CO129-574-13 British capital for China- Prime Minister's statement 5-11-1938 - 5-11-1938 — Page 41

125

votes.

126

International Situation

know his motives, and they are pro- foundly sincere and profoundly wrong- headed. When I first came into the House Members on this side used to get up and go out, purple with anger, when the hon. Member for Bridgeton made the sort of speech we heard from him the other day; and I am wondering why they should cheer him on this occasion when they used to be so rightly angry.

I re- member that Ribbentrop has been telling Hitler for the last six months that the governing class in this country is more interested in its cash than in the country. That is what he has been saying; and all I would say to my hon. Friends is that when I hear them cheering a genuinely pacifist speech made by the hon. Member for Bridgeton it gives me a queasy feel- ing in my stomach, and I do not like it, for I am uneasy about their motives.

I say to the Government and to hon. Members that they have no mandate from the people of this country to betray the people who were killed between 1914 and 1918. They have no mandate to give away this Empire.

International Situation I NOVEMBER 1938 It is too true. What is required in this country-I do not know whether we are going to get it, but it is what is required -is something in the nature of a social and economic revolution, and that quickly. Great sacrifices will have to be demanded of all classes of our people if we are to get through. Will they respond? I believe that the people of this country would respond if they got effective leader- ship, and courageous leadership, and if they were told the truth, which they have not been told during the last 10 years by any political party. We have all sheltered them, largely for the purpose of obtaining That remark applies to both sides of the House. We have all sheltered them; we have all encouraged them not to face facts or to make efforts. Hon. Members opposite are just as much to blame as we are. This country has been encouraged to be lazy during the last 10 years by its political leaders on both sides. At Munich the Prime Minister paid the penalty, with great courage, of five years of indolence and ineptitude on the part of the Government of this country; and we who are always inclined to abuse the Ger- mans and complain of their methods, might at least pay some attention to the example that Germany has set us in two things, in the sacrifice and hard work, and in the real faith and genuine sincerity, of a large proportion of the German lation. Against that we have to put scepticism, prevailing to far too great an extent, and committees. I wish we could have few less committees. They do not have committees in Germany. We set up committees by the score -committees on trade, on the evacua- tion of school children, on the location of industry, and all the rest of it. They meet, I suppose, once a week or once a month, and report after two or three years, and the Minister writes a little preface and signs it, and their report is circulated by Command of His Majesty to the House of Commons, and that is the end of the whole thing. We cannot compete with German methods by means of committees and White or Blue Papers circulated to this House.

a

war

Mr. McGovern: Will the hon. Member show me where the speech of the hon. Member for Bridgeton (Mr. Maxton) was pacifist? Surely there is a great differ- ence when a man says, in relation to a two fought between capitalist

I will not advocate Imperialist rivals, popu-

that war and

says, support for

I am prepared to defend working-class standards and prepared to assist in the overthrow of capitalism." That is what capitalist war, but in working-class action one might term pacifism towards

I must say to my hon. Friends who sit behind me that I do not like to hear them cheering speeches made by the hon. Member for Bridgeton (Mr. Maxton). I have sat in the House for 14 years with the hon. Member for Bridgeton and I

No. 165

revolution.

а

Mr. Boothby: All I can say is that when I hear Members of the Conservative party cheering a proposition to overthrow capitalism I am astonished, and what the hon. Member has now said has only in- creased my disquiet. I say that we have no mandate to give away the British Empire, to betray the people who fought for it between 1914 and 1918; and if it is not to be given away we have to make a terrific effort to rearm, I should like to conclude by quoting some words which I read on Sunday in the Observer,' which seem to me to sum up the whole thing:

"

In the existing world we have to keep close company with danger, and no leadership worthy of the name will ever allow us to forget it."

E 2

74