PARLIAMENT PAYS TRIBUTE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 43, 14 November 1940, Page 10

PARLIAMENT PAYS TRIBUTE

Neville Chamberlain SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON. November 12. When the House of Commons met today Mr. Churchill paid a tribute to the late Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in the course of which the Prime Minister said that in paying a tribute of respect and regard no one was obliged to alter the opinions he had formed or expressed upon the issues which had become part of history. It wa.s not given Io human beings —happily for them, otherwise life would be intolerable—to foresee or predict to any large extent the course of events, said Mr. Churchill. "In one way, men seem to have been right; in another, they seem to have been wrong. Then, again, a few years later, when the perspective of time is lengthened, all stands in a different setting; there is tl new perspective, and another scale of values." said the Prime Minister. "But what was the worth of all this? The only guide that man had was his conscience; the only .shield, the rectitude and sincerity of his action. "Whatever else history may or may not say about these tremendous, terrible years," he continued, "we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted in perfect sincerity according to his light, lie strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority—which were powerful—to save the world from the awful and devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. Let Hitler protest with frantic words and gestures that he only desired peace. For what do these ravings and outbursts count before the silence of, Neville Chamberlain’s tomb?” Of Mr. Chamberlain’s service to the nation after he had ceased to be Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill said that Mr. Chamberlain acted with a singleness of purpose which at all times, and especially in great times, ought to be a model for everybody. Although only a physical rake of a man, his nerve was unshaken and his remarkable mental capacities unimpaired. After he left the Government he refused all honour. He would die like his father, plain Mr. Chamberlain. Continued Interest.

Mr. Churchill said he had sought permission of the King to have Mr. Chamberlain supplied with the Cabinet papers, and till a few days of his death he followed affairs with the greatest interest and tenacity. He met the approach of death with a steady heart. If he grieved at all it was that he could not be a spectator of the British victory. “But I think,” said the Prime Minister, "he died with the comfort of knowing that his country had at last turned the corner. "Neville Chamberlain was like his father and his brother, Austen, before him, a famous member of the House of Commons, and we here assembled, members of all parties, without a single exception feel that we do ourselves and the country honour iu saluting the memory of one whom Disraeli would have called "an English worthy.” On behalf of the Labour Party, Mr. Attlee said they had never doubted that Mr. Chamberlain was honestly and sincerely following the course which he believed .to be right in the interests of his country. .Sir Archibald Sinclair, for the Liberal Party, said that more than once, even in the heat of the most controversial debate, the Liberal Party had cause to pay tribute to Mr. Chamberlain’s ability as a social reformer, to his courage, to his high sense of public duty, and to his untiring devotion to the cause of peace. In the House of Lords, Lord Halifax declared that it was due to Mr. Chamberlain to say that in matters that incurred the principal weight of criticism much of that criticism was directed against interpretation of policy which was never Mr. Chamberlain’s. Hie fact that he did everything in his power to avoid war never meant for one moment'that he relaxed his effort to prepare for war should war come. Mr. Chamberlain was able to ensure that when war finally came it came to a country united in itself and convinced that every effort had been made to guide Europe into another and more excellent way.