The Struggle For Peace

" 'T^HE House has followed with the keenest attention
J[ and with deep personal sympathy the statement
of my right hon* Friend the late Foreign Secretary upon
the reasons which have led him to the grave decision to
resign his office. He has been followed by my Noble Friend
the Member for South Dorset (Viscount Cranborne) in a
statement of the reasons which have caused him to follow the
example of my right hon. Friend. To the great majority of
hon. Members this decision must have come with a shock of
surprise, and I cannot wonder that they have been surprised,
because, until only a few days ago, none of his colleagues
had anticipated that there was any danger of an event which
has been extremely painful to us all. If I may say so, it has
been especially painful to myself, because my relations with
my right hon. Friend have been those of a friend, as well as of a
colleague, and if there have been, from time to time, differ-
ences of opinion between us, as there must be between the
best of colleagues, they have never been exacerbated by hard
words, but have always been discussed between us in the
friendliest and most amicable manner.
" When, only a little over a week ago, some organs of the
Press were declaring that there were serious differences of
opinion between my right hon. Friend and myself, I was
under the impression that we were in complete agreement,
and I must add that, to the rest of the Government, including
myself, it did not seem that such differences of opinion as have
arisen upon the immediate question at issue were of sufficient
importance to make it necessary for my right hon. Friend to
leave us. My right hon. Friend took a different view. He
has said, 'and said truly, that each man must be the keeper
of his own conscience. I do not for one moment doubt or
question the sincerity of his conviction, that the course which
he has felt it necessary to take is the one which would best
serve the interests of the country.
* " In order that the House may have before it as complete a
73