The Speaker rose in a crowded House of Commons to-day. ╥National Registration Emergency Bill,╙ he recited, and the Chief Whip said according to the ritual. ╥To-morrow,╙ which is the Parliamentary device for passing over a measure that it is not desired should be immediately discussed. There was a roll-call of half a dozen such bills, and then the Speaker almost casually called, ╥The Prime Minister!╙
Just so have sessions of Parliament opened decade after decade, and some have left no imprint at all behind them on their national history; others have their interest for the research student: still others have marked great moments in our history, but to-day╒s session belongs to the very few that are the high peaks of our national destiny ╤ the day we went to war to destroy Hitlerism.
SATURDAY╒S DOUBTS
╥The Prime Minister.╙ He had been loudly cheered when he came into the Chamber. Some members stood and waved their order papers. He began almost in a whisper. He referred at once to the doubts about the Government╒s firmness that struck the whole House nearly dumb after his statement last night. There is no need now to go over the anguish that searched every soul in the House last night at the delayed ultimatum and the reasons given for the delay. That, as Mr. Greenwood said, is over. The atmosphere is completely changed. Mr. Chamberlain admitted that if he had had only the information available to the ordinary members of the House he would himself have been tortured by the same doubts and misgivings last night.
AT WAR
He then told of the ultimatum. There had been no reply from Berlin. ╥Consequently,╙ he went on in subdued tones, ╥this country is now at war with Germany.╙ Even Mr. Chamberlain╒s thin voice could not rob those words of the ring of fate that is in them.
France had also sent an ultimatum with a time-limit. Here was final relief, the destruction of the last plaguing doubt. There was a loud burst of cheering.
Emotion nearly mastered Mr. Chamberlain now. He was fighting hard and just prevailed. He spoke of this sad day that had brought to ruin ╥everything I have worked for and hoped for during my public life.╙ There was a murmur of sympathy from the packed benches. He proceeded on a note of humble aspiration to speak of the service he might be able to render his country in the struggle, and he ended with the hope that ╥I may live to see the day when Hitlerism has been destroyed,╙ to which there was the instant response of a sustained cheer.
MR. GREENWOOD
Mr. Greenwood, who so magnificently spoke the mind of the House in those torturing moments last night, spoke even better to-day. Nothing could have been more admirable than his contrast of last night╒s ╥anger and apprehension╙ with ╥the relief, composure and resolution╙ of to-day. ╥The intolerable agony of suspense is over,╙ and a relieved House cheered its agreement with the Deputy Labour Leader.
His tribute to Poland (╥standing in the gate for liberty╙) was well done, and the whole House was with him when he promised that the country would never tolerate ╥wavering, confused counsels, or inefficiency,╙ for the country was inexorably determined to end the Nazi regime for ever. The crisis has greatly raised Mr. Greenwood╒s stature in the eyes of the House. The big view, combined with a strong masculinity, has been seen in all he has done since Mr. Attlee fell ill.
MR. CHURCHILL AND
MR. LLOYD GEORGE
Mr. Churchill conjured the country with fine eloquence not to underrate the severity of the coming ordeal, to remember there must be disappointments and unpleasant surprises, but to remember also the might of the British Empire and the French Republic, which were quite equal to ridding the world of the pestilence of Nazism.
Then Mr. Lloyd George rose and the House, remembering only the great leader of the nation in the last war and forgetting the savage critic of the Government, welcomed him with rounds of cheers. ╥I have been through this before,╙ he said, shaking his white hair, amid further cheers, and staring at the floor in momentary reverie. Suddenly raising his head he told the House in accents that still hold their spell that he himself had always found the country greatest in moments of disaster. And then he gave the country and the Government this for their encouragement. ╥We won a victory for right in the end, and we will do it again.╙ Mr. Lloyd George sat down amid great cheers.
