person, and the announcement of the arrival of his Majesty, who was accompanied by the Queen, took members of both Houses by surprise. The King and Queen drove unobtrusively to Westminster in a closed motor-car, with a police motor-cycle escort, instead of in the Windsor coach drawn by the Windsor greys, and were not attended by the Yeomen of the Guard. A few minutes before their arrival the Duke of Gloucester, in khaki, and the Duke of Kent, in naval uniform, entered the House of Lords. The Imperial Crown, usually taken to Parliament in a landau with an escort,; went by police motor-car. It was as usual carried in procession from the robing room to the chamber, the emblem being borne by the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield. Although all the essentials were observed, there was none of the pageantry which attends the age-long ceremony in peace time. The general debate on the address, which will continue • tomorrow and Thursday in the House of Commons and will be wound up next week, was opened by the Leader, of the Labour Opposition (Major C. R. Atlee), who directed his remarks principally to the" question of war aims. He urged that reconstruction could not be postponed until the end of the war. It was important to think of peace aims now and clearly state them to counter enemy propaganda and rally world opinion to support the Allies. HITLER’S AGGRESSION The aggression of Herr Hitler, said Major Attlee, while an evil thing in itself, arose out of conditions of anarchy in the world. The aggressive spirit of the British people determined that defeat could not be confined in place or time to Hitler’s Germany. There had been aggressive wars before and there would be again unless necessary changes were made in international organization. A peace settlement must be made by co-operation of the victors, vanquished and neutrals alike. It must recognize the rights of all nations, small as well as great, and it must imply the abandonment of the use of force and aggression and the acceptance of disinterested third-party judgment. The rights of racial culture and religious minorities must be respected. All this meant the abandonment of the concept of absolute sovereignty and the recognition of international authority. Major Attlee expressed disappointment that, the Prime Minister in his Sunday broadcast- rather spoke of the new Europe as something Utopian, to be realized after long years. They were faced by a crisis of civilization which called for drastic remedies. People wanted some assurance now that their’ children would not have to face the ordeal again in 25 , years, as they today were having to face it 25 years after their fathers. Mr Chamberlain had shown that he wanted a reduction of armaments, but Major Attlee complained that he had not shown that he had faced the necessity of collective security in disarmament to be realized. ' Answering these criticisms, Mr Chamberlain denied that he had implied in the broadcast that the conditions of peace he had described were remote. He had said that they could not be foreseen. FUTURE OF WAR “I say now that none of us knows how long this war is going to last, none of us knows in what direction it is going to develop and none of us knows who at the end will stand at our side and who will be against us," said Mr Chamberlain. “I say that in these circumstances it would be absolutely futile—indeed it would be worse than futile, it would be mischievous—if it were to attempt to lay down today the conditions on which the new world is to be created. It is no use today to say how much, machinery shall be set up, because we do not know whether it will be possible in the conditions that will then prevail. "We have not entered this war with any vindictive purpose and we do not therefore, intend to impose a vindictive peace,” said Mr Chamberlain. “What we say is that first of all we must put an end to the menace that has lain on Europe for many years.” Earl Baldwin of Bewdley had given a warning that if the League of Nations were to come to an end the first thing the world would have to do would be to build it again. This was a line of thought sent to the minds of many. WORK OF LEAGUE Mr Chamberlain went on to commend the economic and humanitarian work of the League. In particular he referred to the report of the committee presided over by the Australian representative on the question of social and economic collaboration and expressed his hope that the work of the League might be further extended in these directions. “We shall need all our courage, all our tenacity and all our patriotism to achieve our aims,” concluded Mr Chamberlain. “For let us not make the mistake of under-rating our enemy. When we have achieved that, then indeed we may find that we require greater vision and an even stronger will to win the

peace than it has taken to win the war. I do not doubt that when the time comes there will be those who will have that vision and that will. I only hope they may have greater fortune in fulfilling their own ideals ( than those had who were left to win the, peace after the last war.”

Mr Chamberlain, gave a review of the progress of the war, in which he said that, so far as land operations were concerned, the term “siege war” was not inappropriate. On the sea it was very different. There the fight was being carried on in deadly earnest and if there had been no fleet actions there had been a number of individual combats of very considerable severity. He referred to “the heroic action on the North Sea against overwhelming odds, by those naval reservists and naval pensioners who manned the Rawalpindi. “These men must have known as soon as they sighted the enemy that there was no chance for them, but they had no thought of surrender,” he said. “They fought their guns until they could fight them no more. They then, many of them, went to their deaths and thus carried on the great traditions of the Royal Navy. Their example will be an inspiration.” Mr Chamberlain then mentioned the Reprisals Order-in-Council, published tonight, containing the measures the Allies have been compelled to. take as a result of the numerous indefensible acts of the German Government in contravention of Germany’s pledged word. This enemy Government, he said, seemed to have no code of honour and broke every convention on the flimsiest pretext if it thought that to do so served the Nazi purpose. ■' The British Government recognized that the seizure of German exports might cause inconvenience and perhaps loss to the neutral States but, if the measures helped to bring the Allied efforts to*a successful issue, they might well be worth to the neutral States themselves the sacrifices they entailed. The British Government was doing its best to cause the least possible injury. For example, the Order-in-Coun-cil purposely postponed the coming into effect of the measure until December 4 —a fortnight , after his original announcement —to give the neutral States an opportunity to prepare. Discussing events in the air. the Prime Minister thought that the*House would welcome the announcement that an agreement had been reached at Ottawa on the main principles and methods of the great inter-Dominion scheme for the training of pilots—a scheme his Majesty’s Government regarded as of the utmost value and importance in assuring British mastery in the air. The Leader of the Liberal Opposition, Sir Archibald Sinclair, declared that the Liberals was dissatisfied with the handling of the war economy, particularly the export trade. He added that a total of 1,500,000 unemployed three months after the outbreak of war was evidence of the Government’s failure fully to use the resources at its disposal. He requested a two-day secret session.

RUMANIA OPPOSED TO BOUNDARY_REVISION INTENTION TO REMAIN NEUTRAL BUCHAREST, November 29. “There will be no revision of Rumanian boundaries,” declared the new Prime Minister (M. Tatarescu), broadcasting. “We shall defend all we have inherited from our ancestors.” He also reaffirmed Rumania’s intention to remain neutral in the present war.

It is reported that Germany is demanding that Rumania should lower the value of Rumanian currency from the rate of 41 lei for the German reichmark to 56 lei, otherwise all German firms trading with Rumania will raise their prices by 24 per cent.