LATE LORD OXFORD

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1928, Page 3

LATE LORD OXFORD

TRIBUTES IN LORDS. (Australian & N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, I'eb. IC. In the Lords, Lord Salisbury, ii moving the adjournment, said Lord • Asquith stood out all alone as a man and strongly hating war, with its sorrows and bitterness, yet having the moral courage to choose its arbitrament in the course of national honour. Lord Haldane said that Lord Asquith was essentially a man of character, having taken the decision without asking whether it would be popular, or whether glory was obtainable fro u it. “I well remember the decision he took to enter the war. Lord Grey and myself were with him on the night of August 2nd. when immediately and without hesitation his mind was made up. He did not wish to consult anybody. He simply decided that a situation had arisen in which, much as he hated war, it must be accepted, if we were to be saved from war in a further form, which might entail disaster to the nation.” Viscount Grey said the criticism was often made that Lord Asquith was slow to make decisions, but reluctant to make decisions in no wise implied I incapacity therefore. “On the contrary, we members of the Cabinet felt that when the decision was reached nobody would announce it so clearly or defend it so powerfully. We had a most valuable example of his quality in the week preceding the War. Tt was well-known that in the last week of July, the Government was so deeply divided that the parties were apparently irreconeiliahlo in the Commons, the country was also divided. In my opinion, “had we heon precipitate in an attempt to force a decision, it would not have healed those differences hut would have emphasised them and made them irreparable, and the consequence would have been that in tho final crisis, we should have confronted tho world with a divided Government, divided Parliament and divided country. The fact that this country entered the war practically united was due ' to that quality of Lord Asquith’s that while not precipitating a, decision by those differences therefrom, he was content to wait knowing that in tho , end the decison come to would lie a ; weighty one.” Tho Archbishop of Canterbury and ■ Lord Gninsford added tributes, and | the House adjourned. (