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Winston Churchill was not always right.

As he sailed to join the 4th Hussars in India, in 1896, he said: “The Churchills peg out early. So I’m going to make sure of my innings.” Three years later he remarked to a friend: “The worst of it is that I am not a good life. My father died too young. I must try to accomplish whatever I can by the time I am forty.”

It was fortunate for the world that he proved to be wrong. His story is an amazing medley of tragedy and triumph, of frustration and achievement. He has provoked all responses from anger to veneration, and has exhibited many of the frailties of human nature with the highest capacity for service and leadership.

He has shown a burning faith in the issues which have moved him, an amazing vitality, a mastery of English, a gift of scientific invention—such an array of talent as to rouse a feeling of awe. Moreover, coupled with his brilliance has been a remarkable wisdom. His outstanding feature has certainly been a tremendous courage. Yet when a friend remarked during the war that he was giving courage to the people, he said: “You are mistaken. They already have the courage. I only focus it.”

But what a focus, scintillating in its sharp brilliance! A commonplace politician after the Battle of Britain would have plunged into cliché and verbiage [at great length]. Churchill said: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Any student of English—and any would-be orator—would do well to study this sentence: not only its concentration and drama, but its perfect balance. “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” is not nearly as telling: the insertion of “in the field of human conflict” makes the sentence perfect to read or to hear.

This book reveals many examples of Churchill’s concentration of wisdom. One of the most remarkable phrases in literary history occurs in his World Crisis. Referring to the naval situation in the first World War, a casual sentence appears in a paragraph: “Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon.” Whole volumes were written by “experts” to say no more.

When Churchill uses words excessively, it is usually to aid his impish humour. One of the earliest instances was the use of “terminological inexactitude” for “lie”—eleven syllables instead of one. More recently he had reversed his decision on the roles of British and American admirals. In Parliament he began: “My views—” A Labour Member promptly interjected “change”—which was probably the word which Churchill was about to use: instead he continued: “My views are subject to a harmonious process which keeps them in relation to the current movements of events.”

(He had the courage to change his opinions when events or reason proved them wrong. Loyalty to a Party is admirable, but blind loyalty is foolish or even dangerous. Politics are generally founded not on principles but upon opinions.)

While he could roll out distinguished phrases with emphatic sonority, for dramatic effect he preferred the short and simple word. In his thrilling defiance to Hitler: “We shall go on to the end; we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans . . .” through a rising series of affirmations to the final and passionate “we shall never surrender”—in all the long paragraph there is no big word—indeed, there are only two of three syllables!

When he was made Prime Minister in 1940 he could offer to Parliament and people nothing but “blood, toil, tears and sweat,” but the incisive concentration was a hundred times more compelling than a demagogic spate of oratory. Churchill never forgot the example of Lincoln. At the cemetery of Gettysburg the leading American orator of the day, Everett, spoke for nearly two hours. Lincoln uttered only ten sentences—but his speech remains a classic inspiration while Everett’s has long been forgotten.

Churchill would have been outstanding had it been only for his mastery of the English language [which enabled him to clothe his ideas in noble words] but oratory only enhanced his genius: it did not create it.

His wisdom was not omniscience. His failures usually concerned the simple things of the day: he was at his greatest when surveying the broad scene of world history in the making. He made a sad error of judgment in his “Gestapo” broadcast, which may have lost him the 1945 election. In marked contrast was his Fulton speech of 1946—a vivid picture of the world situation painted years before any of his contemporaries realized its accuracy. Even more startling was his speech of October, 1939, on the Nazi threat to Russian interests. It was bitterly derided by Stalin and his associates—but was adopted as Russian policy in June, 1941. Or his comment on the appeasement surrender at Munich, when people were rejoicing at Chamberlain’s boast of “peace in our time”—but Churchill declared, “We have sustained a defeat without a war.” Not less forceful was his comment on the hesitant neutrals, in January, 1940: “Each one of them hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.”

The words of Churchill’s speeches are important, but so are the dates on which they were uttered. Many smaller politicians have been very wise after the events: the role of the real statesman is to foresee them.

With Churchill’s dramatic life it is not unnatural that he is best remembered for his achievements in times of peril. His prescience had the British fleet mobilized in August, 1914. His viewpoint was always more far-sighted and realistic than that of his worthy colleagues, experts in liberal social changes but novices in world war. It was Churchill who first perceived the weakness of Russia and promoted the Dardanelles expedition which, had it succeeded, could have shortened the war by two years—and would have fantastically changed the subsequent course of history.

Nor were his interventions confined to strategic ideas. He soon perceived the character of the trench deadlock, and while politicians and professional soldiers dallied helplessly he, then First Lord of the Admiralty, developed the tank as a naval weapon! His scientific outlook was practical and always advanced. In 1917 an attack on the Frisian Islands of Borkum and Sylt was projected. Churchill outlined a scheme for concrete caissons to be towed to the area and sunk “to create a weather-proof harbour in the open sea.”

Here was the origin of the Mulberry harbours which made possible the Normandy invasion. “It was just one of those brilliant ideas that Winston has,” said President Roosevelt. “He has a hundred a day, and about four of them are good.” How many people can claim four good ideas a day?

“All wisdom is not new wisdom.” Churchill, himself steeped in history, quoted freely from classical sources—his “blood, toil, tears and sweat” was echoed from Garibaldi. Churchill’s genius often lay in his historic sense, in the application of the wisdom of the past to the problems of the present.

Although normally his language was that of Macaulay or Gibbon, he did not hesitate to descend to the commonplace or even to slang. There was his famous speech to the Canadian Parliament in 1941. “When I warned them (the French Government) that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet: ‘In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.’ Some chicken! Some neck!” This was scarcely the pompous diplomatic language expected of a Prime Minister, but the four words—with Churchill’s tongue, bulk and personality behind them—were more expressive than any long argument. Their crudity covered and expressed a vital policy, firmly and irrevocably decided. This is important. Many people have been misled by Churchill’s brilliant oratory: they imagine that it consists only of words magnificently chosen and no less magnificently delivered; yet its real value is that it expresses vital and sincere ideas.

An even better example comes from a broadcast, intended for American hearers, in 1941, a time when many of them thought that Britain’s prospects were hopeless. “We shall not fail or falter: we shall not weaken or tire,” the voice boomed. “Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down.” This was typical Churchill, an expression of the infectious courage by now so well known. Then suddenly he snapped: “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” The effects of this homely phrase were so vast as to be incalculable.

His judgment of people was admirable. (Consider his comment on Baldwin: “It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.”) Unlike some who attain the highest office, he was not afraid to gather brilliant men about him, and to learn from them. But in his own sphere he was the leader, and held his place with determined confidence. When he was appointed Prime Minister on May 10, 1940—at a moment when frightful disaster impended, he wrote: “I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”

This superlative confidence sustained him in the darkest moments. In a distracted world he had no doubts. He had studied his famous ancestor Marlborough, and had written brilliantly about him—pointing out that Marlborough knew that military prowess was not enough: the best army is helpless without the home organization behind it. Marlborough ensured the efficient support of this by infiltrating his friends into its control. Churchill reversed the process. He, the politician, also controlled the war strategy—and his mental resources, experience and insight were so powerful that his professional advisers could not deny his right to do so. His direction of the war was unchallenged: it was always intelligent and often inspired. He had to shoulder the responsibility for failures and defeats: he is legitimately entitled to the glory of victory.

His very eminence during the war led to his downfall: retaining command of the war effort, he delegated domestic issues to others—many of them Labour colleagues. They were thus more in touch with the popular mood: while Churchill was thinking forward about the dangers still inherent in the world, and apprehensive of the vast price still to be paid for the recovery of economic stability, the ordinary man was blissfully assuming that victory would automatically bring a new and better life, and of course voted for the people who agreed with him.

Churchill was deeply humiliated by his defeat at the 1945 elections. Yet his courage defied despair; and though planning ahead for domestic victory, he never lost sight of the world’s complicated problems. In this he was surely right: politicians may preen themselves over the blessings of welfare states—admirable objectives, but which could disappear in an hour because of world chaos promoted by some blunder or lassitude in a distant part of the world.

The present generation esteems Churchill most highly as an incomparable war leader. The historian of the future may turn rather to his post-war schemes—so far-sighted, and the product of his vast experience and authority: his advocacy of a United States of Europe—a great nationalist, he preached internationalism: his work for peace—even while he was absurdly dubbed a “warmonger.” (A close friend has related that after Churchill utters the loyal toast, “The Queen!” he adds in a whisper: “and no war!”) Think of his uncompromising denunciation of Germany in two world wars, and consider the following: “I am now going to say something that will astonish you. The first step in the re-creation of the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany. In this way only can France recover the moral and cultural leadership of Europe. There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany.” Thus spoke Churchill at Zürich on September 19, 1946.

He never spoke in a minor key: he was a believer. He always saw things in black and white, never in indeterminate shades. He was a man of great loyalties, but would dismiss his best friend should he fail to act his part. From his youth ambitious and of admitted brilliance, he took forty years to attain his objective: a master of foreign affairs, he was never Foreign Secretary: a great orator, he lost more elections than any other politician. He has suffered disaster and achieved triumph; derided and booed, then cheered and admired by the same public: his versatility was amazing—and maybe served to detract him, since many believed that one man could not possibly be so brilliant in so many spheres. For many years he was isolated: it was for long the fashion to deride him even when he was successful.

His genius needed a broad canvas, and not until 1940 was this afforded. Then he painted in his picture of the world in firm and glowing colours.

Wit is not necessarily wisdom: nor is great oratory: nor, indeed, is vast experience. But the three are powerful allies. Readers of this book, even though they knew Churchill well, may be surprised at the amazing range of knowledge, understanding and foresight which it displays.

It was indeed happy that he was utterly wrong in his forecast of a short life, but emphatically he had his innings. The world has been immeasurably benefited by his presence—the world of to-morrow at least as much as the world of to-day.

A·B·C·D·E·F·G·H·I·J·K·L·M·N·O·P·Q·R·S·T·U·V·W·Y·Z

A.A. Defence. It is only in the twentieth century that this hateful conception of inducing nations to surrender by terrorizing the helpless civil population and by massacring the women and children has gained acceptance and countenance amongst men. If it continues, one can clearly see that the conquest of the air may mean the subjugation of mankind and the destruction of our civilization. This is not the cause of any one nation. No; every country would feel safer if once it were found that the bombing aeroplane was at the mercy of appliances erected on the earth, and the haunting fears and suspicions which are leading nations nearer and nearer to the brink of another catastrophe would be abated. But this island people more than any other nation would gain by such a discovery.
Commons, June 7, 1935.

Absenteeism. We hear a great deal about the rate of absenteeism among miners. The figure of wilful absenteeism, or voluntary absenteeism as it is euphemistically called, is I am told at this time slightly under 5 per cent. There is also a certain increase in short absenteeism. Not only in the mining trade, but throughout the industries of the country, there are small ailments which I must say, I think are not entirely dissociated from the dietary changes to which we have subjected ourselves and the régime under which we live. It is said that a disproportionate amount of this total is due to the younger men. Well, it is for their comrades in the industry and the army to instil into them by their example as well as by precept, the duty which lies upon these young men to do their utmost to be worthy of all the wonderful effort and combination of effort which is proceeding in the country.
Commons, October 13, 1943.

Abundance. There never will be enough of everything while the world goes on. The more that is given the more there will be needed. That is why life is so interesting.
Commons, June 16, 1926.

The outstanding feature of the twentieth century has been the enormous expansion in the numbers who are given the opportunity to share in the larger and more varied life which in previous periods was reserved for the few and for the very few. This process must continue at an increasing rate. If we are to bring the broad masses of the people in every land to the table of abundance, it can only be by the tireless improvement of all our means of technical production, and by the diffusion in every form of education of an improved quality to scores of millions of men and women.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, March 31, 1949.

Abyss, The. For five years I have talked to the House of these matters—not with very great success. I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, recklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but, after a bit, the carpet ends. A little further on there are only flagstones, and, a little further on still, these break beneath your feet.
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Abyssinia. No one can keep up the pretence that Abyssinia is a fit, worthy and equal member of a league of civilized nations. The wisdom of the British policy was shown in our opposing her admission to the League, and the unwisdom of Continental countries, who now bitterly regret what they did, was shown in their consenting to it. It was a mistake.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

I share the feeling common throughout the country of sympathy for the primitive feudal people of Abyssinia who are fighting for their hearths and homes and for the ancient freedom of their mountains against a scientific invader. The native independence of Abyssinia cannot be made a matter for compromise or barter.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

The League of Nations—fifty nations led by one, as Signor Mussolini said, in a phrase of formidable significance—will have been unable to do anything of the slightest use to the Abyssinians. Indeed, all we have done for them, as far as I can remember, is to put an embargo on their obtaining arms before they are attacked. Otherwise we have done nothing for them at all—except, of course, the speeches which have been made.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Academy, Royal. The function of the Royal Academy is, I think, to hold a middle course between tradition and innovation. Without tradition art is a flock of sheep without shepherds, and without innovation it is a corpse. It is not the function of the Royal Academy to run wildly after every curious novelty.
Royal Academy Banquet, London, April 30, 1953.

Ace. I am horrified to learn that the Admiralty propose to scrap the five 15-inch battleships of the Royal Sovereign class, one in 1942, one in 1943 and the rest, I suppose, in the following year. The House would hardly gather from the euphemistic phrase the Parliamentary Secretary employed—“replacement”—that these two ships are to be destroyed. That does not tell us what one would expect, that until the new ships are in commission the old ones will be kept in reserve. In other days I used to say that when the ace is out the king is the best card.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Acquisitions, Territorial. We have got all we want in territory, but our claim to be left in undisputed enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, largely acquired by war and largely maintained by force, is one which often seems less reasonable to others than to us.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Action. Where every step is fraught with grave consequences and with real peril to the cause, deliberate and measured action is not merely prudent, but decent.
Commons, February 22, 1910.

When you embark on a course of restriction or oppression, caution and hesitancy should rightly impose themselves upon you; but when you are embarked upon a course of relief and liberation, advance with courage.
Commons, June 7, 1928.

Address, Debate on the. The Debate on the Address is the traditional Parliamentary opportunity for reviewing the whole political situation, and it is the one great opportunity of the year upon which grievances can be discussed.
Commons, July 3, 1929.

I have always been of the opinion that the wishes of the House in respect to the Debate on the Address should be met by the Administration. If the House wish for a few more days to discuss the special Amendments and so forth, the Government should put no obstacle in the way within reason.
Commons, November 29, 1944.

Aden and Somaliland. The moment Aden is transferred to the Colonial Office it will be possible to amalgamate the administration of Aden and Somaliland. Somaliland and Aden are really the most happy marriage that could be made. They are really necessary to one another.
Commons, July 17, 1921.

Adenauer, Dr. Conrad. Dr. Adenauer may well be deemed the wisest German statesman since the days of Bismarck.
Commons, May 11, 1953.

I have greatly admired the perseverance, courage, composure and skill with which he has faced the complex, changing, uncertain and unpredictable situations with which he has been ceaselessly confronted.
Commons, May 11, 1953.

Adjustment of Ideas. It is in the nice adjustment of the respective ideas of collectivism and individualism that the problem of the world and the solution of that problem lies in the years to come.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Administration, New. Every new administration, not excluding ourselves, arrives in power with bright and benevolent ideas of using public money to do good. The more frequent the changes of Government, the more numerous are the bright ideas; and the more frequent the elections, the more benevolent they become.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Advantage in War. Even taking the lowest view of human nature, nations in war do not usually do things which give them no special advantage, and which grievously complicate their own position.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Adversity as a Stimulant. It is idle to say that the threat of adversity is a necessary factor in stimulating self-reliance.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Advice, Devil’s. I will avail myself of the avuncular relationship which I hope I may still possess in respect of the Government to put it to the Prime Minister (Mr. Neville Chamberlain) personally and even intimately. Has he ever heard of Saint Anthony the Hermit? Saint Anthony the Hermit was much condemned by the Fathers of the Church because he refused to do right when the Devil told him to. My right hon. Friend should free himself from this irrational inhibition, for we are only at the beginning of our anxieties.
Commons, May 25, 1938.

Advice, Expert. I am a Parliamentarian myself, I have always been one. I think that a Minister is entitled to disregard expert advice. What he is not entitled to do is to pretend he is acting upon it, when, in fact, he is acting contrary to it.
Commons, May 7, 1947.

Advice on Disarming. If you press a country to reduce its defences beyond its better judgment, and it takes your advice, every obligation you have contracted, however carefully it has been expressed, will be multiplied in force, and you will find your position complicated by fresh obligations of comradeship, honour and compassion which will be brought very prominently to the front when a country which has taken your advice falls into grave jeopardy, perhaps as a result of what you have pressed upon it.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Aerial Defence. In an aerial war the greatest form of defence will undoubtedly be offence.
Commons, March 21, 1922.

I cannot see in the present administration of Germany any assurance that they would be more nice-minded in dealing with a vital and supreme situation than was the Imperial Government of Germany, which was responsible for this procedure being adopted towards France. No, Sir, and we may, within a measurable period of time, in the lifetime of those who are here, if we are not in a proper state of security, be confronted on some occasion with a visit from an ambassador, and may have to give an answer in a very few hours; and if that answer is not satisfactory, within the next few hours the crash of bombs exploding in London and cataracts of masonry and fire and smoke will apprise us of any inadequacy which has been permitted in our aerial defences.
Commons, February 7, 1934.

Aeroplane, The Marauding. I wonder that the League of Nations at Geneva does not offer an enormous monetary prize to incite inventors of all countries to discover methods of bringing down the marauding aeroplane.
Commons, June 7, 1935.

Aeroplanes, Fragility of. After all, an aeroplane, though a very formidable engine of war, is also a very fragile structure, and an explosive charge no bigger than a small cigar is sufficient to bring down the most powerful aeroplane if it strikes a spar or the propeller: even a bird has been the cause of fatal accidents. Merely to fire at an aeroplane in the air is like trying to shoot a flying duck with a pea-rifle. What must be aimed at is not the hitting of the aeroplane, but the creation of conditions in the air around the aeroplane which are extremely noxious if not destructive to it. For that purpose it is clear that this effect of the shell which is fired should not be momentary.
Commons, June 7, 1935.

Africander Nation. If the near future should unfold to our eyes a tranquil, prosperous, consolidated Africander nation under the protecting aegis of the British Crown, then, the good also will not be confined to South Africa; then the cause of the poor and the weak all over the world will have been sustained; and everywhere small peoples will get more room to breathe, and everywhere great empires will be encouraged by our example to step forward—and it only needs a step—into the sunshine of a more gentle and more generous age.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Aftermath. We meet this afternoon under the shadow of the disasters of last year. It is not the time to bewail the past; it is the time to pay the bill. It is not for me to apportion the blame; my task is only to apportion the burden. I cannot present myself before the Committee in the guise of an impartial judge; I am only the public prosecutor.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Aftermath of War. The problems of the aftermath, the moral and physical exhaustion of the victorious nations, the miserable fate of the conquered, the vast confusion of Europe and Asia, combine to make a sum total of difficulty, which, even if the Allies had preserved their wartime comradeship, would have taxed their resources to the full. Even if we in this island had remained united, as we were in the years of peril, we should have found much to baffle our judgment, and many tasks that were beyond our strength.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Age, The Febrile. We live in such a febrile and sensational age, that even a month or two is enough to make people not merely change their views, but to forget the views and feeling they entertained before.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Age, The Great. We are living in a great age, of which it will always be said that this present generation, in Britain and in the United States, has cast upon them burdens and problems without compare in the history of the world. Under the severest stresses, and under the most hard and searching trials, they have shown themselves not unequal to these problems. On the contrary, they have triumphed over them, and thus cleared the way to the broad advance of mankind to levels they have never yet attained, and to securities of which they never will be deprived.
The Citadel, Quebec, September 16, 1944.

Aggressors. They [Hitler and Mussolini] cannot pursue their course of aggression without bringing about a general war of measureless devastation. To submit to their encroachments would be to condemn a large portion of mankind to their rule; to resist them, either in peace or war, will be dangerous, painful and hard. There is no use at this stage in concealing these blunt facts from anyone. No one should go forward in this business without realizing plainly both what the cost may be, and what are the issues at stake.
Corn Exchange, Cambridge, May 19, 1939.

Agreement. It is a sort of British idea that when you reach agreement you take the rough with the smooth.
Commons, February 16, 1948.

Agreements. When an agreement has been reached everyone who is a party to it is bound by it, and previous misgivings and differences of opinion are blotted out and ought not to be referred to. In every walk of life, in every sphere of human activity, this is the invariable rule and it is the only safe and honest rule.
Commons, March 5, 1917.

Air Armaments. Air armaments are not expressed merely by the air squadrons in existence or the aeroplanes which have been made; they cannot be considered apart from the capacity to manufacture. If, for instance, there were two countries which each had 1,000 first-line aeroplanes, but one of which had the power to manufacture at the rate of 100 a month and the other at the rate of 1,000 a month, it is perfectly clear that air parity would not exist between those two countries very long.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

Air, Conquest of. We have learned to fly. What prodigious changes are involved in that new accomplishment! Man has parted company with his trusty friend the horse and has sailed into the azure with the eagles, eagles being represented by the infernal (loud laughter)—I mean internal—combustion engine. Where, then, are those broad oceans, those vast staring deserts? They are shrinking beneath our very eyes. Even elderly Parliamentarians like myself are forced to acquire a high degree of mobility.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

Air Defence. Why should we fear the air? We have as good technical knowledge as any country. There is no reason to suppose that we cannot make machines as good as any country. We have—though it may be thought conceited to say so—a particular vein of talent in air piloting which is in advance of that possessed by other countries. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that we are not capable of producing as good results for money put into action as any other country. That being so, I ask the Government to consider profoundly and urgently the whole position of our air defence.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

There is a sensible improvement in our means of dealing with German raids upon this island, and a very great measure of security has been given to this country in day-time—and we are glad that the days are lengthening. But now the moonlight periods are also looked forward to by the Royal Air Force as an opportunity for inflicting severe deterrent losses upon the raiders, as well as for striking hard at the enemy in his own territory. The fact that our technical advisers welcome the light—daylight, moonlight, starlight—and that we do not rely for protection on darkness, clouds and mists, as would have been the case some time ago, is pregnant with hope and meaning.
Commons, April 9, 1941.

Air Equality. Speeches are made in the country by leading Ministers saying that we have decided that we must have air equality, that we cannot accept anything less. We have not got it. We are already decidedly inferior to Germany, and it must be said, of course to France.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

Air Force, Adequate. Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Air Parity. Military aircraft and first-line strength are two different categories, I wish, therefore, this afternoon to examine the air power of Great Britain and Germany in both categories—that of military aircraft and that of first-line strength.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Air Potential. The air power of any country cannot be measured by the number of aeroplanes, nor by any of the particular definitions which are given. It must be measured by the number of aeroplanes which can be placed in the air simultaneously and maintained in action month after month. It is dependent not only on the number of organized squadrons, but upon the expansive power of industrial plant.
Commons, March 10, 1936.

Air Power. I cannot conceive how, in the present state of Europe and of our position in Europe, we can delay in establishing the principle of having an air force at least as strong as that of any power that can get at us. I think that is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It would only begin to put us back to the position in which we were brought up. We have lived under the shield of the navy. To have an air force as strong as the air force of France or Germany, whichever is the stronger, ought to be the decision which Parliament should take, and which the National Government should proclaim.
Commons, February 7, 1934.

Air Superiority, German. We are entering upon a period of danger and difficulty. And how do we stand in this long period of danger? There is no doubt that the Germans are superior to us in the air at the present time, and it is my belief that by the end of the year, unless their rate of construction and development is arrested by some agreement they will be possibly three, and even four, times our strength.
Commons, May 22, 1935.

Air Supremacy. The sole method that is open is for us to regain our old island independence by acquiring that supremacy in the air which we were promised, that security in our air defences which we were assured we had, and thus to make ourselves an island once again. That, in all this grim outlook, shines out as the overwhelming fact. An effort at rearmament, the like of which has not been seen, ought to be made forthwith, and all the resources of this country and all its united strength should be bent to that task.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Air War, Perils of. There seem to me to be four lines of protection by which we can secure the best chance, and a good chance, of immunity for our people from the perils of air war—a peaceful foreign policy; the convention regulating air warfare; the parity in air power to invest that convention with validity; and, arising out of that parity, a sound system of home defence—in addition to all these other arrangements if they all fail.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Air Warfare, Limitation of. Any nation that refused to enter into discussions of a convention to regulate air warfare would consequently be left in a position of grisly isolation, proclaiming its intention deliberately to make war as a scientific and technical operation upon women and children for the terrorization of the civil population.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Airships. If war breaks out to-morrow foreign airships, no doubt, might do a certain amount of mischief and damage before they got smashed up, which would not be very long, but it is foolish to suppose that in their present stage of development they could produce results which would decisively influence the course of events.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Alamein, Victory at. Two Sundays ago all the bells rang out to celebrate the victory of our desert army at Alamein. Here was a martial episode in British history which deserved a special recognition. But the bells also carried with their clashing joyous peals our thanksgiving that, in spite of all our errors and shortcomings, we have been brought nearer to the frontiers of deliverance. We have not reached those frontiers yet, but we are becoming ever more entitled to be sure that the awful perils which might well have blotted out our life and all that we love and cherish will be surmounted, and that we shall be preserved for further service in the vanguard of mankind.
London, November 29, 1942.

Alarm. We are told that we must not interfere with the normal course of trade, that we must not alarm the easygoing voter and the public. How thin and paltry these arguments will sound if we are caught a year or two hence, fat, opulent, free-spoken—and defenceless. I do not ask that war conditions should be established in order to execute these programmes. All I ask is that these programmes to which the Government have attached their confidence shall be punctually executed, whatever may be the disturbance of our daily life.
Commons, May 21, 1936.

Albania. What has happened to the negotiations with Albania by which we were to have some satisfaction given to us for the murder of 40 British naval men and the grievous injury to many more, by a state we have helped and nourished to the best of our ability? That is not a matter which can be ignored or forgotten, because it occurred in time of peace, and cannot be, as it were swept into the vast, confused catalogue of human injuries and wrong deeds which were done on both sides in the course of the great war.
Commons, January 23, 1948.

Nearly two years have passed since Albania, which we had helped and nourished during the war, murdered over 40 British sailors by mining our ships in the Corfu Channel. Not the slightest satisfaction has been obtained for the outrage of ingratitude and treachery. I could give you many other instances which prove how British rights and British lives are being disregarded by minor foreign states to a degree never known before in the history of our country.
Luton Hoo, June 26, 1948.

Alexander, A. V. The former First Lord has now become Minister of Defence. I would like to take the occasion of offering him my hearty congratulations and of saying that we look forward with confidence to his discharge of these duties. The right hon. Gentleman has a very special ability and experience, and I, personally, have always felt the warmest regard for him on account of the very rough times we went through together during the war.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

Aliens Bill. How was the Aliens Bill passed? It was introduced to the House of Commons in a tumbril. They began debating it on the steps of the scaffold, and before two days had passed in Committee they were hurried to the framework of the guillotine.
Commons, July 31, 1905.

Aliens in Britain. I sympathize very strongly with the objection against drawing class distinctions based solely on the possession of money. To draw a distinction between a man who could afford a cabin passage and a man who could only afford a steerage passage was absurd. If a man were a lunatic or an idiot he could come in if he could pay for a cabin passage.
Commons, June 27, 1905.

All-night Sittings. Many objections could be urged against all-night sittings, but the ancestors of present Members had not been afraid to subject themselves to considerable strain and exertion in the interests of public and free discussion.
Commons, March 16, 1905.

Alliance against Aggressors. Let us, therefore, do everything in our power to add to our strength and use that strength for the purpose of helping the gathering together of the nations upon the basis of the Covenant of the League. Upon the rock of the Covenant many nations, great and small, are drawing constantly and swiftly together. In spite of the disappointments of the past, in spite of many misgivings, difficulties and ridiculings, that process is continuing, and these nations are welding themselves into what will some day be a formidable yet benignant alliance, pledged to resist wrong-doing and the violence of an aggressor.
Commons, March 4, 1937.

Alliance with America. I would turn aside for a moment to emphasize how perfect is the co-operation between the commanders of the British and American Armies. Nothing like it has ever been seen before among allies. No doubt language is a great help, but there is more in it than that. In all previous alliances the staffs have worked with opposite numbers in each department and liaison officers, but in Africa General Eisenhower built up a uniform staff, in which every place was filled with whoever was thought to be the best man, and they all ordered each other about according to their rank, without the slightest regard to what country they belonged to. The same unity and brotherhood is being instituted here throughout the Forces which are gathering in this country, and I cannot doubt that it will be found most serviceable, and unique also in all the history of alliances.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Alliance, Permanent. If there were, over a prolonged period of time, some general cause of anxiety, which all nations, or many nations, felt, then possibly forces might come together for that purpose which, after that danger had happily been tided over, might still subsist permanently in amity.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Alliances, Advantages of. When one looks at the disadvantages attaching to alliances, one must not forget how superior are the advantages.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Alternatives, Terrible. The questions which have to be settled are not always questions between what is good and bad; very often it is a choice between two very terrible alternatives.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Ambassadors. Ambassadors are not sent as compliments but as necessities for ordinary daily use. The more difficult relations are with any country in question, the more necessary it is to have the very highest form of representation on the spot.
Commons, December 10, 1948.

Ambitions. At my time of life I have no personal ambitions, no future to provide for. And I feel I can truthfully say that I only wish to do my duty by the whole mass of the nation and of the British Empire as long as I am thought to be of any use for that.
B.B.C., March 21, 1943.

Ambuscade. What fools the Japanese ruling caste were to bring against themselves the mighty, latent war-energies of the great Republic, all for the sake of carrying out a base and squalid ambuscade.
B.B.C., March 26, 1944.

Ambush. The Prime Minister in his article in the News Letter used the word “ambush.” The word must have sprung from the anxieties of his heart, for it is an ambush into which, in spite of every warning, we have fallen. I have stated the position in general terms, and I have tried to state it not only moderately but quite frigidly. Here I pause to ask the Committee to consider what these facts mean and what their consequences impose. I confess that words fail me. In the year 1708 Mr. Secretary St. John, by a calculated ministerial indiscretion, revealed to the House the fact that the battle of Almaza had been lost in the previous summer because only 8,000 English troops were actually in Spain out of the 29,000 that had been voted by the House of Commons for this service. When a month later this revelation was confirmed by the Government, it is recorded that the House sat in silence for half an hour, no Member caring to speak or wishing to make a comment upon so staggering an announcement. And yet how incomparably small that event was to what we have now to face. That was merely a frustration of policy. Nothing that could happen to Spain in that war could possibly have contained in it any form of danger which was potentially mortal.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

America and Britain. I have always thought that it ought to be the main end of English statecraft over a long period of years to cultivate good relations with the United States.
Commons, June 22, 1903.

Undoubtedly this process [fifty American destroyers handed over to Britain] means that these two great organizations of the English-speaking democracies—the British Empire and the United States—will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage. For my own part, looking out upon the future, I do not view the process with any misgivings. I could not stop it if I wished—no one can stop it. Like the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling along. Let it roll! Let it roll on in full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and better days.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

America and Europe. Twice in my lifetime the long arm of destiny has reached across the oceans and involved the entire life and manhood of the United States in a deadly struggle. There was no use in saying “We don’t want it; we won’t have it; our forebears left Europe to avoid these quarrels; we have founded a new world which has no contact with the old.” There was no use in that. The long arm reaches out remorselessly, and every one’s existence, environment, and outlook undergo a swift and irresistible change.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

America, Identity of Ideals. At this point I must turn to the United States, with whom our fortunes and interests are intertwined. I was sorry that the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne [Mr. S. Silverman], whom I see in his place, said some weeks ago that they were “shabby moneylenders.” That is no service to our country nor is it true. The Americans took little when they emigrated from Europe except what they stood up in and what they had in their souls. They came through, they tamed the wilderness, they became what old John Bright called “A refuge for the oppressed from every land and clime.” They have become to-day the greatest state and power in the world, speaking our own language, cherishing our common law, and pursuing, like our great Dominions, in broad principle, the same ideals.
Commons, October 28, 1947.

American Achievement. I must pay my tribute to the United States Army, not only in their valiant and ruthless battle-worthy qualities, but also in the skill of their commanders and the excellence of their supply arrangements. When one remembers that the United States four or five years ago was a peace-loving power, without any great body of troops, munitions, and with only a very small regular army to draw their commanders from, the American achievement is truly amazing. After the intense training they have received for nearly three years, or more than three years in some cases, their divisions are now composed of regular professional soldiers whose military quality is out of all comparison with hurriedly-raised wartime levies.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

American Aid. The President and Congress of the United States, having newly fortified themselves by contact with their electors, have solemnly pledged their aid to Britain in this war because they deem our cause just, and because they know their own interests and safety would be endangered if we were destroyed. They are taxing themselves heavily. They have passed great legislation. They have turned a large part of their gigantic industry to making munitions which we need. They have even given us or lent us valuable weapons of their own.
London, April 27, 1941.

American Army. There have been many occasions when a powerful state has wished to raise great armies, and with money and time and discipline and loyalty that can be accomplished. Nevertheless the rate at which the small American Army of only a few hundred thousand men, not long before the war, created the mighty force of millions of soldiers, is a wonder in military history.
The Pentagon, Washington, March 9, 1946.

American Audiences. At intervals during the last forty years I have addressed scores of great American audiences in almost every part of the Union. I have learnt to admire the courtesy of these audiences; their sense of fair play; their sovereign sense of humour, never minding the joke that is turned against themselves; their earnest, voracious desire to come to the root of the matter, and to be well and truly informed on Old World affairs.
London, June 16, 1941.

American Bases. His Majesty’s Government are entirely willing to accord defence facilities to the United States on a 99 years’ leasehold basis, and we feel sure that our interests no less than theirs, and the interests of the Colonies themselves, and of Canada and Newfoundland, will be served thereby.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

American Eagle, The. It cannot be in the interest of Russia to go on irritating the United States. There are no people in the world who are so slow to develop hostile feelings against a foreign country as the Americans, and there are no people who, once estranged, are more difficult to win back. The American eagle sits on his perch, a large, strong bird with formidable beak and claws. There he sits motionless, and M. Gromyko is sent day after day to prod him with a sharp pointed stick—now his neck, now under his wings, now his tail feathers. All the time the eagle keeps quite still. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that nothing is going on inside the breast of the eagle.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

American War Effort. When I think of the measureless output of ships, munitions and supplies of all kinds with which the United States has equipped herself and has sustained all the fighting allies in generous measure, and of the mighty war she is conducting, with troops of our Australian and New Zealand Dominions, over the spaces of the Pacific Ocean, this House may indeed salute our sister nation as being at the highest pinnacle of her power and fame.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Amphibious Operations. All large amphibious operations, especially if they require the co-operation of two or more countries, require long months of organization, with refinements and complexities hitherto unknown in war. Bold impulses, impatient desires, and sudden flashes of military instinct cannot hasten the course of events.
Guildhall, London, June 30, 1943.

Anger. If I valued the hon. Gentleman’s [Sir J. Lonsdale, M.P.] opinion I might get angry.
Commons, January 1, 1913.

Anglo-American Solidarity. Prodigious hammer-strokes have been needed to bring us together again, or if you will allow me to use other language, I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below, of which we have the honour to be the faithful servants. It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.
Speech to Congress, Washington, December 26, 1941.

Anglo-American Unity. It is no exaggeration to say that the future of the whole world and the hopes of a broadening civilization founded upon Christian ethics depend upon the relation between the British Empire or Commonwealth of Nations and the U.S.A. The identity of purpose and persistence of resolve prevailing throughout the English-speaking world will, more than any other single fact, determine the way of life which will be open to the generations and perhaps to the centuries which follow our own.
London, January 9, 1941.

Anglo-German Naval Agreement. Under the Anglo-German Agreement no provision was made, as some of us suggested, that old ships should be counted at a lower tonnage than new ships in estimating the tonnage of German naval construction. If we keep the Royal Sovereigns, Germany would be entitled under the Treaty to build two additional battleships in the four-year period in question, and they have asked us to state in advance, as they have a right to ask, what we propose to do. We have promised to scrap or sink the first two Royal Sovereigns, and I presume that there is no hope now of rescuing the others from that imprudent decision.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Anglo-Italian Agreement. The Agreement, of course, has been violated in every material respect by Italy, but I do not feel that anything would be gained by a denouncement with bell, book and candle at this juncture. It certainly represents a sincere, if hitherto unrequited, attempt on the part of Great Britain to dwell on terms of friendship with Italy and with the Italian people in the Mediterranean Sea.
Commons, April 13, 1939.

Animals, Sea and Land. It is difficult to make the Russians comprehend all the problems of the sea and of the ocean. We are sea animals, and the United States are to a large extent ocean animals. The Russians are land animals. Happily, we are all three air animals. It is difficult to explain fully all the different characteristics of the war effort of various countries, but I am sure that we made their leaders feel confidence in our loyal and sincere resolve to come to their aid as quickly as possible and in the most effective manner, without regard to the losses or sacrifices involved so long as the contribution was towards victory.
Commons, September 8, 1942.

Anthony, St. I can assure the House that I shall be ready to profit to the full from many constructive and helpful lines of thought which have been advanced, even when they come from the most hostile quarters. I shall not be like that saint to whom I have before referred in this House, but whose name I have unhappily forgotten, who refused to do right because the Devil prompted him. Neither shall I be deterred from doing what I am convinced is right by the fact that I have thought differently about it in some distant, or even in some recent, past.
Commons, January 29, 1942.

Antiques. It is important in the legislation of a country to draw a clear distinction between art and luxury, between the work of art—“a thing of beauty and a joy for ever”—and a mere consumable article of indulgence or ostentation.
Commons, April 26, 1926.

Anxieties. We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.
Commons, September 22, 1943.

Apology, No. I have no intention of passing my remaining years in explaining or withdrawing anything I have said in the past, still less in apologizing for it.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

Appeasement. Appeasement in itself may be good or bad according to the circumstances. Appeasement from weakness and fear is alike futile and fatal. Appeasement from strength is magnanimous and noble, and might be the surest and perhaps the only path to world peace. When nations or individuals get strong they are often truculent and bullying, but when they are weak they become better mannered. But this is the reverse of what is healthy and wise.
Commons, December 14, 1950.

Approaches, Western. Owing to the action of Mr. de Valera, so much at variance with the temper and instinct of thousands of Southern Irishmen who hastened to the battlefront to prove their ancient valour, the approaches which the Southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by the hostile aircraft and U-boats. This was indeed a deadly moment in our life, and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland we should have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr. de Valera or perish for ever from the earth. However, with a restraint and poise to which, I say, history will find few parallels, His Majesty’s Government never laid a violent hand upon them, though at times it would have been quite easy and quite natural, and we left the de Valera government to frolic with the Germans and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart’s content.
London, May 13, 1945.

Arabian Nights Tales. The United States is a land of free speech; nowhere is speech freer, not even here where we sedulously cultivate it even in its most repulsive forms. But when I see some of the accounts of conversations that I am supposed to have had with the President of the United States, I can only recall a Balfourian phrase at which I laughed many years ago, when he said that the accounts which were given bore no more relation to the actual facts than the wildest tales of the Arabian Nights do to the ordinary incidents of the domestic life in the East.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Argentina during the War. We all feel deep regret and also anxiety, as friends of Argentina, that in this testing time for nations she has not seen fit to take her place with no reserve or qualification upon the side of freedom, and has chosen to dally with the evil, and not only with the evil, but with the losing side. I trust that my remarks will be noted, because this is a very serious war. It is not like some small wars in the past where all could be forgotten and forgiven. Nations must be judged by the part they play. Not only belligerents, but neutrals, will find that their position in the world cannot remain entirely unaffected by the part they have chosen to play in the crisis of the war.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Arguing. No constitutional or democratic principle with which I am acquainted compels a Minister of the Crown to argue. He may be tempted to do so; but he cannot be compelled.
Commons, July 30, 1952.

Argument. The right hon. and learned Gentleman [The Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross] may shake his head till he shakes it off, but it does not affect the argument.
Commons, July 15, 1948.

Argument, Vain. In the German view, which Herr Hitler shares, a peaceful Germany and Austria were fallen upon in 1914 by a gang of wicked designing nations, headed by Belgium and Serbia, and would have defended herself successfully if only she had not been stabbed in the back by the Jews. Against such opinions it is vain to argue.
London, April 28, 1939.

Arguments, False. It seems to me—and I have a lengthening experience in the House—that false arguments very rarely pay in debate. [An hon. Member: You are using them now.] I always try to economize the use of false arguments as much as possible, because false argument is so often detected, and it always repels any listener who is not already a convinced and enthusiastic partisan.
Commons, April 28, 1926.

Arithmetic. We shall not allow any prejudice against individual personalities engaged in this conflict [General Strike] to complicate our task. But you cannot ask us to take sides against arithmetic.
Commons, August 31, 1926.

Armageddon. When a whole continent is arming feverishly, when mighty nations are laying aside every form of ease and comfort, when scores of millions of men and weapons are being prepared for war, when whole populations are being led forward or driven forward under conditions of exceptional overstrain, when the finances of the proudest dictators are in the most desperate condition, can you be sure that all your programmes so tardily adopted will, in fact, be executed in time?
Commons, March 4, 1937.

Armaments. Nobody keeps armaments going for fun. They keep them going for fear.
Commons, November 23, 1945.

Armaments, British. I am not to be understood to mean that the possibilities of a gigantic war are nearer, but the actual position of Great Britain is much less satisfactory than it was this time twenty years ago, for then at least we had a supreme fleet; nobody could get at us in this island; and we had powerful friends on the Continent of Europe, who were likely to be involved in any quarrel before we were. But to-day, with our aviation in its present condition, we are in a far worse position. The Disarmament Conference has been carried out year after year ad nauseam. It must no longer delay our taking the necessary measures ourselves.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Armaments, Cause of. If you wish for disarmament, it will be necessary to go to the political and economic causes which lie behind the maintenance of armies and navies. There are serious political and economic dangers at the present time, and antagonisms which are by no means assuaged.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Armaments and Policy. It used to be said that armaments depend on policy. It is not always true, but I think that at this juncture it is true, to say that policy depends, to a large extent, upon armaments. It is true to say that we have reached a position where the choice of policy is dictated by considerations of defence.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

Armaments’ Race. Let us see what we are doing. It is a general impression that we are overhauling Germany now; that we started late, it is true, but we are making up for lost time, and that every month our relative position will improve. That is a delusion. It is contrary to the truth this year, and probably for many months next year. I am not saying anything which is not known in every country of the world. These matters are thoroughly understood. Germany will be out-stripping us more and more even if our new programmes are accepted, and we shall be worse off at the end of this year than we are now, in spite of all our exertions.
Commons, March 10, 1936.

Armed Forces. No satisfactory line of division can really be drawn between the navy and the air, between the air and the army, and between the navy and the army. Every attempt to draw such a line has failed.
Commons, March 21, 1922.

Armed Forces, Modern. All the three services in modern times have a new common factor which they never had in anything like the same degree until the present century, or, indeed, until after the recent Great War. I mean science and invention. Science and invention are sweeping all before them. The same science applies to all three services alike, and its application must play a large part in all your plans and outlook. Nothing like this was known in the nineteenth century, and in those days the segregation of the services seemed comparatively simple. The Navy, to quote Lord Fisher, was a dismal mystery surrounded by seasickness, and had nothing in common, except good conduct, with the barrack square and the red-coated army of those days. The air force did not exist.
Commons, March 21, 1934.

Armistice. A quarter of a century ago . . . the House, when it heard . . . the armistice terms, did not feel inclined for debate or business, but desired to offer thanks to Almighty God, to the Great Power which seems to shape and design the fortunes of nations and the destiny of man; and I therefore . . . move “That the House do now attend at the church of St. Margaret, Westminister, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the threat of German domination.” This is the identical motion which was moved in former times.
Commons, May 8, 1945.

Armistice, Russo-Finnish. The armistice terms agreed upon for Finland and Rumania bear, naturally, the imprint of the Soviet will—and here I must draw attention to the restraint which has characterized the Soviet treatment of these two countries, both of which marched blithely behind Hitler in his attempted destruction of Russia, and both of which added their quota of injuries to the immense volume of suffering which the Russian people have endured, survived, and have triumphantly surmounted.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Army, British. It was an extraordinary thing that, although they had only a small army, it was not well-armed, and although it was such an expensive army, it was practically without quick-firing guns.
Commons, July 16, 1903.

England, through the character of her people—who did not mind fighting, but detested drill—necessarily had very largely to depend, and her insular position made it possible for her so to do, in great crises, on an army of emergency.
Commons, February 24, 1903.

Army, Equipment of. The equipment of our army at the outbreak of war was of the most meagre and deficient character, and the deficiencies made themselves most marked—and still make themselves most marked—in the very type of weapons for which there is the greatest possible demand.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Army, National. A national army is quite different from an army of volunteers, who were produced largely by the pressure in the economic market. I am all for volunteers who come from some uplifting of the human soul, some spirit arising in the human breast.
Commons, May 6, 1947.

Army, Making an. In making an army, three elements are necessary—men, weapons and money. There must also be time.
Commons, December 1, 1948.

Army Policy. Nothing was more important than continuity in the policy of the army. It was not a limited liability company which could be recast or reconstructed in accordance with the state of the money market; and if subjected to frequent and violent changes very grave and grievous consequences might ensue, which it might take years to repair.
Commons, February 23, 1905.

Army Reform. What is army reform? I take it to be one of two things. Either it means the same efficiency at a reduced cost, or increased efficiency for the same cost. Perhaps it might mean greatly increased efficiency for a slightly increased cost. But the one thing it certainly does not mean is a larger number of regular soldiers.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Army, Standing. Standing armies, which abound on the European continent, are not indigenous to the British soil, they do not flourish in our climate, they are not suited to our national character, and though with artificial care and at a huge and disproportionate cost we may cultivate and preserve them, they will after all only be poor, stunted, sickly plants of foreign origin.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Army, The. The army was not an inanimate substance, it was a living thing. Regiments were not like houses; they could not be pulled down and altered structurally to suit the convenience of the occupier and the caprice of the owner. They were more like plants: they grew slowly if they were to grow strong; they were easily affected by conditions of temperature and soil; and if they were blighted or transplanted they were apt to wither, and then they could only be revived by copious floods of public money.
Commons, August 8, 1904.

Asiatic Labour. I can quite understand that a man who works with his brain, however hard he works, cannot—unless he has a gift of imagination, the rarest and perhaps the best of all gifts—understand how this alliance, this conjunction between cosmopolitan capital and the immense, unmeasured reservoirs of Asiatic cheap labour, how this strange conjunction which the improving civilization of the world has, I think for the first time, rendered possible—I do not think it is easy, I say, for a man who works with his brain to understand how such a conjunction strikes the man who has nothing to sell but the sweat of his brow.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

Asiatics. All Asiatic races are subject to certain disabilities which do not apply to Europeans. [In South Africa.]
Commons, July 16, 1906.

Asquith, Herbert Henry. At forty, with a massive legal record behind him, he was Home Secretary. At fifty he was Prime Minister. He made his way by his distinction in the House of Commons debate, clear-cut, lucid argument, expressed in happy terms with many a glint of humour and flash of repartee, brevity as well as clarity—these were his weapons in those days of lengthy, sonorous harangues. He was no ebullient orator pouring forth his sentimental or passionate appeal. But few there were who could face him in the tense debating of issues, large or small. Here was a man who dealt in reasoned processes, who placed things in their proper scale and relation, who saw the root of the matter and simplified the tale.
Commons, December 6, 1950.

He was determined to broaden the road and break down the remaining barriers so as to enable ever larger numbers of ordinary people to win their place in an expanding society and have a fair share of the show. In this way he was in basic harmony with an age which has brought, and is bringing, ever more millions of men and women to a table which might but for human folly and wickedness be ever more bountifully laden for the whole human race.
Commons, December 6, 1950.

Assault, Before the. Here in this strong city of refuge which enshrines the title-deeds of human progress and is of deep consequence to Christian civilization; here, girt about by the seas and oceans where the navy reigns; shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen—we wait undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come to-night. Perhaps it will come next week. Perhaps it will never come. We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden violent shock, or what is perhaps a harder test, a prolonged vigil. But be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy—we shall ask for none.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

Assembly, Feudal. It is not perhaps surprising in a country so fond of tradition, so proud of continuity, as ourselves that a feudal assembly of titled persons, with so long a history and so many famous names, should have survived to exert an influence upon public affairs at the present time. We see how often in England the old forms are reverently preserved after the forces by which they are sustained, and the uses to which they were put, and the dangers against which they were designed, have passed away.
Norwich, July 26, 1909.

Assembly, Semi-circular. Logic is a poor guide compared with custom. Logic which has created in so many countries semi-circular assemblies with buildings that give to every Member, not only a seat to sit in, but often a desk to write at, with a lid to bang, has proved fatal to Parliamentary Government as we know it here in its home and in the land of its birth.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

Assembly, Shape of. There are two main characteristics of the House of Commons which will command the approval and the support of reflective and experienced Members. They will, I have no doubt, sound odd to foreign ears. The first is that its shape should be oblong and not semi-circular. Here is a very potent factor in our political life. The semi-circular assembly, which appeals to political theorists, enables every individual or every group to move round the centre, adopting various shades of pink according as the weather changes.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

Astor, Lady. When the right hon. Member for Caithness [Sir Archibald Sinclair] dwelt on the point of Russia and emphasized it, I heard a sort of commotion behind me. I heard the Noble Lady the Member for the Sutton Division of Plymouth [Vicountess Astor] express her dislike of any contact with Bolshevik Russia. Where was this dislike when she paid a visit to Soviet Russia with Mr. Bernard Shaw? The Noble Lady was treated with great consideration. But the point which the House should notice—it is a very serious point, and I hope I shall be able to put it without any offence—is that the time when she went to Russia and gave all her applause and credit to Russia, was a time when the influence of Russia was deeply detrimental to the interests of this country.
Commons, April 13, 1939.

Atlantic Charter. Upon the fraternal association and intimate alignment of policy of the United States and the British Commonwealth and Empire depends, more than on any other factor, the immediate future of the world. If they walk, or if need be march, together in harmony and in accordance with the moral and political conceptions to which the English-speaking peoples have given birth, and which are frequently referred to in the Atlantic Charter, all will be well. If they fall apart and wander astray from the commanding beacon-light of their destiny, there is no end or measure to the miseries and confusion which await modern civilization.
Guildhall, London, June 30, 1943.

Atlantic Meeting. This was a meeting [with President Roosevelt] which marks for ever in the pages of history the taking-up by the English-speaking nations, amid all this peril, tumult and confusion, of the guidance of the fortunes of the broad, toiling masses in all the continents; and our loyal effort, without any clog of selfish interest, to lead them forward out of the miseries into which they have been plunged back to the broad highroad of freedom and justice. This is the highest honour and the most glorious opportunity which could ever have come to any branch of the human race.
London, August 24, 1941.

The meeting was therefore symbolic. That is its prime importance. It symbolizes, in a form and manner which everyone can understand in every land and in every clime, the deep underlying unities which stir, and at decisive moments rule, the English-speaking peoples throughout the world. Would it be presumptuous for me to say that it symbolizes something even more majestic—namely, the marshalling of the good forces of the world against the evil forces which are now so formidable and triumphant, and which have cast their cruel spell over the whole of Europe and a large part of Asia?
London, August 24, 1941.

Atomic Bomb. It would nevertheless be wrong and imprudent to entrust the secret knowledge or experience of the atomic bomb, which the United States, Great Britain and Canada now share, to the world organization, while it is still in its infancy. It would be criminal madness to cast it adrift in this still agitated and non-united world. No one in any country has slept less well in their beds because this knowledge, and the method and the raw materials to apply it, are at present largely retained in American hands. I do not believe we should all have slept so soundly had the position been reversed and if some Communist or Neo-Fascist State monopolized for the time being these dread agencies. The fear of them alone might easily have been used to enforce totalitarian systems upon the free democratic world, with consequences appalling to human imagination.
Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Atomic Bomb, Decision on. The decision to use the atomic bomb was taken by President Truman and myself at Potsdam, and we approved the military plans to unchain the dread, pent-up forces.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Atomic Bomb as Shield. In these present days we dwell strangely and precariously under the shield and protection of the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb is still only in the hands of a State and nation which we know will never use it except in the cause of right and freedom. But it may well be that in a few years this awful agency of destruction will be widespread and the catastrophe following from its use by several warring nations will not only bring to an end all that we call civilization, but may possibly disintegrate the globe itself.
Zürich University, September 19, 1946.

Atomic Explosion, First. On July 17th there came to us at Potsdam the eagerly-awaited news of the trial of the atomic bomb in the Mexican desert. Success beyond all dreams crowded this sombre, magnificent venture of our American allies. The detailed reports of the Mexican desert experiment, which were brought to us a few days later by air, could leave no doubt, in the minds of the very few who were informed, that we were in the presence of a new factor in human affairs, and possessed of powers which were irresistible.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Atomic Power. This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.
London, August 6, 1945.

Atomic Weapons. The dark ages may return—the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of science; and what might now shower immeasurable material blessings upon mankind may even bring about its total destruction. Beware I say! Time may be short.
Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Atrocities, German. Field-Marshal Goering—who is one of the few Germans who has been having a pretty good time for the last few years—says that we have been spared so far because Nazi Germany is so humane. They cannot bear to do anything to hurt anybody. All they ask for is the right to live and to be let alone to conquer and kill the weak. Their humanity forbids them to apply severities to the strong. It may be true: but when we remember the bestial atrocities they have committed in Poland, we do not feel we wish to ask for any favours to be shown us. We shall do our duty as long as we have life and strength.
Commons, November 8, 1939.

Attlee, Clement. Mr. Attlee combines a limited outlook with strong qualities of resistance.
Royal Albert Hall, London, April 27, 1951.

Attrition. It is in the dragging-out of the war at enormous expense, until the democracies are tired or bored or split, that the main hopes of Germany and Japan must now reside. We must destroy this hope, as we have destroyed so many others, and for that purpose we must beware of every topic, however attractive, and every tendency, however natural, which turns our minds and energies from this supreme objective of the general victory of the United Nations. By singleness of purpose, by steadfastness of conduct, by tenacity and endurance such as we have so far displayed—by these, and only by these, can we discharge our duty to the future of the world and to the destiny of man.
The Congress, Washington, May 19, 1943.

Auchinleck, General. Although the battle is not yet finished, I have no hesitation in saying that, for good or ill, it is General Auchinleck’s battle. Watching these affairs, as it is my duty to do, from day to day, and often from hour to hour, and seeing the seamy side of the reports as they come in, I have felt my confidence in General Auchinleck grow continually, and although everything is hazardous in war, I believe we have found in him, as we have also found in General Wavell, a military figure of the first order.
Commons, December 11, 1941.

Austerity. This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.
Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Australia, Socialism in. A young nation, like Australia, dwelling in a continent growing ample food for itself and for export, may try experiments in Socialism without the risk of fatal injury, but the 50,000,000 gathered together in this small island are in a very different position.
London, January 21, 1950.

Austria, Conquest of. The public mind has been concentrated upon the moral and sentimental aspects of the Nazi conquests of Austria—a small country brutally struck down, its Government scattered to the winds, the oppression of the Nazi party doctrine imposed upon a Catholic population, and upon the working classes of Austria and of Vienna, the hard ill-usage of persecution which indeed will ensue—which is probably in progress at the moment—of those who, this time last week, were exercising their undoubted political rights, discharging their duties faithfully to their own country.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

Austria, Occupation of. The gravity of the event of the 11th of March cannot be exaggerated. Europe is confronted with a programme of aggression, nicely calculated and timed, unfolding stage by stage, and there is only one choice open, not only to us, but to other countries who are unfortunately concerned—either to submit, like Austria, or else to take effective measures while time remains to ward off the danger and, if it cannot be warded off, to cope with it.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

Autarchy. If the French woke up to-morrow morning and found that all the rest of the world had sunk under the sea, and that they were alone, they could make a pretty good living for themselves from their fertile soil. But if Britain woke up to-morrow morning and found nothing but salt water on the rest of the globe, about one-third of our people would disappear.
Town Hall, Leeds, February 4, 1950.

Authority. It was quite impossible to determine any exact relation between the penalties at the command of authority and the respect in which the authority was held.
Commons, February 11, 1902.

There is no excuse for superior authority not choosing the most suitable agents for particular duties, and not removing unsuitable agents from particular duties.
Commons, July 8, 1920.

Authority, Supreme. I entirely agree that the civil authority has supreme authority over the military men.
Commons, October 31, 1950.

Authorship. Writing a book was an adventure. To begin with it was a toy, and amusement; then it became a mistress, and then a master, and then a tyrant.
London, November 2, 1949.

Autocracy, Limiting. There is a deep fund of common sense in the English race and they have all sorts of ways, as has been shown in the past, of resisting and limiting the imposition of State autocracy.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, February 14, 1950.

Avalanche, The German. More than a million German soldiers, including all their active divisions and armoured divisions, are drawn up ready to attack, at a few hours’ notice, all along the frontiers of Luxembourg, of Belgium and of Holland. At any moment these neutral countries may be subjected to an avalanche of steel and fire; and the decision rests in the hands of a haunted, morbid being, who, to their eternal shame, the German peoples in their bewilderment have worshipped as a god.
London, March 30, 1940.

Averages, Magic of. There is exhilaration in the study of insurance questions because there is a sense of elaborating new and increased powers which have been devoted to the service of mankind. It is not only a question of order in the face of confusion. It is not only a question of collective strength of the nation to render effective the thrift and the exertions of the individual, but we bring in the magic of averages to the aid of the million.
Commons, May 25, 1911.

Aviation, Civil. Civil aviation must fly by itself; the Government cannot possibly hold it up in the air.
Commons, March 11, 1920.

I think you may say that civil aviation bears the same relation to the fighting force as the mercantile marine has for so many generations borne to the Royal Navy.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Awards, Delayed. It was not until 1851 that the services rendered between 1793 and 1814 by the veterans who still survived were recognized. Queen Victoria took a great interest in this, and the Duke of Richmond, who led the public agitation, was given by the grateful recipients of the long overdue awards, plate worth about 1,500 guineas.
Commons, March 22, 1944.

Baden-Powell, Lord. I first met B.-P. many years before the birth of the Scout Movement. He was a man of character, vision and enthusiasm, and he passed these qualities on to the movement which has played, and is playing, an important part in moulding the character of our race. Sturdiness, neighbourliness, practical competence, love of country, and above all, in these times, indomitable resolve, daring and enterprise in the face of the enemy, these are the hallmarks of a scout. . . . “Be Prepared” to stand up faithfully for right and truth however the winds may blow.
London, July 16, 1942.

Balance of Power. I say quite frankly, though I may shock the House, that I would rather see another ten or twenty years of one-sided armed peace than see a war between equally well-matched powers or combinations of power—and that may be the choice.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Balance, Trembling. Never before has the choice of blessings or curses been so plainly, vividly, even brutally, offered to mankind. The choice is open. The dreadful balance trembles. It may be that our island and all the Commonwealths it has gathered around it may, if we are worthy, play an important, perhaps even a decisive, part in turning the scales of human fortune from bad to good, from fear to confidence, from miseries and crimes immeasurable to blessings and gains abounding.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Baldwin, Lord. In those days Mr. Baldwin was wiser than he is now; he used frequently to take my advice.
Commons, May 22, 1935.

One incident has certainly filled me with surprise. Some few weeks ago Sir Austen Chamberlain made a most serious speech of criticism, and even of censure, addressed to the Prime Minister [Stanley Baldwin] in his own presence. It astonished me that the Prime Minister did not rise at once and say whatever occurred to him to say. After all, this is a forum of debate, and an indictment preferred by a Member of high responsibility, especially a Member who has long been the buttress, and on one occasion at least the saviour, of the Prime Minister’s Government, ought not to be left unanswered. There ought to be the cut and thrust of debate, and I am surprised that the right hon. Gentleman, if not at that moment, at any rate at the earliest opportunity, did not take up the points of argument which were addressed to him. If issues of this kind are pushed aside, and ignored, and an attempt is made to carry the business of Parliament forward with the influence of the Whips, of the Central Office and of an indulgent Press—if that is to become the process, there is bound to be a weakening in the ties which unite the House to the Government and which preserve the vitality of our Parliamentary institutions.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

It has been my fortune to have ups and downs in my political relations with him, the downs on the whole predominating perhaps, but at any rate we have always preserved agreeable personal relations, which, so far as I am concerned, are greatly valued. I am sure he would not wish in his conduct of public affairs that there should be any shrinking from putting the real issues of criticism which arise, and I shall certainly proceed in that sense.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

Balfour, A. J. Office at any price was his motto, at the sacrifice of any friend or colleague, at the sacrifice of any principle, by the adoption of any manoeuvre, however miserable or contemptible.
Commons, April 5, 1905.

The hon. Gentleman looked upon the hours spent in the House as a spell upon the Parliamentary treadmill, and as part of the purchase price of office and power.
Commons, July 5, 1905.

A doubt, an unworthy doubt, has sometimes come across my mind. I have sometimes doubted whether the right hon. Gentleman’s policy has been so disingenuous, so haphazard, so dictated by circumstances beyond his control, as I would gladly believe, whether in fact it is merely a serious and honest, but a somewhat undignified, attempt to keep the Cabinet together rather than a tactical deployment to commit a great Party to a new policy against which its instinct revolts and distrusts—a policy which in the mind of the wisest and oldest counsellors in its ranks would lead to ruin and failure, whether it is an attempt to coax the Party over difficult ground, and to commit it to a position which, had there been full opportunity of debate, the Party would have repudiated.
Commons, August 14, 1903.

Balfourian Method. It was eminently characteristic of what I might call the “Balfourian” method of discharging public business. I did not use the phrase in any offensive sense, but it seems to cover the two right hon. Gentlemen par nobile fratrum. This was the latest family dodge of prolonging their period of office, and as it was a subject about which they felt so intensely he wondered that they did not take the trouble to acquaint themselves with the ordinary and inevitable procedure of the House in respect to the resolution they had placed upon the paper.
Commons, July 18, 1905.

Baltic, Command of the. The German navy in the next few years will not be able to form a line of battle for a general engagement. One would expect that cruisers and submarines would be sent out to attack commerce, but I think you may take it as absolutely certain that the prime object of the German navy will be to preserve command of the Baltic, which is of supreme consequence to Germany, not only because of the supplies she can obtain from the Scandinavian countries, and the influence she can exert over them, but because the loss of naval command in the Baltic would lay the whole of the Baltic shores of Germany open to attack or possible invasions from other Baltic powers, of which the largest and most important is, of course, the Soviet Union.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Barbarism. Wickedness, enormous, panoplied, embattled, seemingly triumphant, casts its shadow over Europe and Asia. Laws, customs and traditions are broken up. Justice is cast from her seat. The rights of the weak are trampled down. The grand freedoms of which the President of the United States has spoken so movingly are spurned and chained. The whole stature of man, his genius, his initiative and his nobility, is ground down under systems of mechanical barbarism and of organized and scheduled terror.
London, June 16, 1941.

Barbs. I am not at all worried about anything that may be said about me. Nobody would attempt to take part in controversial politics and not expect to be attacked.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Bargaining, Collective. We support the principle of collective bargaining between recognized and responsible trade unions and employers, and we include in collective bargaining the right to strike. They [the trade unions] have a great part to play in the life of the country and we think they should keep clear of Party politics.
Conservative Trades Union Congress, London, October 13, 1949.

Barracking. I must say I do not think any public man charged with a high mission from this country ever seemed to be barracked from his homeland in his absence—unintentionally, I can well believe—to the extent that befell me while on this visit to the United States; and only my unshakable confidence in the ties which bind me to the mass of the British people upheld me through those days of trial.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Basic English. Some months ago I persuaded the British Cabinet to set up a committee of Ministers to study and report upon Basic English. Here you have a plan. There are others, but here you have a very carefully wrought plan for an international language capable of a very wide transaction of practical business and interchange of ideas. The whole of it is comprised in about 650 nouns and 200 verbs or other parts of speech—no more indeed than can be written on one side of a single sheet of paper.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

Basic English is not intended for use among English-speaking people, but to enable a much larger body of people who do not have the good fortune to know the English language to participate more easily in our society.
Commons, November 4, 1943.

Battle, Before the. In that supreme emergency we shall not hesitate to take every step, even the most drastic, to call forth from our people the last ounce and the last inch of effort of which they are capable. The interests of property, the hours of labour, are nothing compared with the struggle for life and honour, for right and freedom, to which we have vowed ourselves.
London, May 19, 1940.

Battle of Britain. The three great days of August 15th, September 15th and September 27th have proved to all the world that here at home over our own island we have the mastery of the air. That is a tremendous fact. It marks the laying down of the office [of Chief of the Air Staff] which he has held with so much distinction for the last three years by Sir Cyril Newall, and it enables us to record our admiration to him for the services he has rendered. It also marks the assumption of new and immense responsibilities by Sir Charles Portal, an officer who, I have heard from every source and every side, commands the enthusiastic support and confidence of the Royal Air Force.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Battle, Curtain of. I have often thought that it is sometimes unwise of generals to try to foresee with meticulous exactness just what will happen after a battle has been fought. A battle hangs like a curtain across the future. Once that curtain is raised or rent we can all see how the scenery is arranged, what actors are left upon the scene, and how they appear to be related to one another.
Commons, October 31, 1944.

Battleships, Building of. We always believed before the war that battleships could never be laid down without our knowledge. The Germans were entitled to build 10,000-ton ships according to the Treaty, but they, by a concealment which the Admiralty were utterly unable to penetrate, converted these into 26,000-ton ships. Let us be careful when we see all these extremely awkward incidents occurring.
Commons, July 22, 1935.

Battleships, Modern. The offensive power of modern battleships is out of all proportion to their defensive power. Never was the disproportion so marked. If you want to make a true picture in your mind of a battle between great modern ironclad ships you must not think of it as if it were two men in armour striking at each other with heavy swords. It is more like a battle between two egg-shells striking each other with hammers.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Beatty, Admiral Sir David. In Sir David Beatty we have a Commander-in-Chief who, by his gifts and also by his exceptional training, not only possesses the regular qualifications which admirals of distinction possess, but who has, perhaps in a greater degree than almost any of the principal officers of the fleet, what may be called the “war mind.” It is not only seamanship or technical attainments or even leadership of men that are required in a Commander-in-Chief, but also that feeling towards the art of war, that deep comprehension of its sombre yet simple problems, without which, all other qualifications, however valuable, however laboriously attained, still only receive a limited scope.
Commons, February 21, 1917.

Beer. The object of the duty is to protect the culture of hops, and there is a special element of depravity attaching to this duty. A certain school of thinkers contend that beer is food, and if so, hops are certainly, I am advised, an ingredient of beer—but I am encouraged in the matter by the fact that those who hold that beer is a food are also, on the whole, very favourable to a protective duty on hops and, on the other hand, those who dislike the duty on hops still more dislike the suggestion that beer is food, so I think my right hon. Friend’s little monster may manage to make its way through the general network of electoral pledges which safeguards the main policy in fiscal matters as far as this Parliament is concerned.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Beginning, The End of the. The fight between the British and the Germans was intense and fierce in the extreme. It was a deadly grapple. The Germans have been outmatched and outfought with the very kind of weapons with which they have beaten down so many small peoples, and also large unprepared peoples. They have been beaten by the very technical apparatus on which they counted to gain them the domination of the world. Especially is this true of the air and of the tanks and of the artillery, which has come back into its own on the battlefield. The Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942.

Belgium. The Belgian Government has dissociated itself from the action of the King and declaring itself to be the only legal Government of Belgium, has formally announced its resolve to continue the war at the side of the Allies who have come to the aid of Belgium at her urgent appeal. Whatever our feelings may be upon the facts so far as they are known to us, we must remember that the sense of brotherhood between the many peoples who have fallen into the power of the aggressor and those who still confront him will play its part in better days than those through which we are passing.
Commons, May 28, 1940.

Belgium, Surrender of. The House will be aware that the King of the Belgians yesterday sent a plenipotentiary to the German Command asking for a suspension of arms on the Belgian front. The British and French Governments instructed their generals immediately to dissociate themselves from this procedure and to persevere in the operations in which they are now engaged. However, the German Command has agreed to the Belgian proposals and the Belgian army ceased to resist the enemy’s will at four o’clock this morning.
Commons, May 28, 1940.

Belligerents. There is nothing improper in belligerents meeting to discuss their affairs even while actual battles are going on. All history abounds in precedents.
Commons, February 25, 1954.

Beresford, Lord Charles, M.P. He is one of those orators of whom it was well said, “Before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what they are saying; and when they sit down, they do not know what they have said.”
Commons, December 20, 1912.

Betting. There is no doubt that there is more betting done in England than in any other equal community in the world, and there is no doubt that it is done in more disagreeable and irritating conditions than in any other country in the world.
Commons, March 16, 1928.

Betting Tax. It may be there has been a certain check to betting. If so, my sorrows on the Exchequer account are to some extent assuaged by my satisfaction as a moral reformer.
Commons, July 5, 1927.

Betting, Taxation of. Take the case of the backer. . . . Does anyone suppose that a man or woman who now bets with a credit bookmaker, who has only to go to the telephone and make his wager by word of mouth under the full sanction of the law, who has every facility of the public service at his disposal, who can make his wager with a firm in which he has the uttermost confidence—can you suppose that this backer is going, for the sake of avoiding a deduction from his winnings of the odds equal to one shilling in the pound or to avoid a deduction from his winnings of one shilling in the pound, to wander around a particular district in some manufacturing town looking for a mysterious individual into whose hand he may surreptitiously place half a dollar.
Commons, April 28, 1926.

Bevan, Aneurin. I should think it was hardly possible to state the opposite of the truth with more precision. I back up those who seek to establish democracy and civilization. The hon. Member must learn to take as well as to give. There is no one more free with interruptions, taunts, and jibes than he is. I saw him—I heard him, not saw him—almost assailing some of the venerable figures on the bench immediately below him. He need not get so angry because the House laughs at him: he ought to be pleased when they only laugh at him.
Commons, December 8, 1944.

I have no doubt that the highest exponents in the medical profession would concur that a period of prolonged seclusion and relief from any responsible duties would be an equal benefit to Mr. Bevan and to the National Health Service.
Woodford Green, July 10, 1948.

One would have thought that a man who had been only a burden to our war effort in the years of storm and the sort of thing we had to carry along on our shoulders—and who had received high office in the days of victory, would have tried to turn over a new leaf and redeem his past.
Woodford Green, July 10, 1948.

There is, however, a poetic justice in the fact that the most mischievous mouth in wartime has also become in peace the most remarkable administrative failure.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Bevin, Ernest. He takes his place among the great Foreign Secretaries of our country, and in his steadfast resistance to Communist aggression, in his strengthening of our ties with the United States and in his share of building up the Atlantic Pact, he has rendered services to Britain and to the cause of peace which will long be remembered.
London, March 17, 1951.

Bias. You cannot ask us to take sides against arithmetic. You cannot ask us to take sides against the obvious facts of the situation.
Commons, August 31, 1926.

Big Three. The future of the whole world, and certainly the future of Europe, perhaps for several generations, depends upon the cordial, trustful and comprehending association of the British Empire, the United States and Soviet Russia, and no pains must be spared and no patience grudged which are necessary to bring that supreme hope to fruition.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

No meeting during this war would carry with it so much significance for the future of the world as a meeting between the heads of the three Governments, for, without the close, cordial and lasting association between Soviet Russia and the other great Allies, we might find ourselves at the end of the war only to have entered upon a period of deepening confusion.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Black Market. If you destroy a free market you create a black market. If you have 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
Commons, February 3, 1949.

Blackmail. Never in our history have we been in a position where we could be liable to be blackmailed, or forced to surrender our possessions, or take some action which the wisdom of the country or its conscience would not allow.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Blessings, Counting. We have to look back along the path we have trodden these last three years of toil and strife, to value properly all that we have escaped and all that we have achieved. No mood of boastfulness, of vain glory, of over-confidence must cloud our minds; but I think we have a right which history will endorse to feel that we had the honour to play a part in saving the freedom and the future of the world.
London, November 29, 1942.

Blitz, Insurance against. At the beginning of the blitz I pressed upon him [Sir Kingsley Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer] the vital need of doing something for the poor people whose houses were smashed up and whose businesses were destroyed, and he devised the elaborate insurance scheme, which has come into the fullest possible fruition. At one time, it looked as if the State were taking on a very heavy burden; but trees never grow up to the sky, and, as a matter of fact, not only have individuals been provided for and the loss inflicted by the enemy shared and spread over the shoulders of the whole community, but the scheme has ultimately turned out to be highly profitable to the Exchequer.
Commons, September 22, 1943.

Blood, River of. A river of blood has flowed and is flowing between the German race and the peoples of nearly all Europe. It is not the hot blood of battle, where good blows are given and returned. It is the cold blood of the execution yard and the scaffold, which leaves a stain indelible for generations and for centuries.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1941.

Bluff. If it is thought that there is nothing behind your words, when you are in fact in a position of greater danger yourself, not much attention is paid to what you say; the march of events takes place regardless of it.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Blunderbuss. A blunderbuss is a traditional weapon with which the British householder defends himself from those who seek to plunder him.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Blur. The English never draw a line without blurring it.
Commons, November 16, 1948.

Boer, The. The Boer is a curious combination of the squire and the peasant, and under the rough coat of the farmer there are very often to be found the instincts of the squire.
Commons, February 18, 1901.

Boers, The. No people in the world received so much verbal sympathy and so little practical support as the Boers. If I were a Boer fighting in the field—and if I were a Boer I hope I should be fighting in the field—I would not allow myself to be taken in by any message of sympathy, not even if it were signed by a hundred hon. Members.
Commons, February 18, 1901.

It must be self-evident to every one who had studied the South Africa question that the loyal co-operation of the Boers in the settlement of South Africa would be such a dazzling bribe, such an enormous advantage, that it would be inconceivable that any government acquainted with the conditions should refuse to make any considerable sacrifices to secure so desirable an end.
Commons, January 21, 1902.

The people of these colonies, and, in a special measure, the Boers, will become the trustees of freedom all over the world. We have tried to act with fairness and good feeling. If by any chance our counsels of reconciliation should come to nothing, if our policy should end in mocking disaster, then the resulting evil would not be confined to South Africa. Our unfortunate experience would be trumpeted forth all over the world wherever despotism wanted a good argument for bayonets, whenever an arbitrary Government wished to deny or curtail the liberties of imprisoned nationalities.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Boldness. But this seems to be another case, if I may say so, of making very considerable commitments without gaining the full proportion of deterrent value. We are not taking the fullest steps in our power to stop the event occurring, and yet we are liable to suffer from it if it occurs. We are liable not only to be drawn in, but to be drawn in, perhaps, late in the day, and very likely in unfavourable circumstances. It is really for consideration whether, having gone so far, the bolder course might not be the safer. All attempts to bridge a twelve-foot stream by an eight-foot plank are doomed to failure, and the plank is lost. It is a concession, no doubt, to bring forward a nine-foot plank, but again that may be lost. The great point in view is to achieve the object, and to produce the effect of an adequate deterrent.
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks robbed Russia at one stroke of two most precious things, peace and victory—the victory that was within her grasp and the peace which was her dearest desire. Both were swept away from her. The victory was turned into defeat. As for the peace, her life ever since has been one long struggle of agonizing war.
Commons, November 5, 1919.

Bolshevism. I think the day will come when it will be recognized without doubt, not only on one side of the House but throughout the civilized world, that the strangling of Bolshevism at its birth would have been an untold blessing to the human race.
Commons, January 26, 1949.

Bolshevism is a great evil, but it has arisen out of great social evils.
Commons, May 29, 1919.

Bolshevism is not a policy; it is a disease. It is not a creed; it is a pestilence. It presents all the characteristics of a pestilence. It breaks out with great suddenness; it is violently contagious; it throws people into a frenzy of excitement; it spreads with extraordinary rapidity; the mortality is terrible; so that after a while, like other pestilences, the disease tends to wear itself out. The population of the regions devastated by its first fury are left in a sort of stupor. Then gradually and painfully they begin to recover their sanity; they are feeble; they are shattered; and the light of human reason once again comes back to their eyes. Those regions which have been most afflicted by the fury of this storm are the first to recover, and once having recovered, they are specially immune from all subsequent attacks.
Commons, May 29, 1919.

The inherent vice of Bolshevism appears to rot simultaneously, every part of the social structure of Russia, including even the military tyranny on which alone the Soviet power now depends.
Commons, May 29, 1919.

My hatred of Bolshevism and Bolsheviks is not founded on their silly system of economics or their absurd doctrine of an impossible equality. It arises from the bloody and devastating terrorism which they practise in every land into which they have broken, and by which alone their criminal régime can be maintained.
Commons, July 8, 1920.

Bombing. The hon. Gentleman opposite made our flesh creep the other night by suggesting the dropping of bombs from airships on the House of Commons. If that event should happen, I am confident that the Members of this House would gladly embrace the opportunity of sharing the perils which the soldiers and the sailors have to meet.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Bombing, Discriminate. If all of a sudden two powers with equal forces went to war, and one threw its bombs upon cities so as to kill as many women and children as possible, and the other threw its bombs on the aerodromes and air bases and factories and arsenals and dockyards and railway focal points of the other side, can any one doubt that next morning the one who had committed the greatest crime would not be the one who had reaped the greatest advantage?
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Bombing, Indiscriminate. In a war between two States with equal air forces it would not pay—I put it no higher; leave out morality, humanity and the public law of Europe—it would not pay, from the military self-preservation standpoint of any power engaged in an equal fight to waste its strength upon non-combatants and open towns.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Bombs, Flying. The House will, I think, be favourably surprised to learn that the total number of flying bombs launched from the enemy’s stations have killed almost exactly one person per bomb. That is a very remarkable fact, and it has kept pace roughly week by week. Actually the latest figures are 2,754 flying bombs launched and 2,752 fatal casualties sustained. They are the figures up to six o’clock this morning. Well, I am bound to say I was surprised when, some time ago, I perceived this wonderful figure. This number of dead will be somewhat increased by people who die of their injuries in hospital. Besides these there has been a substantially larger number of injured, and many minor injuries have been caused by splinters of glass.
Commons, July 6, 1944.

Bonham-Carter, Lady Violet. In Lady Violet Bonham-Carter we have not only a Liberal of unimpeachable loyalty to the Party, but one of the finest speakers in the country. Her speech against Socialism which was so widely read two months ago recalled the style of old and famous days.
Woodford Green, January 28, 1950.

Books. Books in all their variety are often the means by which civilization may be carried triumphantly forward.
Ministry of Information Film, 1941.

Books, Reading of. The university education is a guide to the reading of a lifetime. We should impress upon those who have its advantages the importance of reading the great books of the world and the literature of one’s own country. One who has profited from university education has a wide choice. He need never be idle or bored and have to take refuge in the clack and clatter of the modern age, which requires something new not only every day, but every two or three hours of the day. There is a good saying, which you may have heard before, that when a new book comes out you should read an old one, though I perhaps should not recommend too rigid an application.
University of London, November 18, 1948.

Books, Writing of. Certainly I have been fully qualified so far as the writing of books about wars is concerned; in fact, already in 1900, which is a long time ago, I could boast to have written as many books as Moses, and I have not stopped writing them since, except when momentarily interrupted by war, in all the intervening period.
London, July 4, 1950.

Boomerang, Principle of the. Such is life with its astonishing twists and turns. You never can tell what is going to happen next, nor can you tell what will be the consequences of any action you may take. The principle of the boomerang, a weapon which we owe to the genius of the Australian aboriginals, is, it would seem, increasingly operative in human affairs.
Westminster, May 7, 1946.

Borrowing. When you borrow money from another country for the sacred purpose of national rehabilitation, it is wrong to squander it upon indulgences.
Blenheim Palace, August 4, 1947.

Both. Some people say: “Put your trust in the League of Nations.” Others say: “Put your trust in British rearmament.” I say we want both. I put my trust in both.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Botha, General. As a matter of principle General Botha would be the last person to avail himself of the influence of a Member of Parliament in order to obtain for himself special terms which other Boers did not get.
Commons, March 26, 1906.

Brahmin Domination. They are making arrangements that the greatest bluff, the greatest humbug, and the greatest betrayal, shall be followed by the greatest ramp. Nepotism, backscratching, graft and corruption in every form will be the handmaids of a Brahmin domination.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

Brakes. If a train is running on the wrong lines downhill at sixty miles an hour it is no good trying to stop it by building a brick wall across the track. That would only mean that the wall was shattered, that the train was wrecked and the passengers mangled. First you have to put on the brakes.
London, December 22, 1951.

Bread Rationing. The German U-boats in their worst endeavour never made bread rationing necessary in war. It took a Socialist Government and Socialist planners to fasten it on us in time of peace when the seas are open and the world harvests good. At no time in the two world wars have our people had so little bread, meat, butter, cheese and fruit to eat.
Conservative Party Conference, Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Breakthrough, German. The German eruption swept like a sharp scythe around the right and rear of the armies of the north. Eight or nine armoured divisions, each of about four hundred armoured vehicles of different kinds, but carefully assorted to be complementary and divisible into small self-contained units, cut off all communications between us and the main French armies. It severed our own communications for food and ammunition, which ran first to Amiens and afterwards through Abbeville, and it shore its way up the coast to Boulogne and Calais, and almost to Dunkirk. Behind this armoured and mechanized onslaught came a number of German divisions in lorries, and behind them again there plodded comparatively slowly the dull brute mass of the ordinary German army and German people, always so ready to be led to the trampling down in other lands of liberties and comforts which they have never known in their own.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

Breathing Space. I believe that we have a considerable breathing space in which to revive again those lights of goodwill and reconciliation in Europe which shone, so brightly but so briefly, on the morrow of Locarno. We shall never do that merely by haggling about cannons, tanks, aeroplanes and submarines, or measuring swords with one another, among nations already eyeing each other with so much vigilance.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Bren Gun. Now the Secretary of State for War [Mr. Hore Belisha], I will not say incorrigible, but impenitent, tells us the new Bren gun is being produced at a maximum. What does that mean? What is the maximum? The wit of man, of a man in a fix, could not devise a more vague and misleading phrase.
Commons, November 17, 1938.

Bribery. It was very much better to bribe a person than kill him, and very much better to be bribed than to be killed.
Commons, April 30, 1953.

Bricklayer. I have always been a firm supporter of British trade unionism. I believe it be to the only foundation upon which the relations of employers and employed can be harmoniously adjusted. I have always advised Conservatives and Liberals to join the trade unions. I tried to join the Bricklayers’ Trade Union and it is a complicated legal point whether I have in fact succeeded in doing so.
Woodford Green, July 10, 1948.

Britain Alone. And now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach, and face the worst that the tyrant’s might and enmity can do. Bearing ourselves humbly before God, but conscious that we serve an unfolding purpose, we are ready to defend our native land against the invasion by which it is threatened. We are fighting by ourselves alone; but we are not fighting for ourselves alone.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

Britain and America. The experience of a long life and the promptings of my blood have wrought in me the conviction that there is nothing more important for the future of the world than the fraternal association of our two peoples in righteous work both in war and peace.
Broadcast from the Capitol, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1943.

Neither the sure prevention of war nor the continuous use of world organization will be gained without . . . the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States. . . . Eventually there may come principles of common citizenship, but that we may be content to leave to destiny, whose outstretched arm so many of us can clearly see. I feel eventually this will come.
Fulton, Missouri, March 3, 1946.

Britain, The Champion. This is a very hard war. Its numerous and fearful problems reach down to the very foundations of human society. Its scope is world wide, and it involves all nations and every man, woman, and child in them. Strategy and economics are interwoven. Sea, land and air are but a single service. The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age. The workshop and the fighting line are one. All may fall, all will stand together. We must aid each other, we must stand by each other.

We must confront our perils and trials with that national unity which cannot be broken, and a national force which is inexhaustible. We must confront them with resilience and ingenuity which are fearless, and above all with the inflexible will-power to endure and yet to dare for which our island race has long been renowned. Thus, and thus alone, can we be worthy champions of that grand alliance of nearly thirty states and nations which without our resistance would never have come into being, but which now has only to march on together until tyranny is trampled down.
A speech to the Central Council of the Conservative Party, at Caxton Hall, London, March 26, 1942.

Britain, Danger to. The danger which might confront us would expose us not only to hideous suffering, but even to mortal peril, by which I mean peril of actual conquest and subjugation. It is just as well to confront those facts while time remains to take proper measures to cope with them. I may say that all these possibilities are perfectly well known abroad, and no doubt every one of them has been made the subject of technical study.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Britain, Defence of. In order that our naval defence shall be fully effective, there must be sufficient military force in this country to make it necessary for an invader to come in such large numbers that he will offer a target to the Navy, and certainly would be intercepted if he embarked.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Britain, Example of. When we aspire to lead all Europe back from the verge of the abyss on to the uplands of law and peace, we must ourselves set the highest example. We must keep nothing back. How can we bear to continue to lead our comfortable, easy life here at home, unwilling even to pronounce the word “compulsion,” unwilling even to take the necessary measure by which the armies that we have promised can alone be recruited and equipped? How can we continue—let me say it with particular frankness and sincerity—with less than the full force of the nation incorporated in the governing instrument? These very methods, which the Government owe it to the nation and to themselves to take, are not only indispensable to the duties that we have accepted but, by their very adoption, they may rescue our people and the people of many lands from the dark, bitter waters which are rising fast on every side.
Commons, April 13, 1939.

Britain, Great. By a sober and modest conduct, by a skilful diplomacy, we can in part disarm and in part divide the elements of potential danger. But two things have to be considered: First, that our diplomacy depends in great part for its effectiveness upon our naval position; and that our naval strength is the one great balancing force which we can contribute to our own safety and to the peace of the world. Secondly, we are not a young people with a blank record and a scanty inheritance. We have won for ourselves, in times when other powerful nations were paralysed by barbarism or internal war, an exceptional share of the wealth and traffic of the world.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Britain, Insularity of. We are no longer an island. When once the navigation of the air has been brought to a high degree of perfection as it must undoubtedly be in the generation which lies in front of us, we have lost to a very considerable extent that distinctive insular position on which our safety and our greatness have hitherto depended.
Commons, March 21, 1922.

Britain, Intentions of. Everyone remembers the controversy, which has dragged on for many years, about whether we could have stopped the Great War in 1914 if Sir Edward Grey had made plain declarations a week beforehand. I myself am of opinion that he did all it was possible for him to do in the circumstances, and I doubt very much whether the event would have been averted even if he had made such a declaration. But still there is a weight of historic judgment piling up that in all these matters of international strife and danger, it is most necessary that nations should declare plainly where they stand; and of all nations which should so declare itself our country, with her insular characteristics still partially remaining to her, has an obligation to give a perfectly plain statement of what she will or will not do in certain contingencies when those contingencies approach the threshold of reality.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

Britain, Mood of. Thus far then have we travelled along the terrible road we chose at the call of duty. The mood of Britain is wisely and rightly averse from every form of shallow or premature exultation. This is no time for boasts or glowing prophecies, but there is this—a year ago our position looked forlorn and well nigh desperate to all eyes but our own. To-day we may say aloud before an awestruck world, “We are still masters of our fate. We still are captains of our soul.”
Commons, September 9, 1941.

Britain, Pacific. It is quite certain that the British Empire will never fight a war contrary to the Covenant of the League of Nations. Any attempt to embark upon a war of aggrandizement or pride or ambition would break the British Empire into fragments, and any Government that was even suspected of such a motive would be chased from power long before its machinations could become effective.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Britain and Poland. It would be affectation to pretend that the attitude of the British, and, I believe, the United States Governments towards Poland is identical with that of the Soviet Union. Every allowance must be made for the different conditions of history and geography which govern the relationship of the western democracies on the one hand and the Soviet Government on the other with the Polish nation. Marshal Stalin has repeatedly declared himself in favour of a strong, friendly Poland, sovereign and independent. In this our great Eastern Ally is in the fullest accord with His Majesty’s Government, and also, judging from American public statements, with the United States. We in this island and throughout our Empire, who drew the sword against mighty Germany on account of her aggression against Poland, have sentiments and duties towards Poland which deeply stir the British race. Everything in our power has been and will be done to achieve, both in the letter and in the spirit, the declared purposes towards Poland of the three great allies.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Britain, Survival of. The outside world which a little while ago took only a moderate view of our prospects, now believes that Britain will survive. But between immediate survival and lasting victory there is a long road to tread. In treading it, we shall show the world the perseverance and steadfastness of the British race and the glorious resilience and flexibility of our ancient institutions.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1940.

Britain, Threatened. For the first time for centuries we are not fully equipped to repel or to retaliate for an invasion. That to an island people is astonishing. Panic, indeed! The position is the other way round. We are the incredulous, indifferent children of centuries of security behind the shield of the Royal Navy, not yet able to wake up to the woefully transformed conditions of the modern world.
Commons, May 22, 1935.

Britain, True Interests of. In all the great struggles in which we have been engaged, we have survived and emerged victorious, not only because of the prowess of great commanders or because of famous battles gained by land and sea, but also because the true interests of Britain have coincided with those of so many other states and nations, and that we have been able to march in a great company along the highroad of progress and freedom for all.
Commons, April 13, 1939.

Britain, Vulnerable. When one considers the enormous range of aeroplanes and the speeds at which they travel—230 and 240 miles an hour—it is evident that every part of this small island is almost equally within range of attack.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Britain at War. In our wars the episodes are largely adverse, but the final results have hitherto been satisfactory. Away we dash over the currents that may swirl around us, but the tide bears us forward on its broad, resistless flood. In the last war the way was uphill almost to the end. We met with continual disappointments, and with disasters far more bloody than anything we have experienced so far in this one. But in the end all the oppositions fell together, and all our foes submitted themselves to our will.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942.

Britain, The Word of. It must always be assumed, of course, that Great Britain will stand by her obligations. Probably she will be better than her legal word.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Britain’s Part in Europe. Our country has a very important part to play in Europe, but it is not so large a part as we have been attempting to play, and I advocate for us in future a more modest role than many of our peace-preservers and peace-lovers have sought to impose upon us.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Britannia, Rule. The tasks which the navy has performed in peacetime are hardly less magnificent than those they have achieved in war. From Trafalgar onwards, for more than 100 years Britannia ruled the waves. There was a great measure of peace, the freedom of the seas was maintained, the slave trade was extirpated, the Monroe Doctrine of the United States found its sanction in British naval power—and that has been pretty well recognized on the other side of the Atlantic—and in those happy days the cost was about £10 million a year.
Commons, March 8, 1948.

British, The. They [the British] are the only people who like to be told how bad things are—who like to be told the worst.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

I go about the country whenever I can escape for a few hours or for a day from my duty at headquarters, and I see the damage done by the enemy attacks; but I also see side by side with the devastation and amid the ruins quiet, confident, bright and smiling eyes, beaming with a consciousness of being associated with a cause far higher and wider than any human or personal issue. I see the spirit of an unconquerable people. I see a spirit bred in freedom, nursed in a tradition which has come down to us through the centuries, and which will surely at this moment, this turning-point in the history of the world, enable us to bear our part in such a way that none of our race who come after us will have any reason to cast reproach upon their sires.
Bristol University, April 12, 1941.

British Empire. Governments who have seized upon power by violence and by usurpation have often resorted to terrorism in their desperate efforts to keep what they have stolen; but the august and venerable structure of the British Empire, where lawful authority descends from hand to hand and generation after generation, does not need such aid. Such ideas are absolutely foreign to the British way of doing things.
Commons, July 8, 1920.

British Empire, Cohesion of the. Among the various forces that hold the British Empire together is—and I certainly do not object to the expression which my hon. Friend and Member for Scaham used—“enlightened self-interest.” That has a valuable and important part to play, but I am sure he would not make the mistake of placing it in front of those deeper and more mysterious influences which cause human beings to do the most incalculable, improvident, and, from the narrow point of view, profitless things. It is our union in freedom and for the sake of our way of living which is the great fact, reinforced by tradition and sentiment, and it does not depend upon anything that could ever be written down in any account kept in some large volume.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

British Empire, Fate of the. If the British Empire is fated to pass from life into history, we must hope it will not be by the slow process of dispersion and decay, but in some supreme exertion for freedom, for right and for truth.
Canada Club, London, April 20, 1939.

British Empire, Liquidation of. Let me, however, make this clear, in case there should be any mistake about it in any quarter. We mean to hold our own. I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. For that task, if ever it were prescribed, someone else would have to be consulted.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942.

British Empire, Products of the. It is a sober fact that the British Empire produces within its limits every commodity which luxury can imagine or industry require.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

British Empire, Unity of the. Looking at the British Empire, say, thirty years ago, in 1914, on the eve of the First Great War, all foreign opinion, especially German opinion, was convinced that this vast structure of Empire, created and coming into full life in Victorian times, had reached a condition of ricketiness and looseness when a single violent shock would bring it clattering down and lay it low for ever. Then came upon the world a most frightful war, incomparably greater than anything we had ever known, with slaughter far greater than any, thank God, we have suffered in this struggle.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

British Gazette. But I warn you—I warn you that if ever there is another General Strike we will let loose another British Gazette.
Commons, 1926.

British Influence. It is known, alike by peoples and rulers that, upon the whole—and it is upon the whole that we must judge these things—British influence is a kindly and healthy influence and makes for the general happiness and welfare of mankind.
Commons, May 17, 1901.

British Interests. The fortunes and the glory of the British Empire and its glory are inseparably interwoven with the fortunes of the world. We rise or we fall together. Indeed, if we survive to-day it is because even in bygone times our ancestors so managed that in the main the special interests of Britain conformed to the general interests of the world.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

British at War. When the British people make up their minds to go to war they expect to receive terrible injuries. That is why we tried to remain at peace as long as possible.
Commons, September 5, 1940.

Brodrick, W. St. J. If the capacity of a War Minister may be measured in any way by the amount of money he can obtain from his colleagues for military purposes, the right hon. Gentleman will most certainly go down to history as the greatest War Minister this country has ever had.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

I had ever noticed that the right hon. Gentleman always made a very good speech when he was in a very difficult position: the more there was to be said against the cause he was defending, the better the speech he made.
Commons, February 24, 1903.

Brotherhood among Men. I rejoice in the prospect, now becoming sure and certain, that the Nazi ideology, enforced in a hideous manner upon a vast population, will presently be beaten to the ground. These facts and manifestations, which I see taking place continually as the world war crashes onwards to its close, make me increasingly confident that when it is won, when the hateful aggressive Nazi and Fascist systems have been laid low, and when every precaution has been taken against their ever rising again, there may be a new brotherhood among men which will not be based upon crude antagonisms of ideology but upon broad, simple, homely ideals of peace, justice and freedom. Therefore, I am glad that the war is becoming less an ideological war between rival systems and more and more the means by which high ideals and solid benefits may be achieved by the broad masses of the people in many lands and ultimately in all.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Budget. It would be easy to give an epitome of the financial year which has closed. The road has lain continually uphill, the weather has been wet and cheerless, and the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury have been increasingly uncheered by alcoholic stimulants. Death has been their frequent companion and almost their only friend.
Commons, April 24, 1928.

Budget Surplus. An announcement of a prospective surplus is always a milestone in a budget.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Bulldogs. The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
Description of naval strategy in 1914.

Bureaucracy, Growth of. There are three times as many people employed by the Government to manage our affairs as were used by the Conservative Governments before the war. A mighty army of 450,000 additional civil servants have been taken from production and added, at a prodigious cost and waste, to the oppressive machinery of Government and control.
Commons, April 18, 1947.

Bureaucracy Rejected. Of all races in the world our people would be the last to consent to be governed by a bureaucracy. Freedom is their life-blood.
London, March 21, 1943.

Bureaucrat. A State official or employee has only to keep his office hours punctually and do his best and if anything goes wrong he can send in the bill to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is truly what is called “disinterested” in the sense that he gains no advantage from wisdom and suffers no penalty for error.
Liverpool, October 2, 1951.

Butchery. The Russian armies and all the peoples of the Russian Republic have rallied to the defence of their hearths and homes. For the first time Nazi blood has flowed in a fearful torrent. Certainly a million-and-a-half, perhaps two millions, of Nazi cannon-fodder have bit the dust of the endless plains of Russia. The tremendous battle rages along nearly two thousand miles of front. The Russians fight with magnificent devotion; not only that, our generals who have visited the Russian front line report with admiration the efficiency of their military organization and the excellence of their equipment. The aggressor is surprised, startled, staggered. For the first time in his experience mass murder has become unprofitable. He retaliates by the most frightful cruelties. As his armies advance, whole districts are being exterminated. Scores of thousands—literally scores of thousands—of executions in cold blood are being perpetrated by the German police-troops upon the Russian patriots who defend their native soil. Since the Mongol invasions of Europe in the sixteenth century, there has never been methodical, merciless butchery on such a scale, or approaching such a scale. And this is but the beginning. Famine and pestilence have yet to follow in the bloody ruts of Hitler’s tanks. We are in the presence of a crime without a name.
London, August 24, 1941.

Cabinet. The Cabinet is the creature of the House of Commons. It springs from the House of Commons and dwells in the House of Commons. It is checked and corrected by the House of Commons, and by the shrug of the shoulder of the Private Members of the House the Cabinet can be scattered.
Commons, February 16, 1911.

I think everybody who thinks about these subjects would regard a Cabinet of twelve or thirteen as an ideal Cabinet. In practice such a number is not possible. It is not possible because the growing complications of government, the claims of usage and precedent, the demand of great interests in our national life, and of important parts of the United Kingdom have compelled, step by step, enlargement, until we have reached the normal pre-war size of the Cabinet of something like twenty.
Commons, March 11, 1920.

Cacophony. I must not say how much better we are than at the twenty-third month of the last war, nor how our output compares with the peak of the last war, because it is contended conditions have changed. This is rather easy money for the critics. A handful of Members can fill a couple of days’ debate with disparaging charges against our war effort, and every ardent or disaffected section of the Press can take it up, and the whole can cry a dismal cacophonous chorus of stinking fish all round the world.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Calculations. The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye.
London, May 7, 1946.

Cameramen. It is the misfortune of a good many Members to encounter in our daily walks an increasing number of persons armed with cameras to take pictures for the illustrated Press which is so rapidly developing.
Commons, May 25, 1911.

Canada. Canada is the linchpin of the English-speaking world. Canada, with those relations of friendly affectionate intimacy with the United States on the one hand and with her unswerving fidelity to the British Commonwealth and the Motherland on the other, is the link which, spanning the oceans, brings the continents into their true relation and will prevent in future generations any growth of division between the proud and the happy nations of Europe and the great countries which have come into existence in the New World.
Mansion House, London, September 4, 1941.

Canada occupies a unique position in the British Empire because of its unbreakable ties with Britain and its ever-growing friendship and intimate association with the United States. Canada is a potent magnet, drawing together those in the New World and in the Old whose fortunes are now united in a deadly struggle for life and honour against the common foe.
Ottawa, Canada, December 30, 1941.

Canada has become in the course of this war an important seafaring nation, building many scores of warships and merchant ships, some of them thousands of miles from salt water, and sending them forth manned by hardy Canadian seamen to guard the Atlantic convoys and our vital lifeline across the ocean. The munition industries of Canada have played a most important part in our war economy. Last, but not least, Canada has relieved Great Britain of what would otherwise have been a debt for these munitions of no less than $2,000,000,000.
London, August 31, 1943.

There are no limits to the majestic future which lies before the mighty expanse of Canada with its virile, aspiring, cultured and generous-hearted people. Canada is the vital link in the English-speaking world and joins across the Atlantic Ocean the vast American democracy of the United States with our famous old island and the fifty millions who keep the flag flying here.
Guildhall, London, November 19, 1951.

Canadians, French. The French Canadians derived greater pleasure from singing “God save the King” than from singing “Rule Britannia.”
Commons, July 19, 1904.

Cancer. A new situation has been created, mainly in the last three or four years, by rubbing this sore of the Disarmament Conference until it has become a cancer, and also by the sudden uprush of Nazi-ism in Germany, with the tremendous covert armaments which are proceeding there to-day.
Commons, February 7, 1934.

You cannot cure cancer by a majority. What is needed is a remedy.
Commons, June 11, 1946.

Canossa, Modern. Lastly, there is the visit to Rome [Ramsay MacDonald and Sir John Simon]. I do not wish to treat it too seriously. No doubt it was a pleasant expedition. No doubt it gave Signor Mussolini a great deal of pleasure; the same sort of pleasure that a thousand years ago was given to a pope when an emperor paid a visit to Canossa. It was certainly a striking spectacle to see these two heads of Governments, the master of sentimental words and the master of grim and rugged action, meeting in such friendly intercourse.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Cant. I care as little as any man in this House for the cant of Empire which plays so large a part in the jargon of modern political discussion, but I should like to see the great English-speaking nations work together in majesty, in freedom, and in peace.
February 15, 1911.

Capacity, Productive. The productive capacity of the human race is greater this afternoon than it ever was before.
Brighton, October 4, 1947.

Cape of Good Hope. May I say that it was this prospect of a loyal and anglicized Transvaal turning of the scale in our favour in South Africa, which must have been the original “good hope” from which the Cape has taken its name.
Commons, February 18, 1901.

Capital Ships. Every capital ship sanctioned by Parliament affects the finance of three years. There are therefore, in each year, ships which are begun, ships which are finished, and ships which are under construction throughout the whole twelve months.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Capitalism, Denouncing. When I see the present Socialist Government denouncing capitalism in all its forms, mocking with derision and contempt the tremendous free enterprise capitalist system on which the mighty production of the United States is founded, I cannot help feeling that as a nation we are not acting honourably or even honestly.
Woodford Green, July 10, 1948.

Capitalism and Socialism. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Commons, October 22, 1945.

Casablanca, Conference. The dominating aim which we set before ourselves at the Conference at Casablanca was to engage the enemy’s forces on land, on sea, and in the air on the largest possible scale and at the earliest possible moment. The importance of coming to ever closer grips with the enemy and intensifying the struggle outweighs a number of other considerations which ordinarily would be decisive in themselves. We have to make the enemy burn and bleed in every way that is physically and reasonably possible, in the same way as he is being made to burn and bleed along the vast Russian front from the White Sea to the Black Sea.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Casual Labour. The casual unskilled labourer who is habitually under-employed, who is lucky to get three, or at the outside four, days’ work in the week, who may often be out of a job for three or four weeks at a time, who in bad times goes under altogether, and who in good times has no hope of security and no incentive to thrift, whose whole life and the lives of his wife and children are embarked in a sort of blind, desperate, fatalistic gamble with circumstances beyond his comprehension or control, that this poor man, this terrible and pathetic figure, is not as a class the result of accident or chance, is not casual because he wishes to be casual, is not casual as the consequence of some temporary disturbance soon put right. No; the casual labourer is here because he is wanted here. He is here in answer to a perfectly well-defined demand. He is here as the result of economic causes which have been too long unregulated. He is not the natural product, he is an article manufactured, called into being, to suit the requirements, in the Prime Minister’s telling phrase, of all industries at particular times and of particular industries at all times.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, October 10, 1908.

Casualties. We have inflicted losses on the enemy which are about double those we have suffered ourselves. It is remarkable considering we were the challengers, and unusual compared with the experiences of the last war.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Casualties, Air Force. Excluding Dominion and allied squadrons working with the Royal Air Force, the British islanders have lost 38,300 pilots and air crews killed and 10,400 missing, and over 10,000 aircraft since the beginning of the war—and they have made nearly 900,000 sorties into the North European theatre.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Casualties, British Civilian. Now, we know exactly what our casualties have been. On that particular Thursday night 180 persons were killed in London as a result of 251 tons of bombs. That is to say, it took one ton of bombs to kill three-quarters of a person.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Casualties, Naval. The total of personnel, officers and men, of the Royal Navy lost since the war started is just over 30 per cent. of its pre-war strength, the figures being 41,000 killed out of 133,000, which was its total strength on the outbreak of war.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Casualties at Sea. We have had hardly any losses at sea in our heavily escorted troop convoys. Out of about 3,000,000 soldiers who have been moved under the protection of the British Navy about the world, to and fro across the seas and oceans, about 1,348 have been killed or drowned, including missing. It is about 2,200 to one against your being drowned if you travel in British troop convoys in this present war.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Causation, Chain of. In order to have the correct perspective and proportion of events, it is necessary to survey the whole chain of causation, the massive links of which have been forged by the diligence and burnished with the devotion and skill of our combined forces and their commanders until they shine in the sunshine of to-day, and will long shine in the history of war.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Cause, The. We are all of us defending something which is, I won’t say dearer, but greater than a country, namely a cause. That cause is the cause of freedom and of justice; that cause is the cause of the weak against the strong; it is the cause of law against violence, of mercy and tolerance against brutality and iron-bound tyranny. That is the cause we are fighting for. That is the cause which is moving slowly, painfully but surely, inevitably and inexorably to victory; and when the victory is gained you will find that you are—I will not say in a new world, but a better world; you are in a world which can be made more fair, more happy, if only all the peoples will join together to do their part, and if all classes and all parties stand together to reap the fruits of victory as they are standing together to bear, and to face, and to cast back the terrors and menaces of war.
Town Hall, Bradford, December 5, 1942.

Cause, Righteous. When an army has been brought into the field in the best condition, in the largest possible numbers, in a spirit of the highest enthusiasm, at the most favourable season, and on the best possible ground—then I think, when our army has been brought into that situation, we can afford to await the supreme arbitrament with a cool and serene composure; and this mood of composure and of calmness may ripen into a kind of joyous and warlike heartiness, if we can also feel that the cause for which we are fighting is broadly and grandly a true and righteous cause.
National Liberal Club, London, October 9, 1909.

Causes, Great. No one is compelled to serve great causes unless he feels fit for it, but nothing is more certain than that you cannot take the lead in great causes as a half-timer.
Chingford, May 8, 1936.

If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail. I therefore preach continually the doctrine of the fraternal association of our two peoples, not for any purpose of gaining material advantages for either of them, not for territorial aggrandizement or the vain pomp of earthly domination, but for the sake of service to mankind and for the honour that comes to those who faithfully serve great causes.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

Causes, Righteous. In ordinary day-to-day affairs of life, men and women expect rewards for successful exertion, and this is often right and reasonable. But those who serve causes as majestic and high as ours need no reward; nor are our aims limited by the span of human life. If success come to us soon, we shall be happy. If our purpose is delayed, if we are confronted by obstacles and inertia, we may still be of good cheer, because in a cause, the righteousness of which will be proclaimed by the march of future events and the judgment of happier ages, we shall have done our duty, we shall have done our best.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, May 14, 1947.

Caution, Political. There may be all sorts of proposals put forward, with great ability, by a powerful personality which sound very well and look attractive at first sight, but in matters affecting the peace of so many countries and the lives and well-being of millions of men, what harm would there have been in waiting till the Cabinet could have examined this proposal [by Mussolini], till the trained officials of the Foreign Office could have examined it in all its aspects.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Censure, Motion of. I have to-day to deal with a motion of censure and therefore I hope I shall be pardoned if I do not confine myself entirely to the uncontroversial methods which I usually practise.
Commons, December 4, 1952.

Centralization. The Conservative Party of our day is the heir and apostle of those great traditions and principles of Tory democracy enunciated by Benjamin Disraeli and after him by my father, Lord Randolph Churchill. One of those principles, whose truth is borne out again and again upon the pages of history is Disraeli’s oft-cited maxim, “Centralization is the death-blow of public freedom.” The truth of these words was never more apparent than it is to-day, nor more relevant to the thought and resolve of those who would have men not only live, but live freely.
Town Hall, Leeds, February 4, 1950.

Century, The New. Undoubtedly, this new twentieth century is not in many ways so favourable to us as the nineteenth century. A new world is growing up around us, far larger than anything previously seen, and filled with giant states and competitors.
Commons, July 24, 1928.

The advantages of the nineteenth century, the literary age, have been largely put away by this terrible twentieth century with all its confusion and exhaustion of mankind.
University of London, November 18, 1948.

Challenge. If there are any suspicions or insinuations to ventilate, here is the place, and now is the time. Full notice has been given, the place is privileged, and the time is extremely convenient.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

Chamber, Second. The idea that the foundation of the State, the idea that the stability of society, that perennial triumph of the good influences over the bad in the heart of man, the idea that those are dependent upon the existence of a second Chamber, of any second Chamber, let alone of this comical anachronism, to suppose that and to put that forward as a political dogma is surely the most melancholy and humiliating drivel that ever issued from a political party in a period of marked intellectual degradation.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Chamber, Size of Parliamentary. The second characteristic of a Chamber formed on the lines of the House of Commons is that it should not be big enough to contain all its Members at once without overcrowding, and that there should be no question of every Member having a separate seat reserved for him. The reason for this has long been a puzzle to uninstructed outsiders, and has frequently excited the curiosity and even the criticism of new Members. Yet it is not so difficult to understand if you look at it from a practical point of view. If the House is big enough to contain all its Members, nine-tenths of its debates will be conducted in the depressing atmosphere of an almost empty or half-empty Chamber. The essence of good House of Commons speaking is the conversational style, the facility for quick, informal interruptions and interchanges. Harangues from a rostrum would be a bad substitute for the conversational style in which so much of our business is done. But the conversational style requires a fairly small space, and there should be a sense of the importance of much that is said, and a sense that great matters are being decided, there and then, by the House.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

Chamberlain, Sir Austen. The House has not always done justice to Sir Austen Chamberlain’s conduct of foreign affairs. He was very much scolded and condemned at the close of the late Conservative Administration, but the Locarno Treaty and all that followed from it was a model of skilful peace-seeking diplomacy. Although other difficulties have come in other times, I cannot see that the handling of the Foreign Office since he left it should fill him with any particular feeling of humiliation.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Chamberlain, Neville. He was, like his father and his brother Austen before him, a famous Member of the House of Commons, and we here assembled this morning, Members of all parties, without a single exception, feel that we do ourselves and our country honour in saluting the memory of one whom Disraeli would have called an “English worthy.”
Commons, November 12, 1940.

The fierce and bitter controversies which hung around him in recent times were hushed by the news of his illness and are silenced by his death. In paying a tribute of respect and of regard to an eminent man who has been taken from us, no one is obliged to alter the opinions which he has formed or expressed upon issues which have become a part of history; but at the Lychgate we may all pass our own conduct and our own judgments under a searching review. It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events. In one phase 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 has lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion. There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.
Commons, November 12, 1940.

It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart—the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour. Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned.
Commons, November 12, 1940.

I do not propose to give an appreciation of Neville Chamberlain’s life and character, but there were certain qualities always admired in these islands which he possessed in an altogether exceptional degree. He had a physical and moral toughness of fibre which enabled him all through his varied career to endure misfortune and disappointment without being unduly discouraged or wearied. He had a precision of mind and an aptitude for business which raised him far above the ordinary levels of our generation. He had a firmness of spirit which was not often elated by success, seldom downcast by failure, and never swayed by panic. When, contrary to all his hopes, beliefs and exertions, the war came upon him, and when, as he himself said, all that he had worked for was shattered, there was no man more resolved to pursue the unsought quarrel to the death. The same qualities which made him one of the last to enter the war, made him one of the last who would quit it before the full victory of a righteous cause was won.
Commons, November 12, 1940.

Champions of Right. Ought we not to produce in defence of Right, champions as bold, missionaries as eager, and, if need be, swords as sharp as are at the disposal of the leaders of totalitarian states?
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Change. Changes in personnel are caused from time to time by the march of events and by the duty of continual improvement. Changes in machinery are enjoined by experience, and, naturally, while we live we ought to learn. Change is agreeable to the human mind, and gives satisfaction, sometimes short-lived, to ardent and anxious public opinion.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Change of Government. Nothing is so expensive as general elections and new governments. Every new administration, not excluding ourselves, arrives in power with bright and benevolent ideas of using public money to do good. The more frequent the changes of government, the more numerous are the bright ideas, and the more frequent the elections, the more benevolent they become.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Change of Mind. It is always bad for a government to change its mind, yet it ought to do so from time to time, out of respect to the House of Commons and out of the influence made upon its collective mind by the debates. But what is still worse is to change your mind and then have to change it again. That is a double disadvantage, and we must certainly avoid that.
Commons, October 6, 1944.

Change, Resistance to. The oldest habit in the world for resisting change is to complain that unless the remedy to the disease can be universally applied it should not be applied at all. But you must begin somewhere.
Commons, May 25, 1911.

Character, British. A few critical or scathing speeches, a stream of articles in the newspapers, showing how badly the war is managed and how incompetent are those who bear the responsibility—these obtain the fullest publicity; but the marvellous services of seamanship and devotion, and the organization behind them, which prove at every stage and step the soundness of our national life; the inconquerable, the inexhaustible adaptiveness and ingenuity of the British mind, the iron, unyielding, unwearying tenacity of the British character, by which we live, by which alone we can be saved, and by which we shall certainly be saved—and save the world—these, though fully realized by our foes abroad, are sometimes overlooked by our friends at home.
Commons, June 25, 1941.

Chemical Warfare. The whole business of war is beyond all words horrible, and the nations are filled with the deepest loathing of it, but if wars are going to take place, it is by no means certain that the introduction of chemical warfare is bound to make them more horrible than they have been.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Chiang Kai-Shek, Mme. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek is also a most remarkable and fascinating personality. Her perfect command of English, and complete comprehension of the world struggle as a whole, enable her to be the best of all interpreters in matters in which she herself plays a notable part.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Children and Parents. There was something rather hypocritical about tactics which tried to parade the claims of the children as an excuse for the acts of the parents.
Commons, May 1, 1903.

China, Invasion of. For five long years the Japanese military factions, seeking to emulate the style of Hitler and Mussolini, taking all their posturing as if it were a new European revelation, have been invading and harrying the five hundred million inhabitants of China. Japanese armies have been wandering about that vast land in futile excursions, carrying with them carnage, ruin and corruption, and calling it the “Chinese Incident.”
London, August 24, 1941.

China, War in. The Japanese military performances in China had not seemed remarkable. The Chinese had always been a weak nation, divided, and traditionally unwarlike. We knew that they were very ill-armed and ill-supplied, especially with every weapon that matters in modern war. And yet for four and a half years the Japanese, using as many as a million men at a time, had failed to quell or conquer them.
Commons, April 23, 1942.

Chinese Ethics. One of the causes of these outrages [in South Africa] is undoubtedly the fact that the Chinese have a very peculiar code of ethics, which makes them regard it as a more dishonourable thing not to pay a gambling debt than to commit murder. It is seriously asserted that when a Chinaman has ruined himself and lost his money through gambling, such a terrible pressure is put upon him by the public opinion of his fellows to pay his debt that he has only three courses open to him—to rob to obtain the money, to be repatriated to China, or to commit suicide.
Commons, June 8, 1906.

Chinese Labourers. Many of them went to South Africa in the belief that they could pursue their own handicraft in a rich land—an Eldorado; but instead they found themselves compelled to do nothing but drill so many inches of rock at the bottom of a deep-level mine, and I say the spectacle of the Chinaman wandering over the veldt, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him, with half the world between him and his home in China—I say that spectacle is as degrading, hideous and pathetic as any this civilized and Christian nation has made itself responsible for in modern years.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Choice of Evils. I will not pretend that, if I had to choose between Communism and Nazi-ism, I would choose Communism. I hope not to be called upon to survive in the world under a government of either of those dispensations.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Choice, Freedom of. We hold that in these modern times planning, with all the resources of science at its disposal, should aim at giving the individual citizen as many choices as possible of what to do in all the ups and downs of daily life. The more a man’s choice is free, the more it is likely to be wise and fruitful, not only to the chooser but to the community in which he dwells. Now there is an important distinction between the quality and kind of planning. This kind of planning differs fundamentally from the collectivist theme of grinding them all up in a vast State mill which must certainly destroy in the process the freedom and independence which are the foundation of our way of life and the famous characteristic of our race.
Empress Hall, London, October 14, 1949.

Church and State. In the present age the State cannot control the Church in spiritual matters; it can only divorce it.
Commons, June 14, 1928.

Churchill. So long as I am acting from duty and conviction, I am indifferent to taunts and jeers. I think they will probably do me more good than harm.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

I have no intention of passing my remaining years in explaining or withdrawing anything I have said in the past, still less in apologizing for it.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

Churchill and America. I feel greatly honoured that you should have invited me to enter the United States Senate Chamber and address the representatives of both branches of Congress. The fact that my American forebears have for so many generations played their part in the life of the United States, and that here I am, an Englishman, welcomed in your midst, makes this experience one of the most moving and thrilling in my life, which is already long and has not been entirely uneventful. I wish indeed that my mother, whose memory I cherish across the vale of years, could have been here to see. By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round, I might have got here on my own. In that case, this would not have been the first time you would have heard my voice. In that case I should not have needed any invitation, but if I had, it is hardly likely it would have been unanimous. So perhaps things are better as they are. I may confess, however, that I do not feel quite like a fish out of water in a legislative assembly where English is spoken.
The Congress, Washington, D.C., December 26, 1941.

Churchill as Politician. I am not a business man. I am only a politician. I can only apply my common sense, sharpened by political experience, to this topic.
Commons, March 27, 1919.

Churchill, a prod. I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod.
Commons, November 11, 1942.

Churchill and Scotland. I have myself some ties with Scotland which are to me of great significance—ties precious and lasting. First of all, I decided to be born on St. Andrew’s day—and it was to Scotland I went to find my wife, who is deeply grieved not to be here to-day through temporary indisposition. I commanded a Scottish battalion of the famous 21st Regiment for five months in the line in France in the last war. I sat for 15 years as the representative of “Bonnie Dundee,” and I might be sitting for it still if the matter had rested entirely with me.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, October 12, 1942.

Churchill and Toryism. The second question I have asked myself is much more personal. Am I by temperament and conviction able sincerely to identify myself with the main historical conceptions of Toryism, and can I do justice to them and give expression to them spontaneously in speech and action? My life, such as it has been, has been lived for forty years in the public eye, and very varying opinions are entertained about it—and about particular phases in it. I shall attempt no justification, but this I will venture most humbly to submit and also to declare, because it springs most deeply from the convictions of my heart, that at all times according to my lights and throughout the changing scenes through which we are all hurried, I have always faithfully served two public causes which I think stand supreme—the maintenance of the enduring greatness of Britain and her Empire and the historical continuity of our island life.
Caxton Hall, London, October 9, 1940.

Churchill’s Case. It is no part of my case that I am always right.
Commons, May 21, 1952.

Churchill’s Disposition. Because I show robust energy, it does not follow that I have a sensitive or injured disposition.
Commons, April 23, 1953.

Churchill’s Message. In these last years of life there is a message of which I conceive myself to be a bearer. It is a very simple message which can be well understood by the people of both our countries. It is that we should stand together. We should stand together in malice to none, in greed for nothing, but in defence of those causes which we hold dear not only for our own benefit, but because we believe they mean the honour and the happiness of long generations of men.
The General Assembly of Virginia, Richmond, March 8, 1946.

Circle, Virtuous. It will substitute a virtuous circle for the vicious circle.
Commons, April 24, 1928.

Civil Defence. In this war, so terrible in many aspects and yet so inspiring, men and women who have never thought about fighting or being involved in fighting before have been proud to emulate the courage of the bravest regiments of His Majesty’s armies, and proud to find that, under the fire of the enemy, they could comport themselves with discipline and with composure. It is that quality, universally spread among our people, which gives us the foundation from which we shall prosecute to the end this righteous war for the freedom and future of mankind.
Hyde Park, London, July 14, 1941.

Civil War. When millions of people are lacerated and inflamed against each other by reciprocal injuries, some element of outside aid and even of outside pressure is indispensable.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Civil War in Spain. It is not a question of opposing Nazi-ism or Communism, but of opposing tyranny in whatever form it presents itself; and, as I do not find in either of these two Spanish factions which are at war any satisfactory guarantee that the ideals which I care about would be preserved, I am not able to throw myself in this headlong fashion into the risk of having to fire cannon immediately on the one side or the other of this trouble. I have found it easier to maintain this feeling of detachment from both sides because, before we gave any help to either side we ought to know what the victory of that side would mean to those who are beaten.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Civilization. There are few words which are used more loosely than the word “civilization.” What does it mean? It means a society based upon the opinion of civilians. It means that violence, the rule of warriors and despotic chiefs, the conditions of camps and warfare, or riot and tyranny, give place to parliaments where laws are made, and independent courts of justice in which over long periods those laws are maintained. That is civilization—and in its soil grow continually freedom, comfort and culture.
University of Bristol, July 2, 1938.

Civilization implies in any society the freedom to criticize the Government of the day; free speech; free press; free thought; free religious observances; no racial persecution; fair treatment of minorities; and courts of law and justice which have an authority independent of the executive and untainted by party bias.
Commons, May 19, 1939.

Civilization, Blessings of. In this island we have to-day achieved in a high degree the blessings of civilization. There is freedom; there is law; there is love of country; there is prosperity. There are unmeasured opportunities of correcting abuses and making further progress.
University of Bristol, July 2, 1938.

Civilization, Central Principle of. The central principle of civilization is the subordination of the ruling authority to the settled customs of the people and to their will as expressed through the Constitution.
University of Bristol, July 2, 1938.

Civilization, Reign of. When civilization reigns in any country, a wider and less harassed life is afforded to the masses of the people. The traditions of the past are cherished, and the inheritance bequeathed to us by former wise or valiant men becomes a rich estate to be enjoyed and used by all.
University of Bristol, July 2, 1938.

Civilization, Survival of. Civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe.
University of Bristol, July 2, 1938.

Clarion Call. Come then: let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil—each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast and honour the brave. Let us go forward together in all parts of the Empire, in all parts of the island. There is not a week, nor a day, nor an hour to lose.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Class Hatred. There have always been men of power and position, who have sacrificed and exerted themselves in the popular cause; and that is why there is so little class hatred here, in spite of all the squalor and misery which we see around us.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Class Line. The class line must become, if the party system is shattered, the line of demarcation.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Class, The Professional. Those who dealt in guineas were not usually of the impoverished class.
Commons, June 26, 1903.

Class Struggle. I will tell those wealthy and powerful people what the secret of the security of life and property in Britain is. The security arises from the continuation of that very class struggle which they lament and of which they complain, which goes on ceaselessly in our country, which goes on tirelessly, with perpetual friction, a struggle between class and class which never sinks into lethargy, and never breaks into violence, but which from year to year makes possible a steady and constant advance. It is on the nature of that class struggle in Britain that the security of life and property is fundamentally reposed. We are always changing; like nature, we change a great deal, although we change very slowly. We are always reaching a higher level after each change, but yet with the harmony of our life unbroken and unimpaired.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Classics. I should like to say that I have changed my mind about the classics. I had very strong views about them when at Harrow; I have changed my mind about them since. Knowledge of the ancient world of the Greek and Roman literature was a great unifying force in Europe, which is now, I fear, rapidly becoming extinct and I should like to say that university education ought not to be too practical.
University of London, November 18, 1948.

Climate, British. The British people have always been superior to the British climate. They have shown themselves capable of rising above it, and certainly they have derived from it many of those strong enduring principles and ways of life which make their existence in our island home different from any other community in the world.
Woodford Green, July 10, 1948.

Climax, Elusive. It is like going up a mountain. Each successive peak appears in turn the summit, and yet there is always another pinnacle beyond.
Commons, July 31, 1906.

Climax in Europe. Europe is approaching a climax. I believe that climax will be reached in the lifetime of the present Parliament. Either there will be a melting of hearts and a joining of hands between great nations which will set out upon realizing the glorious age of prosperity and freedom which is now within the grasp of the millions of toiling people, or there will be an explosion and a catastrophe the course of which no imagination can measure, and beyond which no human eye can see. I believe also that a strongly armed Britain, resolutely and valiantly led, seeking peace but ready to run risks for peace, may conceivably turn the scale between the blessing and the cursing of mankind.
Commons, April 23, 1936.

Climax, European. I cannot believe that, after armaments in all countries have reached a towering height, they will settle down and continue at a hideous level.
Commons, April 23, 1936.

Climax of War. It is a reasonable assumption that, unless we make some grave mistakes in strategy, the year 1944 will see the climax of the European war. Unless some happy event occurs on which we have no right to count, and the hand of Providence is stretched forth in some crowning mercy, 1944 will see the greatest sacrifice of life by British and American armies, and battles far larger and more costly than Waterloo or Gettysburg will be fought. Sorrow will come to many homes in the United Kingdom and throughout the great Republic. British and American manhood—true brothers in arms—will attack and grapple with the deadly foe.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1943.

Testing, trying, adverse, painful times lie ahead of us. We must all strive to do our duty to the utmost of our strength. As the war rises remorselessly to its climax, the House of Commons, which is the foundation of the British life struggle—this House of Commons which has especial responsibilities—will have the opportunity once again of proving to the world that the firmness of spirit, sense of proportion, steadfastness of purpose, which have gained it renown in former days, will now once again carry great peoples and a greater cause to a victorious deliverance.
Commons, April 23, 1942.

Clinch of the War. The very recklessness with which Hitler and his advisers have cast the interests of the German navy upon the wild waters to meet all that moves thereon—this very recklessness makes me feel that these audacious, costly operations may be only the prelude to far larger events which impend on land. We have probably arrived now at the first main clinch of the war. But we certainly find no reason in the fact of what has just happened, and still less in our own hearts, to deter us from entering upon any further trials that may be before us. While we will not prophesy or boast about battles still to be fought, we feel ourselves ready to encounter the utmost malice of the enemy and to devote all our life-strength to achieve the victory in what is a world cause.
Commons, April 11, 1940.

Coal. The foundation of this island’s commerce was cheap and abundant coal. Upon this the brains, inventiveness, good business management and enterprise of our people enabled our population to double itself in a century. Now here, living, breathing, toiling, suffering, what is to happen if the foundation fails?
Belle Vue, Manchester, December 6, 1947.

Coalition. Is this coalition to be above Party government or below Party government?
Commons, May 7, 1931.

I am quite sure that a coalition between men and Parties as the result of a lot of petty bargains and deals and compromises would be no use at all. There must be some great common bond of union, like we had in 1940, to lead to that melting of hearts where sacrifice seems to be an indulgence and pain becomes a joy, and when life rises to its highest level because death has no terrors.
Town Hall, Leeds, February 4, 1953.

Coalition, Difficulties of. Even here it is hard enough to keep a coalition together, even between men who, although divided by Party, have a supreme object and so much else in common. But imagine what the difficulties are in countries racked by civil war, past or impending, and where clusters of petty Parties have each their own set of appetites, misdeeds and revenges. If I had driven the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister out to die in the snow, if the Minister of Labour had kept the Foreign Secretary in exile for a great many years, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer had shot at and wounded the Secretary of State for War or the head of one or the other of the great spending departments, if we who sit here together had back-bitten and double-crossed each other while pretending to work together, and had all put our own group or Party first, and the country nowhere, and had all set ideologies or labels in front of comprehension, comradeship and duty, we should certainly, to put it at the mildest, have come to a General Election much sooner than is now likely.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Coins, Nickel. And now the British housewife, as she stands in the queues to buy her bread ration, will fumble in her pocket in vain for a silver sixpence. Under the Socialist Government nickel will have to be good enough for her. In future we shall be able to say: “Every cloud has a nickel lining.”
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Cold War. What we are faced with is not a violent jerk but a prolonged pull.
Commons, March 5, 1953.

Collective Security. What is there ridiculous about collective security? The only thing that is ridiculous about it is that we have not got it. Let us see whether we cannot do something to procure a strong element of collective security for ourselves and for others.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

Take this question of collective security. The phrase has come to be derided now. People point to what happened in Abyssinia, and elsewhere, and then say, “Will it not commit us to an enormous extension of our liabilities and dangers?” I hold that the doctrine of collective security must mean that no one is in until enough are in. It seems to me good sense. If other powers and smaller powers are not going to do their part, they must take their fate. Some of the small countries have vast colonial possessions, empires almost. If there is to be a stampede among them to join the martial dictators, the western democracies can do nothing to save them, still less to save their possessions.
Commons, November 5, 1936.

Collectivity. Collectively we have an army and a navy and a civil service; collectively we have a post office, and a police, and a government; collectively we light our streets and supply ourselves with water; collectively we indulge increasingly in all the necessities of communication. But we do not make love collectively, and the ladies do not marry us collectively, and we do not die collectively, and it is not collectively that we face the sorrows and the hopes, the winnings and the losings, of this world of accident and storm.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Colonial Affairs. Colonial affairs suffer very much when brought into the arena of British Party politics.
Imperial Conference, London, May 7, 1907.

Colonial Policy. It has always been the settled and successful colonial policy of this country during the last fifty years to allow great liberties of self-government to distant communities under the Crown, and no responsible statesman, and no British Cabinet, so far as I know, ever contemplated any other solution of the South African problem but that of full self-government.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Colonial Preference. I submit to the House that there is no logical or scientific distinction between the raw material of manufacture and food, which is the raw material of human life. No scheme of colonial preferences could be a scientific scheme unless it applies equally to food and raw materials.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

Combustion, Internal. When internal combustion becomes a realized fact—of course, it has lagged on the road in the last two years, but when it becomes a realized fact—all the advantages which have been described with regard to oil will be very greatly increased, and every ton of oil will do three or four times as much work as is now possible.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Command, Allied. The principle which should obviously be followed between two allies working together as closely as we and the United States is that the nationality of the commander should generally follow the majority of the troops in any theatre. In General Maitland Wilson and General Alexander, we have at once the supreme commander in the Mediterranean and the fighting head of the army in Italy. We and our American Ally have full confidence in these officers, under whom the United States General Devers and General Clark, the most daring and gallant leader of the Fifth Army, are the corresponding American chiefs. In Great Britain, on the other hand, where forces are being assembled for future operations of the greatest magnitude, General Eisenhower, with whom we have worked for so long, so happily and so successfully, has been placed at the summit of the war direction, with Air Chief Marshal Tedder as his deputy and with his brilliant United States Chief of Staff, the trusty General Bedell Smith—these are the central figures of this command under whom many distinguished commanders, British and American, are serving, including General Montgomery; and these officers will, when the time comes and in accordance with the arrangements which have been made, lead our armies to the liberation of Europe.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Commanders, Future. I shall always urge that the tendency in the future should be to prolong the courses of instruction at the colleges rather than to abridge them, and to equip our young officers with that special technical professional knowledge which soldiers have the right to expect from those who can give them orders, if necessary, to go to their deaths. It is quite clear that class or wealth or favour will not be allowed in the modern world to afford dividing lines. Professional attainment, based upon prolonged study, and collective study at colleges, rank by rank, and age by age—those are the title deeds of the commanders of the future armies, and the secret of future victories.
The Pentagon, Washington, March 9, 1946.

Commanders, Support for. I like commanders on land and sea and in the air to feel they have behind them a strong Government. They will not run risks unless they feel that they need not look over their shoulders or worry about what is happening at home, unless they feel they can concentrate their gaze upon the enemy.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Common Bond. However we may differ in political opinion, however divergent our Party interests, however diverse our callings and stations, we have this in common. We mean to defend our island from tyranny and aggression, and so far as we can, we mean to hold out a helping hand to others who may be in an even more immediate danger than at this moment we are ourselves.
Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Common Man, Century of the. Little did we guess that what has been called “The Century of the Common Man” would witness as its outstanding feature more common men killing each other with greater facilities than any other five centuries put together in the history of the world.
Boston, Mass., March 31, 1949.

Commons, House of. The House of Commons is not an absolute power, its power is not unchecked. There never was a more sensitive body in the whole history of the world. I can understand it being criticized for being too sensitive sometimes. There are 670 members in touch with many constituencies, differing one from another in character and complexion, sitting here month after month in touch with their constituencies, in touch with public opinion, in touch with the criticism of the Press, in touch with each other, in touch with reason, in touch with reality.
Commons, February 22, 1911.

Here in this country the House of Commons is master all the time of the life of the Administration. Against its decisions there is only one appeal, the appeal to the nation, an appeal it is very difficult to make under the conditions of a war like this, with a register like this, with air raids and invasion always hanging over us.
Commons, January 29, 1942.

In this war the House of Commons has proved itself to be the rock upon which an Administration, without losing the confidence of the House, has been able to confront the most terrible emergencies. The House has shown itself able to face the possibility of national destruction with classical composure. It can change governments in long, adverse, disappointing struggles through many dark, grey months and even years until the sun comes out again. I do not know how else this country can be governed than by the House of Commons playing its part in all its broad freedom in British public life.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

The House of Commons has lifted our affairs above the mechanical sphere into the human sphere. It thrives on criticism, it is perfectly impervious to newspaper abuse or taunts from any quarter, and it is capable of digesting almost anything or almost any body of gentlemen, whatever be the views with which they arrive. There is no situation to which it cannot address itself with vigour and ingenuity. It is the citadel of British liberty; it is the foundation of our laws; its traditions and privileges are as lively to-day as when it broke the arbitrary power of the Crown and substituted that Constitutional Monarchy under which we have enjoyed so many blessings.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

On the night of May 10, 1941, with one of the last bombs of the last serious raid, our House of Commons was destroyed by the violence of the enemy, and we have now to consider whether we should build it up again, and how, and when. We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. Having dwelt and served for more than forty years in the late Chamber, and having derived very great pleasure and advantage, therefrom, I, naturally, should like to see it restored in all essentials to its old form, convenience and dignity.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

Commonwealth, Ancient. After the defeat of France in June, 1940, for more than a year we were alone. We stood alone; we kept nothing back in blood, effort or treasure from what has now become the common cause of more than thirty nations. We seek no territory; we covet no oilfields; we demand no bases for the forces of the air or of the seas. We are an ancient Commonwealth dwelling, and wishing to dwell, at peace within our own habitations. We do not set ourselves up in rivalry of bigness or might with any other community in the world. We stand on our own rights.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Commonwealth, Anglo-American. If the population of the English-speaking Commonwealth be added to that of the United States with all that such co-operation implies in the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science and in industry and in moral force, there will be no quivering, precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or adventure. On the contrary, there will be an overwhelming assurance of security.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Communism. Everyone can see how Communism rots the soul of a nation; how it makes it abject and hungry in peace, and proves it base and abominable in war.
London, January 20, 1940.

Communism, Dealing with. I tell you—it’s no use arguing with a Communist. It’s no good trying to convert a Communist or persuade him. You can only deal with them on the following basis . . . you can only do it by having superior force on your side on the matter in question—and they must also be convinced that you will use—you will not hesitate to use—those forces, if necessary, in the most ruthless manner. You have not only to convince the Soviet Government that you have a superior force—that they are confronted by superior force—but that you are not restrained by any moral consideration if the case arose from using that force with complete material ruthlessness. And that is the greatest chance of peace, the surest road to peace.
New York, March 25, 1949.

Communism and Nazi-ism. I will not pretend that, if I had to choose between Communism and Nazi-ism, I would choose Communism. I hope not to be called upon to survive in the world under a government of either of those dispensations.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Company, Great. We are no longer alone. We are in the midst of a great company. Three-quarters of the human race are now moving with us. The whole future of mankind may depend upon our action and upon our conduct. So far we have not failed. We shall not fail now.
London, February 15, 1942.

Competition, Free. We want to draw a line below which we will not allow persons to live and labour, yet above which they may compete with all the strength of their manhood. We want to have free competition upwards; we decline to allow free competition to run downwards.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Complacency, Anti-. All the disadvantages are not on one side, and certainly they are not all on our side. I think that conforms to the standards of anti-complacency opinion in this country.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Compulsion. You may lead horses to the water, but you cannot make them drink.
Commons, August 31, 1926.

Comradeship. The other day I crossed the Atlantic again to see President Roosevelt. This time we met not only as friends, but as comrades, standing side by side and shoulder to shoulder, in a battle for dear life and dearer honour, in the common cause, and against a common foe. When I survey and compute the power of the United States and its vast resources and feel that they are now in with us, with the British Commonwealth of Nations all together, however long it lasts, till death or victory, I cannot believe there is any other fact in the whole world which can compare with that. That is what I have dreamed of, aimed at and worked for, and now it has come to pass.
London, February 15, 1942.

Concentration of Force. I could not see how better you can prevent war than by confronting an aggressor with the prospect of such a vast concentration of force, moral and material, that even the most reckless, even the most infuriated leader, would not attempt to challenge those great forces.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Concessions, Futile. I do not think that we need break our hearts in deploring the treatment that Germany is receiving now. Germany is not satisfied; but no concession which has been made has produced any very marked appearance of gratitude. Once it has been conceded it has seemed less valuable than when it was demanded.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Condominiums. We should be opposed to the idea of condominiums, which have always been found to bring about very bad results to the regions affected.
Commons, March 17, 1943.

Confidence. It is one thing to feel confident and it is another to impart that confidence to people who do not like your plan, and who feel the same confidence in their knowledge as you do in yours.
Commons, June 10, 1925.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

Confidence in Government. I shall be asked, “Have you no confidence in His Majesty’s Government? Sir,” I say “Yes” and “No.” I have great confidence that these hon. and right hon. Friends of mine will administer faithfully and well the Constitution of this country, that they will guard its finances in a thrifty manner, that they will hunt out corruption wherever it may be found, that they will preserve the peace and order of our streets and the impartiality of our courts and keep a general hold upon Conservative principles. [Laughter.] In all these matters I have a sincere and abiding confidence in them. But if you ask me whether I have confidence in their execution of defence programmes, or even in their statements as to the degree to which those defence programmes have at any moment advanced—then I must beg the House not to press me too far. [Renewed laughter.]
Commons, November 17, 1938.

Confidence, Vote of. I ask the House for a Vote of Confidence. I hope that those, if such there be, who sincerely in their hearts believe that we are not doing our best and that they could do much better, I hope that they will carry their opinion to its logical and ultimate conclusion in the Lobby. Here I must point out, only for the benefit of foreign countries, that they would run no risk in doing so. They are answerable only to their consciences and to their constituents. It is a free Parliament in a free country. We have succeeded in maintaining, under difficulties which are unprecedented, and in dangers which, in some cases, might well be mortal, the whole process and reality of Parliamentary institutions. I am proud of this. It is one of the things for which we are fighting.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

It is because things have gone badly and worse is to come that I demand a Vote of Confidence.
Commons, January 27, 1942.

Conformity. It is quite true that in all societies and in all times there is a pressure operative upon individuals to make them conform to the dominant tendencies. Within reasonable limits it is not an unhealthy pressure.
Commons, May 30, 1911.

Connaught, Duke of. The late Duke of Connaught lived a life so long that it was not only a link with the tranquil days of the Victorian era, when a large number of people had persuaded themselves that most of the problems of society were solved, but also a link with the life of the Duke of Wellington. During the whole of his career, mainly in the British army, he was a devoted, faithful officer and servant of the Crown. He held a position of delicacy, not free from difficulty, beset on every side by the possibility of indiscretion when such a position is occupied by one who is a son of a queen, afterwards a brother of a king, uncle of another sovereign and the great-uncle of a fourth ruler. In that position, never did anything occur which did not make the public realize how true the Duke of Connaught was to all the constitutional implications of this position, and all who came into contact with him were impressed by his charm of manner, by his old-world courtesy, and knew that they were in the presence of a great and distinguished representative of our beloved Royal House.
Commons, January 20, 1942.

Conquest of the Air. The conquest of the air and the perfection of the art of flying fulfilled the dream which for thousands of years had glittered in human imagination. Certainly it was a marvellous and romantic event. Whether the bestowal of this gift upon an immature civilization composed of competing nations, whose nationalization grew with every advance of democracy, and who were as yet devoid of international organization, whether this gift was a blessing or a curse has yet to be proved.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, March 31, 1949.

Conscience. Conscience and muddle cannot be reconciled; conscience apart from truth is mere stupidity, regrettable, but by no means respectable.
Commons, July 15, 1948.

Conscience, Guilty. My right hon. Friend the Air Minister [Sir Kingsley Wood] has not been long enough in the office to grow a guilty conscience.
Commons, November 17, 1938.

Conscience, National. A nation without a conscience is a nation without a soul. A nation without a soul is a nation that cannot live.
London, September 16, 1951.

Conscription. I have regarded compulsion not as the gathering together of men as if they were heaps of shingle, but the fitting of them into their places like the pieces in the pattern of a mosaic. The great principle of equality of sacrifice requires in practice to be applied in accordance with the maxim, “A place for every man and every man in his place.”
Commons, May 23, 1916.

There are many countries where a national army on a compulsory basis is the main foundation of the State, and is regarded as one of the most important safeguards of democratic freedom. It is not so here. On the contrary, the civil character of our Government institutions is one of the most deeply cherished convictions of our island life, a conviction which our island position alone has enabled us to enjoy.
Commons, February 23, 1920.

Conservative Objectives. Our main objectives are: To uphold the Christian religion and resist all attacks upon it. To defend our Monarchical and Parliamentary Constitution. To provide adequate security against external aggression and safety for our seaborne trade. To uphold law and order, and impartial justice administered by courts free from interference or pressure on the part of the executive. To regain a sound finance and strict supervision of national income and expenditure. To defend and develop our Empire trade, without which Great Britain would perish. To promote all measures to improve the health and social conditions of the people. To support as a general rule free enterprise and initiative against State trading and nationalization of industries.
Conservative Party Conference, Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Consistency. In this world of human error and constant variations, usually of an unexpected character, the Liberal Party can range themselves in Party doctrine, few but impeccable. They have no need to recur for safety or vindication to that well-known maxim, or dictum, that “Consistency is the last resort of feeble and narrow minds.”
Commons, March 31, 1947.

It is better to be both right and consistent. But if you have to choose—you must choose to be right.
Scarborough, October 11, 1952.

Constantinople. All this year I have offered the same counsel to the Government—undertake no operation in the west which is more costly to us in life than to the enemy; in the east, take Constantinople; take it by ship, if you can; take it by soldiers if you must; take it whichever plan, military or naval, commends itself to your military experts, but take it, and take it soon, and take it while time remains.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

Constitution, American. We must be very careful nowadays—I perhaps all the more, because of my American forebears—in what we say about the American Constitution. I will, therefore, content myself with the observation that no Constitution was written in better English.
Coronation Luncheon, Westminster Hall, London, May 27, 1953.

Constitution, The British. The British Constitution is mainly British common sense.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Constitution of Transvaal. Now I am quite ready to admit that every Constitution ought to rest either upon symmetry or upon acceptance. Our Transvaal Constitution does not rest upon either symmetry or acceptance, but it is very near symmetry and very near acceptance, and in so far as it has departed from symmetry it has moved towards acceptance, and is furthermore sustained throughout by fair dealing.
Commons, July 31, 1906.

Construction. If in erecting some great building it is found that a girder in the lowest story is defective, the building becomes a cause of peril and danger to the public, but it is not possible immediately to withdraw it. To wrench it away would be to involve the certainty of ruin; but to whom? The jerry-builder might have decamped. The contractor might have made a fortune from the job and retired. It is upon the humble occupants that the miseries of the downfall would descend.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Consultation. Well, one can always consult a man and ask him “Would you like your head cut off to-morrow?” and after he has said “I would rather not,” cut it off. “Consultation” is a vague and elastic term.
Commons, May 7, 1947.

Consuming the Substance. How are we keeping going from day to day? Let me tell you. We are living on the last remaining assets and overseas investments accumulated under the capitalistic system—that is what we are living on: we are living on them in the hope that we may bridge the gap before the new American grant-in-aid under the Marshall plan comes in. Our last reserves will then be nearly gone, and even with the American help there will be a heavy deficit to be met each year on all our overseas purchases.
London, February 14, 1948.

Contacts, Personal. What an ineffectual method of conveying human thought correspondence is—even when it is telegraphed with all the rapidity and all the facilities of modern intercommunication! They are simply dead blank walls compared to personal contacts.
The Citadel, Quebec, September 16, 1944.

Contest of Wills. The Germans in this war have gained many victories. They have easily overrun great countries and beaten down strong powers with little resistance offered to them. It is not only a question of the time that is gained by fighting strongly, even if at a disadvantage, for important points. There is also this vitally important principle of stubborn resistance to the will of the enemy.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Continuity in War. Our confidence in the Chiefs of Staff—British confidence and the confidence of the War Cabinet—has steadily grown. In consequence of the fact that there have been no changes, the men who met together at Quebec knew each other well, were united in bonds of comprehension and friendship, and had the whole picture and sequence of the war ingrained in their minds and in their very being. When you have lived through all these things you do not have to turn up musty files to remember what happened on particular occasions. Men’s minds are shaped from day to day by what they live through; and discussion on that level between these high officers is very quick and swift.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Contractors, Army. If Germany is able to produce in these three years equipment and armament of every kind for its air force and for sixty or seventy divisions of the regular army, how is it that we have been unable to furnish our humble, modest military forces with what is necessary? If you had given the contract to Selfridge or to the Army and Navy Stores, I believe that you would have had the stuff to-day.
Commons, May 25, 1938.

Contributions. The great Napoleon for many years insisted on maintaining the whole fabric of his Empire on contributions levied by force on foreign States, but I am not of opinion that the ultimate historical conclusion of that great experiment could be said to be profitable for Napoleon or the country over which he presided.
Commons, June 2, 1908.

Controls. Control for control’s sake is senseless. Controls under the pretext of war or its aftermath which are in fact designed to favour the accomplishment of quasi-totalitarian systems, however innocently designed, whatever guise they assume, whatever liveries they wear, whatever slogans they mouth, are a fraud which should be mercilessly exposed to the British public.
Central Hall, Westminster, March 15, 1945.

Controversy, Political. It is a deplorable thing that, when persons are engaged in acute political controversy, they sometimes allow their language to be rather the means of giving relief to their feelings than an actual description of the facts. That is, no doubt, a very melancholy fact for us to reflect upon, but it has gone on in the past in English politics and it may sometimes recur in the future—I tremble to think that something of this nature may even at this moment be going on in this very city.
Commons, March 23, 1908.

Convictions, Two. I have two convictions in my heart. One is that, somehow or other, we shall survive, though for a time at a lower level then hitherto. The late Lord Fisher used to say “Britain never succumbs.” The second is that things are going to get worse before they are better.
Commons, March 12, 1947.

Convicts. The approximate net average cost of maintaining a convict is £18 3s. per annum or about £690 for 38 years.
Commons, April 12, 1911.

Coolies, Chinese. I have never been one of those who attach too much importance to those stories we are told from South Africa, about Chinese coolies petitioning for the continuance of flogging, and struggling to get back to South Africa after being repatriated. They seem to me to be statements which are only credible on the assumption that the Chinese are an even more peculiar people than we believe them to be.
Commons, June 8, 1906.

Co-ordination. It would seem, on the face of it, rather odd to invite the co-ordinator after the co-ordination is, according to the Government White Paper, already perfect and complete; to appoint the man who is to concert the plan after it has already been made and embodied in the detailed Estimates for the current year. The usual process, if I may model myself on the somewhat simple types of exposition in which my right hon. and learned Friend [Sir John Simon] excels, is to put the horse before the cart, the idea being, I presume, although I do not wish to take anything for granted, that as the horse moves forward he, as it were, drags the cart behind him. That, of course, would be the usual and normal procedure, but no doubt there may be very good reasons for having adopted the contrary one in this case.
Commons, March 10, 1936.

Corner, Dangerous. We did not make this war, we did not seek it. We did all we could to avoid it. We did too much to avoid it. We went so far at times in trying to avoid it as to be almost destroyed by it when it broke upon us. But the dangerous corner has been turned, and with every month and every year that passes we shall confront the evil-doers with weapons as plentiful, as sharp, and as destructive as those with which they have sought to establish their hateful domination.
Ottawa, December 30, 1941.

Correctives. I am inclined to think that in a free community every evil carries with it its own corrective, and so I believe that sensationalism of all kinds is playing itself out, and, over-doing, is itself undone.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

The old Radical campaign against exploitation, monopolies, unfair rake-offs and the like, in which I took a part in my young days, was a healthy and necessary corrective to the system of free enterprise. But this grotesque idea of managing vast enterprises by centralized direction from London can only lead to bankruptcy and ruin.
Perth, May 28, 1948.

Correspondents, War. There never has been in this war a battle in which so much liberty has been given to war correspondents. They have been allowed to roam all over the battlefield, taking their chance of getting killed, and sending home their very full messages whenever they can reach a telegraph office. This is what the Press have always asked for, and it is what they got. These war correspondents, moving about amid the troops and sharing their perils, have also shared their hopes and have been inspired by their buoyant spirit. They have sympathized with the fighting men whose deeds they have been recording, and they have, no doubt, been extremely anxious not to write anything which would spread discouragement or add to their burdens.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Corridor of Danger. It would be folly for us to act as if we were swimming in a halcyon sea, as if nothing but balmy breezes and calm weather were to be expected and everything were working in the most agreeable fashion. By all means follow your lines of hope and your paths of peace, but do not close your eyes to the fact that we are entering a corridor of deepening and darkening danger, and that we shall have to move along it for many months and possibly for years to come.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

Country first. Before they [the Socialists] nationalized our industries they should have nationalized themselves. They should have set country before Party, and shown that they were Britons first, and Socialists only second.
Commons, March 12, 1947.

Courage. However tempting it might be to some, when much trouble lies ahead, to step aside adroitly and put someone else up to take the blows, I do not intend to take that cowardly course, but, on the contrary, to stand to my post and persevere in accordance with my duty as I see it.
Commons, February 25, 1942.

Court-Martial. I remember it was the fashion in the army when a court-martial was being held and the prisoner was brought in, that he should be asked if he objected to being tried by the president or to any of those officers who composed the court-martial. On one occasion a prisoner was so insubordinate as to answer, “I object to the whole —— lot of you.”
Commons, February 9, 1927.

Court-Martial Investigations. In old wars the capture or destruction of ships was nearly always accompanied by an act of surrender which was a proper and very necessary subject of investigation by court-martial. But mines and submarines, especially submarines, create conditions entirely novel, presenting to naval officers problems of incomparable hazard and difficulty. In these circumstances a court-martial would frequently be inappropriate in our judgment, and often even harmful.
Commons, February 15, 1915.

Courts of Law. We are reminded how in a state of savagery every man is armed and is a law unto himself, but that civilization means that courts are established, that men lay aside arms and carry their causes to the tribunal. This presupposes a tribunal to which men, when they are in doubt or anxiety, may freely have recourse. It presupposes a tribunal which is not incapable of giving a verdict.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

Covenant of the League of Nations. It is no use espousing a cause without having also a method and a plan by which that cause may be made to win. I would not affront you with generalities. There must be the vision. There must be a plan, and there must be action following upon it. We express our immediate plan and policy in a single sentence: “Arm, and stand by the Covenant.” In this alone lies the assurance of safety, the defence of freedom, and the hope of peace.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

I think we ought to place our trust in those moral forces which are enshrined in the Covenant of the League of Nations. Do not let us mock at them, for they are surely on our side. Do not mock at them, for this may well be a time when the highest idealism is not divorced from strategic prudence. Do not mock at them, for these may be years, strange as it may seem, when Right may walk hand in hand with Might.
Commons, March 4, 1937.

Craft. Craft is common both to skill and deceit.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

Creation of Air Force. The squadrons are formed very much in the way in which we are assured the human race was originally formed. A rib is taken from one body and starts out on an independent existence of its own.
Commons, January 27, 1937.

Credit. There can be no other test of the credit of a country than the price at which it can borrow.
Commons, June 2, 1908.

Crete, Loss of. I think it would be most unfair and wrong, and very silly, in the midst of a defence which has so far been crowned with remarkable success, to select the loss of the Crete salient as an excuse and pretext for branding with failure or belittling with taunt the great campaign for the defence of the Middle East, which has so far prospered beyond all expectations, and is now entering upon an even more intense and critical phase.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Crime, Expert in. Hitler has told us that it was a crime in such circumstances on our part to go to the aid of the Greeks. I do not wish to enter into argument with experts. This is not a kind of crime of which he is a good judge.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

Cripps, Sir Stafford. Neither of his colleagues can compare with him in that acuteness and energy of mind with which he devotes himself to so many topics injurious to the strength and welfare of the State.
Commons, December 12, 1946.

The President of the Board of Trade [Sir Stafford Cripps] is trying to teach all the trades in the country how they should get back their business. He is rapidly gaining half-knowledge over a vast field. He wishes to hold everything gripped and frozen until he can form a general view and reconcile that view with the orthodox tenets of his Socialist religion.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Sir Stafford Cripps is an able and upright man, tortured and obsessed by his Socialist tenets.
Ayr, May 16, 1947.

Stafford Cripps was a man of force and fire. His intellectual and moral passions were so strong that they not only inspired but not seldom dominated his actions. They were strengthened and also governed by the working of a powerful, lucid intelligence and by a deep and lively Christian faith. He strode through life with a remarkable indifference to material satisfaction or worldly advantages.
Commons, April 23, 1952.

Criticism. We do not resent the well-meant criticism of any man who wishes to win the war. We do not shrink from any fair criticism, and that is the most dangerous of all. On the contrary, we take it earnestly to heart and seek to profit by it. Criticism in the body politic is like pain in the human body. It is not pleasant, but where would the body be without it? No health or sensibility would be possible without continued correctives and warnings of pain.
Commons, January 27, 1940.

I am not one, and I should be the last, unduly to resent unfair criticism, or even fair criticism, which is so much more searching. I have been a critic myself—I cannot at all see how I should have stood the test of being a mere spectator in the drama which is now passing. But there is a kind of criticism which is a little irritating. It is like a bystander who, when he sees a team of horses dragging a heavy waggon painfully up a hill, cuts a switch from the fence, and there are many switches, and belabours them lustily. He may well be animated by a benevolent purpose, and who shall say the horses may not benefit from his efforts, and the waggon get quicker to the top of the hill.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

I have derived continued benefit from criticism at all periods of my life, and I do not remember any time when I was ever short of it.
November 27, 1914.

Critics, Jaunty. We are certainly aided by a great volume of criticism and advice from which it will always be our endeavour to profit in the highest degree. Naturally when one is burdened by the very hard labour of the task and its cares, sorrows and responsibilities, there may sometimes steal across the mind a feeling of impatience at the airy and jaunty detachment of some of those critics who feel so confident of their knowledge and feel so sure of their ability to put things right. If I should be forced—as I hope I shall not be—to yield to such a temptation, I hope you will remember how difficult it is to combine the attitude of proper meekness and humility towards assailants at home with those combative and pugnacious qualities, with the spirit of offensive and counter-attack, which we feel were never more needful than now against the common enemy.
Caxton Hall, London, March 26, 1942.

Crossman, R. H. S. (M.P.). The hon. Member is never lucky in the coincidence of his facts with the truth.
Commons, July 14, 1954.

Crown, The. It is the golden circle of the Crown which alone embraces the loyalties of so many States and races all over the world. It is the symbol which gathers together and expresses those deep emotions and stirrings of the human heart which make men travel far to fight and die together, and cheerfully abandon material possessions and enjoyments for the sake of abstract ideas.
Commons, May 15, 1945.

Crown, Circle of the. In the British Empire we not only look out across the seas towards each other, but backwards to our own history, to Magna Charta, to Habeas Corpus, to the Petition of Right, to Trial by Jury, to the English Common Law and to Parliamentary democracy. These are the milestones and monuments that mark the path along which the British race has marched to leadership and freedom. And over all this, uniting each Dominion with the other and uniting us all with our majestic past, is the golden circle of the Crown. What is within the circle? Not only the glory of an ancient unconquered people, but the hope, the sure hope, of a broadening life for hundreds of millions of men.
Canada Club, London, April 20, 1939.

Crown and People. The prerogatives of the Crown have become the privileges of the people.
Harrow, December 1, 1944.

Crown, Sparkling. It is natural for Parliament to talk and for the Crown to shine. The oldest here will confirm me that we are never likely to run short of Members and of Ministers who can talk. And the youngest here are sure that they will never see the Crown sparkle more gloriously than in these joyous days.
Coronation Luncheon, Westminster Hall, London, May 27, 1953.

Cup of Success. Can we produce that complete unity and that impulse in time to achieve decisive military victory with the least possible prolongation of the world’s misery, or must we fall into jabber, babel and discord while victory is still unattained? It seems to me to be the supreme question alike of the hour and the age. This is no new problem in the history of mankind. Very often have great combinations almost attained success and then, at the last moment, cast it away. Very often have the triumphs and sacrifices of armies come to naught at the conference table. Very often the eagles have been squalled down by the parrots. Very often, in particular, the people of this island, indomitable in adversity, have tasted the hard-won cup of success only to cast it away.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Curiosity, Organized. We all speak with great respect of science. Indeed, we have to. One of my great friends, Lord Hugh Cecil, has recently defined science as organized curiosity. We must be careful not to discover too much, not to discover things of such wide implication that our immature civilization is incapable of manipulating and employing them.
University of Oslo, May 12, 1948.

Curragh Rebellion. I pause to admire the martial spirit of the right hon. Gentleman [F. E. Smith] in appealing to the arbitrament of the sword after he has assured himself and made quite certain, as he tells us, that the sword of the army will not be available for use against him.
Commons, March 30, 1914.

Currency, Sound. There is among us a small but highly intellectual school of thought which reaches its fullest expression in Russia, but also flourishes among some of our smaller neighbours, and which proclaims openly that it is much better for a nation to go through the bankruptcy court and start business again . . . and either to repudiate its debts and start again or pay as much in the £ as it finds convenient by writing its currency down to the necessary figure.
Commons, April 15, 1929.

Curzon Line, The. We speak of the Curzon Line. A line is not a frontier. A frontier has to be surveyed and traced on the ground and not merely put in on a map with a pencil and ruler.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

I have been censured for wrongly championing the Russian claims to the Curzon Line. So far as the Curzon Line is concerned, I hold strongly that this was a rightful Russian frontier, and that a free Poland should receive compensation at the expense of Germany both in the Baltic and in the west, going even to the line of the Oder and the Eastern Neisse. If I and my colleagues erred in these decisions we must be judged in relation to the circumstances of the awful conflict in which we were engaged.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Czechoslovakia. To English ears, the name Czechoslovakia sounds outlandish. No doubt they are only a small democratic State, no doubt they have an army only two or three times as large as ours, no doubt they have a munitions supply only three times as great as that of Italy, but still they are a virile people; they have their treaty rights, they have a line of fortresses, and they have a strongly manifested will to live freely.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

I venture to think that in future the Czechoslovak State cannot be maintained as an independent entity. I think you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured only by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. Perhaps they may join it in despair or in revenge. At any rate, that story is over and told.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

All is over. Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken Czechoslovakia recedes into the darkness. She has suffered in every respect by her association with the western democracies and with the League of Nations, of which she has always been an obedient servant. She has suffered in particular from her association with France, under whose guidance and policy she has been actuated for so long.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

All the world wishes for peace and security. Have we gained it by the sacrifice of the Czechoslovak Republic? Here was the model democratic state of Central Europe, a country where minorities were treated better than anywhere else. It has been deserted, destroyed and devoured. It is now being digested. The question which is of interest to a lot of ordinary, common people, is whether this destruction of the Czechoslovak Republic will bring upon the world a blessing or a curse.
London, October 16, 1938.

Many people at the time of the September crisis thought they were only giving away the interests of Czechoslovakia, but with every month that passes you will see that they were also giving away the interests of Britain, and the interests of peace and justice.
Waltham Abbey, March 14, 1939.

Czechoslovakia, Oppression of. Let us look for a moment at what Nazi Germany inflicts upon the peoples she has subjugated to her rule. The German invaders pursue with every method of cultural, social and economic oppression their intention of destroying the Czech nation. Students are shot by scores and tormented in concentration camps by thousands. All the Czech Universities have been closed—amongst them the Charles University of Prague which, founded in 1348, was the first University in Central Europe; the clinics, in Central Europe, the laboratories, the libraries of the Czech Universities have been pillaged or destroyed. The works of their national writers have been removed from the public libraries. More than two thousand periodicals and newspapers have been suppressed. Prominent writers, artists and professors have been herded into the concentration camps. The public administration and judicature have been reduced to chaos. The Czech lands have been plundered, and every scrap of food and useful portable article carried off into Germany by organized brigandage or common theft. The property of the Churches is maladministered and engrossed by German commissars. A hundred thousand Czech workmen have been led off into slavery to be toiled to death in Germany. Eight millions of Czechs—a nation famous and recognizable as a distinct community for many centuries past in Europe—writhe in agony under the German and Nazi tyranny.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Czechoslovakia, Sacrifice of. No one has been a more resolute and uncompromising struggler for peace than the Prime Minister. Everyone knows that. Never has there been such intense and undaunted determination to maintain and secure peace. That is quite true. Nevertheless, I am not quite clear why there was so much danger of Great Britain or France being involved in a war with Germany at this juncture if, in fact, they were ready all along to sacrifice Czechoslovakia. The terms which the Prime Minister brought back with him could easily have been agreed, I believe, through the ordinary diplomatic channels at any time during the summer. And I will say this, that I believe the Czechs, left to themselves and told they were going to get no help from the Western Powers, would have been able to make better terms than they got after all this tremendous perturbation; they could hardly have had worse.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Czechoslovakia, Subjugation of. The Government which allowed Czechoslovakia to be broken and disarmed, was suddenly surprised and horrified that Herr Hitler should march into Prague and actually subjugate the Czech people. This damnable outrage opened the eyes of the blind, made the deaf hear, and even in some cases the dumb spoke.
Corn Exchange, Cambridge, May 19, 1939.

Czechoslovakia, Threat to. Then we come to the case of Czechoslovakia. There has been a lot of talk about giving a guarantee, but I should be sorry if the grave issue now open in Europe were to turn solely on that point, cardinal though it be. Far wider decisions are called for; far larger interests are at stake. I listened with the utmost attention to all that the Prime Minister said about our relations to Czechoslovakia, and it seems to me that he has gone a long way in making a commitment. First, I was very glad to hear him reaffirm his adherence and that of the Government to the obligations of the Covenant of the League. Under the Covenant of the League we are obliged not to be neutral, in the sense of being indifferent, if Czechoslovakia is the victim of unprovoked aggression.
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Dalton, Dr. Hugh. Dr. Dalton, the practitioner who never cured anyone.
London, February 14, 1948.

Danger. When danger is far off we may think of our weakness, when it is near we must not forget our strength.
Commons, June 28, 1939.

Danger, In face of. If I support the Government to-day, it is not because I have changed my views. It is because the Government have in principle and even in detail adopted the policy I have urged. I only hope they have not adopted it too late to prevent war. When danger is at a distance, when there is plenty of time to make the necessary preparations, when you can bend twigs instead of having to break massive boughs—it is right, indeed it is a duty, to sound the alarm. But when danger comes very near, when it is plain that not much more can be done in the time that may be available, it is no service to dwell upon the shortcomings or neglects of those who have been responsible. The time to be frightened is when evils can be remedied; when they cannot be fully remedied they must be faced with courage.
Commons, June 28, 1939.

Danger, Slow. Dangers in the air are sudden and might have become catastrophic, but the dangers to our seaborne traffic mature much more slowly.
Commons, November 5, 1940.

Dangers, Hypothetical. It is no use examining national defence in the abstract and talking in vague and general terms about hypothetical dangers and combinations which cannot be expressed.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Danzig. What is Danzig? Danzig is not only a city. It has become a symbol. An act of violence against the Polish Republic, whether it arises from without or from within, will raise an issue of world importance. The Foreign Secretary has told us that force will be met by force, and no one voice in Britain has been raised to contradict him. An attack upon Poland at the present time would be a decisive and irrevocable event. It is of the highest importance that the Nazi Party in Germany should not mislead themselves upon the temper of the British and French democracies.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Dardanelles. The light of victory was shining clearly before us, and the path was clearly illuminated, yet we could not get the strength, the power, and the driving force to follow it. We could not get the strength and the resources which were needed to carry it through. It will always be incredible to future ages that every man in this country did not rally to an enterprise which carried with it such immense possibilities, and which required such limited resources to carry it into effect. It will always be incredible that for the sake of a dozen old ships and half a dozen extra divisions, more or less, and a few hundred thousand rounds of high explosive shells, we failed to gain a prize specially adapted to our Oriental interests and our amphibious power, and which, by cutting Turkey out of the war, and uniting in one federation the states of the Balkan Peninsula, would have brought us within measurable distance of lasting success.
Commons, March 20, 1917.

Your Commission may condemn the men who tried to force the Dardanelles, but your children will keep their condemnation for all who did not rally to their aid.
Commons, March 20, 1917.

Darlan, Admiral. I hold no brief for Admiral Darlan. Like myself he is the object of the animosities of Herr Hitler and of Monsieur Laval. Otherwise I have nothing in common with him.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

The Government and to a large extent the people of the United States do not feel the same about Darlan as we do. He has not betrayed them. He has not broken any treaty with them. He has not vilified them. He has not maltreated any of their citizens. They do not think much of him, but they do not hate him and despise him as we do over here. Many of them think more of the lives of their own soldiers than they do about the past records of French political figures.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

All this is done in the sacred name of the Marshal, and when the Marshal bleats over the telephone orders to the contrary and deprives Darlan of his nationality, the admiral rests comfortably upon the fact or fiction, it does not much matter which, that the Marshal is acting under the duress of the invading Hun, and that he, Darlan, is still carrying out his true wishes. In fact, if Admiral Darlan had to shoot Marshal Pétain, he would no doubt do it in Marshal Pétain’s name.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

Datum Line. I have tried to find a datum line, and I take as the datum line the three months after Dunkirk. Then, it will be admitted, our people worked to the utmost limit of their moral, mental and physical strength. Men fell exhausted at their lathes, and workmen and working women did not take their clothes off for a week at a time. Meals, rest and relaxation all faded from their minds, and they just carried on to the last ounce of their strength.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Dawn of 1943. The dawn of 1943 will soon loom red before us, and we must brace ourselves to cope with the trials and problems of what must be a stern and terrible year. We do so with the assurance of ever-growing strength, and we do so as a nation with a strong will, a bold heart and a good conscience.
London, November 29, 1942.

Day, The Dreaded. I dread the day when the means of threatening the heart of the British Empire should pass into the hands of the present rulers of Germany. I think we should be in a position which would be odious to every man who values freedom of action and independence, and also in a position of the utmost peril for our crowded, peaceful population, engaged in their daily toil. I dread that day, but it is not, perhaps, far distant.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Daylight Saving. The first thing the House of Commons has to do about this Bill [Daylight Saving Bill] is not to laugh at it.
Commons, March 5, 1909.

Deadlock. It is always an error in diplomacy to press a matter when it is quite clear that no further progress is to be made. It is also a great error if you ever give the impression abroad that you are using language which is more concerned with your domestic politics than with the actual fortunes and merits of the various great countries upon the Continent to whom you offer advice.
Commons, March 14, 1934.

Death, Chance of. We have to organize our lives and the life of our cities on the basis of dwelling under fire and of having always this additional—not very serious chance—of death added to the ordinary precarious character of human existence.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Death Duties. There is no real gain to British democracy when some family leaves a home of its ancestors and hands it over to a transatlantic millionaire or wartime profiteer.
Commons, April 15, 1930.

Death Penalty. If I was assured that abolishing the death penalty would bring all murders to an end, I would certainly be in favour of that course.
Commons, July 15, 1948.

Death of Soldiers. Soldiers must die, but by their death they nourish the nation which gave them birth.
London, July 14, 1943.

Debt, National. There are two ways in which a gigantic debt may be spread over new decades and future generations. There is the right and healthy way; and there is the wrong and morbid way. The wrong way is to fail to make the utmost provision for ammortization which prudence allows, to aggravate the burden of the debt by fresh borrowing, to live from hand to mouth, and from year to year, and to exclaim with Louis XVI: “After me, the deluge!”
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Decision, Hour of. War is a hard and brutal job, and there is no place in it for misgivings or reserves. Nobody ever launched an attack without having misgivings beforehand. You ought to have misgivings before; but when the moment of action is come, the hour of misgivings is passed. It is often not possible to go backward from a course which has been adopted in war. A man must answer “Aye” or “No” to the great questions which are put; and by that decision he must be bound.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

Decorations, Award of. Honours should go where death and danger go.
Commons, July 24, 1916.

Deeds. It seems to me, therefore, that words cannot form a foundation for our action unless they are accompanied by deeds; and the likelihood of deeds being done in Germany at the present time which will remove the present danger, seems to me remote when you consider what a dire effect it would have upon the immediate economic, industrial and labour situation within that country.
Commons, May 22, 1935.

Defeat, Answer to. It is only where great strategic issues of policy come that it is fitting for us here to endeavour to form a final opinion. Defeat is bitter. There is no use in trying to explain defeat. People do not like defeat and they do not like the explanations, however elaborate or plausible, which are given of them. For defeat there is only one answer. The only answer to defeat is victory.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Defeat, Penalties of. The penalties of defeat are frightful. After the blinding flash of catastrophe, the stunning blow, the gaping wounds, there comes an onset of the diseases of defeat. The central principle of a nation’s life is broken, and all healthy, normal control vanishes, there are few societies that can withstand the conditions of subjugation. Indomitable patriots take different paths; quislings and collaborationists of all kinds abound; guerilla leaders, each with their personal followers, quarrel and fight.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Defence, Anti-Aircraft. Passive defence against such an attack is perfectly hopeless and endless. You would have to roof in the world to be quite sure. Something may be done, and something has been done by the provision of guns which fire upwards, and by searchlights which train throughout the entire arc, but the only real security upon which sound military principles will rely is that you should be master of your own air.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Certainly nothing is more necessary, not only to this country but to all peace-loving and peace-interested powers in the world and to world civilization, than that the good old earth should acquire some means or methods of destroying sky marauders.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Defence, Co-ordination of. The Prime Minister [Mr. Stanley Baldwin] dilated the other night, no doubt very properly, on the great advantages which had flowed from the appointment of the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence. Every argument used to show how useful has been the work which he has done accuses the failure to appoint him nine months earlier, when inestimable benefits would have accrued to us by the saving of this long period.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

He [Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Co-ordination of Defence] has an office so absurdly constructed that the very conditions of his commission reveal a confusion of mind and a lack of comprehension in those who have defined it. He has allowed himself to become the innocent victim of responsibilities so strangely, so inharmoniously, so perversely grouped, endowed with powers so cribbed and restricted, that no one, not even Napoleon himself, would be able to discharge them with satisfaction.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Defence, Direct. Pending some new discovery, the only direct measure of defence upon a great scale is the certainty of being able to inflict simultaneously upon the enemy as great damage as he can inflict upon ourselves.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Defence, Imperial. If I might presume to lay down any principle at all, I should say that the first and main principle which should animate British statecraft in the realm of Imperial defence was the promotion of the steady transfer of expenditure from military to marine; and the high ideal which should be held up before the eyes of the present or any other Government was that in times of peace the ration of expenditure between the Navy and Army Estimates ought to be, quite irrespective of the scale of the Estimates, something like two to one on the side of the Navy.
Commons, March 6, 1902.

Defence, Ministry of. We should have a greater chance of applying the gifts of science broadly to the whole texture of our defensive arrangements if there were a reception of all these new inventions and discoveries from a common elevated point of view, removed from the prejudice of any one particular uniformed profession.
Commons, March 21, 1934.

Defence, National. I submit to you that these matters of national defence and foreign policy ought to be considered upon a plane above Party, and apart from natural antagonisms which separate a Government and an Opposition. They affect the life of the nation. They influence the fortunes of the world.
Corn Exchange, Cambridge, May 19, 1939.

Defence, Preparation of. To urge the preparation of defence is not to assert the imminence of war. On the contrary, if war were imminent preparations for defence would be too late.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Deference. It was right to defer to prevailing moods of thought where method rather than principle or action were concerned.
Commons, March 23, 1954.

It is not necessarily a humiliation to a Government to defer to the House of Commons feelings and to genuine sense established in debates, provided that it does not sacrifice any moral principle or inflict injury or injustice on the public.
Scarborough, October 11, 1952.

Defiance. All the world, even our best friends, thought that our end had come. Accordingly, we prepared ourselves to conquer or perish. We were united in that solemn, majestic hour; we were all equally resolved at least to go down fighting. We cast calculations to the winds; no wavering voice was heard; we hurled defiance at our foes; we faced our duty; and, by the mercy of God, we were preserved.

It fell to me in those days to express the sentiments and resolves of the British nation in that supreme crisis of its life. That was to me an honour far beyond any dreams or ambitions I had ever nursed, and it is one that cannot be taken away.
London, May 10, 1942.

Deficiencies in Armaments. We are now in the third year of openly avowed rearmament. Why is it, if all is going well, there are so many deficiencies? Why, for instance, are the Guards drilling with flags instead of machine-guns? Why is it that our small Territorial Army is in a rudimentary condition? Is that all according to schedule? Why should it be, when you consider how small are our forces? Why should it be impossible to equip the Territorial Army simultaneously with the Regular Army?
Commons, May 25, 1938.

Degrees. I am surprised that in my later life I should have become so experienced in taking degrees, when as a schoolboy I was so bad at passing examinations. In fact one might almost say that no one ever passed so few examinations and received so many degrees. From this a superficial thinker might argue that the way to get the most degrees is to fail in the most examinations. This would, however, Ladies and Gentlemen, be a conclusion unedifying in the academic atmosphere in which I now preen myself, and I therefore hasten to draw another moral with which I am sure we shall be in accord: namely, that no boy or girl should ever be disheartened by lack of success in their youth but should diligently and faithfully continue to persevere and make up for lost time.
University of Miami, February 26, 1946.

Deluge. I should advise the right hon. Gentleman [Mr. Arnold Foster, Secretary of State for War] not to worry too much about details, because, after all, there would be an election some day, and when it came the waters of the boundless ocean would come in and all the castles on the sands would be washed away.
Commons, February 23, 1905.

Democracies, Changeable. With all their virtues, democracies are changeable. After a hot fit, comes the cold. Are we to see again, as we saw the last time, the utmost severities inflicted upon the vanquished, to be followed by a period in which we let them arm anew, and in which we then seek to appease their wrath?
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Democracy. Democracy does not express itself in clever manoeuvres by which a handful of men survive from day to day, or another handful of men try to overthrow them.
London, March 17, 1951.

Under our representative institutions it is occasionally necessary to defer to the opinions of other people.
Commons, July 16, 1909.

We welcome any country where the people own the Government, and not the Government the people.
The Hague, May 7, 1948.

Democracy is not a caucus, obtaining a fixed term of office by promises, and then doing what it likes with the people. We hold that there ought to be a constant relationship between the rulers and the people. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, still remains the sovereign definition of democracy.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

Democracy, I say, is not based on violence or terrorism, but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting the rights of other people. Democracy is no harlot to be picked up in the street by a man with a tommy gun. I trust the people, the mass of the people, in almost any country, but I like to make sure that it is the people and not a gang of bandits from the mountains or from the countryside who think that by violence they can overturn constituted authority, in some cases ancient Parliaments, Governments and States.
Commons, December 8, 1944.

Democracy, Foundation of. The foundation of all democracy is that the people have the right to vote. To deprive them of that right is to make a mockery of all the high-sounding phrases which are so often used. At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.
Commons, October 31, 1944.

Democracy, Handicaps of. Peaceful Parliamentary countries, which aim at freedom for the individual and abundance for the mass, start with a heavy handicap against a dictatorship whose sole theme has been war, the preparation for war, and the grinding up of everything and everybody into its military machine.
Commons, November 8, 1939.

Democracy, Interpretation of. How is the word “democracy” to be interpreted? My idea of it is that the plain, humble, common man, just the ordinary man who keeps a wife and family, who goes off to fight for his country when it is in trouble, goes to the poll at the appropriate time, and puts his cross on the ballot paper showing the candidate he wishes to be elected to Parliament—that he is the foundation of democracy. And it is also essential to this foundation that this man or woman should do this without fear, and without any form of intimidation or victimization. He marks his ballot paper in strict secrecy, and then elected representatives meet and together decide what government, or even, in times of stress, what form of government they wish to have in their country. If that is democracy, I salute it. I espouse it. I would work for it.
Commons, December 8, 1944.

Democracy, Property-owning. What we mean is a personal property-owning democracy. Households which have possessions which they prize and cherish because they are their own, or even a house and garden of their own, the Savings Certificates that their thrift has bought, a little money put by for a rainy day, or an insurance policy, the result of forethought and self-denial which will be a help in old age or infirmity, or after their death for those they love and leave behind—that is what the Conservatives mean by a property-owning democracy. And the more widely it is distributed and the more millions there are to share in it, the more will the British democracy continue to have the spirit of individual independence, and the more they will turn their backs on the Socialist delusion that one ought to be proud of being totally dependent on the State.
Edinburgh, February 14, 1950.

Democracy, Survival of. We have our faults, and our social system has its faults, but we hope that, with God’s help, we shall be able to prove for all time, or at any rate for a long time, that a State or Commonwealth of Nations, founded on long-enjoyed freedom and steadily-evolved democracy, possesses amid the sharpest shocks the faculty of survival in a high and honourable, and indeed, in a glorious degree.
London, March 18, 1941.

The British nation now has to make one of the most momentous choices in its history. That choice is between two ways of life: between individual liberty and State domination: between concentration of ownership in the hands of the State and the extension of a property-owning democracy: between a policy of increasing restraint and a policy of liberating energy and ingenuity: between a policy of levelling down and a policy of finding opportunity for all to rise upwards from a basic standard.
Woodford Green, January 28, 1950.

Democracy, Troubles of. When a peaceful democracy is suddenly made to fight for its life, there must be a lot of trouble and hardship in the process of turning over from peace to war.
London, October 1, 1939.

Democracy at War. If democracy and Parliamentary institutions are to triumph in this war, it is absolutely necessary that Governments resting upon them shall be able to act and dare, that the servants of the Crown shall not be harassed by nagging and snarling, that enemy propaganda shall not be fed needlessly out of our own hands and our reputation disparaged and undermined throughout the world.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Demon of the Air. Hitler made a contract with the demon of the air, but the contract ran out before the job was done, and the demon has taken on an engagement with the rival firm. How truly it has been said that nations and people very often fall by the very means which they have used, and built their hopes upon, for their rising-up.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Denial. Some people will deny anything, but there are some denials that do not alter the facts.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Dependence, Peril of. All history has proved the peril of being dependent upon a foreign State for home defence instead of upon one’s own right arm. This is not a Party question, not a question between pacifists and militarists, but one of the essential independence of character of our island life and its preservation from intrusion or distortion of any kind.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Depopulation. A continuance of Socialist experiments in theory, and of their ineptitude and incompetence in practice, will bring upon us not only worse privations and restrictions than those we now bear, but economic ruin; and not only economic ruin but the depopulation of the British Isles on a scale which no one has ever imagined or predicted.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, April 21, 1948.

Depressed Industry. I select four main tests by which to tell what is a depressed industry or an industry which is not flourishing. The first is that unemployment is abnormal; the second, that the ratio of rates to profits is excessive. The third that the profits are subnormal; and the fourth that the profits have been decreasing in recent years.
Commons, June 5, 1928.

Desert Army. This noble Desert Army, which has never doubted its power to beat the enemy, and whose pride had suffered cruelly from retreats and disasters which they could not understand, regained in a week its ardour and self-confidence. Historians may explain Tobruk. The Eighth Army has done better; it has avenged it.
Commons, November 11, 1942.

Desert Warfare. This desert warfare has to be seen to be believed. Large armies, with their innumerable transport and tiny habitations, are dispersed and scattered as if from a pepper-pot over the vast indeterminate slopes and plains of the desert, broken here and there only by a sandy crease or tuck in the ground or an outcrop of rock.
Commons, September 8, 1942.

Design and Supply. The union under one authority of design and supply is the foundation of production on a great scale, and this is specially true when the character of the production is constantly varying and developing. The interests of design and supply are naturally at variance, design seeking a swift and immediate road to perfection, and supply succeeding only through standardized output.
Commons, April 25, 1918.

Designs, No Dark. Here in this country we know that no dark designs are harboured by our Government against the peace or well-being of any country. There may be mistakes, there may be muddles; but no dark designs are harboured by any British Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary. He could not live under the conditions of British Cabinet Government if it were otherwise. But foreign countries do not always attribute to us this innocence.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Desperation, Gambler’s. We have to reckon with a gambler’s desperation. We have to reckon with a criminal who by a mere gesture has decreed the death of three or four million Russian and German soldiers. We stand here still the champions. If we fail, all fails, and if we fall, all will fall together.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Destiny. It is not in our power to anticipate our destiny.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Destiny, Anglo-American. These are not the days when you can order the British nation or the British Empire about as if it were a pawn on the chessboard of Europe. You cannot do it. Of course, if the United States were willing to come into the European scene as a prime factor, if they were willing to guarantee to those countries who take their advice that they would not suffer for it, then an incomparably wider and happier prospect would open to the whole world. If they were willing not only to sign, but to ratify, treaties of that kind, it would be an enormous advantage. It is quite safe for the British Empire to go as far in any guarantee in Europe as the United States is willing to go, and hardly any difficulty in the world could not be solved by the faithful co-operation of the English-speaking peoples. But that is not going to happen to-morrow.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Destiny of Britain. What is the destiny of our country to be? Nothing is settled either for or against us. We have no reason to despair; still less have we any reason to be self-satisfied. All is still in our hands for good or for ill. We have the power to-day to chose our fortune, and I believe there is no nation in the world, perhaps there never has been in history, any nation which at one and the same moment was confronted with such opposite possibilities, was threatened on the one hand by more melancholy disaster, and cheered on the other by more bright, yet not unreasonable, hopes. The two roads are open. We are at the crossways. If we stand on in the old happy-go-lucky way, the richer classes ever growing in wealth and in number, and ever declining in responsibility, the very poor remaining plunged or plunging even deeper into helpless, hopeless misery, then I think there is nothing before us but savage strife between class and class, with an increasing disorganization, with an increasing destruction of human strength and human virtue—nothing, in fact, but that dual degeneration which comes from the simultaneous waste of extreme wealth and of extreme want.
Norwich, July 26, 1909.

Destiny, Chain of. It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Commons, February 18, 1945.

Destiny, March of Human. It is not in the power of one nation, however formidably armed, still less is it in the power of a small group of men, violent, ruthless men, who have always to cast their eyes back over their shoulders, to cramp and fetter the forward march of human destiny.
London, October 16, 1938.

Destroyers, American. There will be no delay in bringing the American destroyers into active service; in fact, British crews are already meeting them at the various ports where they are being delivered. You might call it the long arm of coincidence. I really do not think that there is any more to be said about the whole business at the present time. This is not the appropriate occasion for rhetoric. Perhaps I may, however, very respectfully, offer this counsel to the House: When you have got a thing where you want it, it is a good thing to leave it where it is.
Commons, September 5, 1940.

Destroyers, Functions of. The destroyer has two functions. Its first function is to destroy the enemy’s torpedo craft by gunfire in its own waters. Its second function is the attack by the torpedo on the heavy ships of the enemy.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Determination. We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

I am confident that we shall succeed in defeating and largely destroying this most tremendous onslaught by which we are now threatened, and anyhow, whatever happens, we will all go down fighting to the end.
Commons, September 17, 1940.

Deterrents. It is my belief that by accumulating deterrents of all kinds against aggression we shall, in fact, ward off the fearful catastrophe, the fears of which darken the life and mar the progress of all the peoples of the globe.
Congress, Washington, D.C., January 17, 1952.

Major war of the future will differ, therefore, from anything we have known in the past in this one significant respect, that each side, at the outset, will suffer what it dreads the most, the loss of everything that it has ever known of. The deterrents will grow continually in value. In the past, an aggressor has been tempted by the hope of snatching an early advantage. In future, he may be deterred by the knowledge that the other side has the certain power to inflict swift, inescapable, and crushing retaliation.
Commons, March 1, 1955.

A country like ours, possessed of immense territory and wealth, whose defence has been neglected, cannot avoid war by dilating upon its horrors, or even by a continuous display of pacific qualities, or by ignoring the fate of the victims of aggression elsewhere. War will be avoided, in present circumstances, only by the accumulation of deterrents against the aggressor.
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Devolution. I am convinced that no Party in the future would refuse to consider the delegation of administrative and legislative functions to provincial and national boards. I believe in the extension of local government on a scale hitherto quite unknown, in the creation of national boards in the four parts of the Kingdom, and the handing over to them of large slices and blocks of business which could not properly be dealt with at Westminster.
Commons, February 20, 1905.

In the conduct of vast, nation-wide administration there must be division of functions, and there must be proper responsibility assigned to the departmental chiefs. They must have the power and authority to do their work, and be able to take a proper pride in it when it is done, and be held accountable for it if it is not done.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Diagnosis. It is an important thing to diagnose the evil, but unless the malady be recognized it is idle to attempt to seek the remedy.
Commons, June 21, 1926.

Dictators. If we do not stand up to the dictators now, we shall only prepare the day when we shall have to stand up to them under far more adverse conditions. Two years ago it was safe, three years ago it was easy, and four years ago a mere dispatch might have rectified the position. But where shall we be a year hence?
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Like the Communists, the Nazis tolerate no opinion but their own. Like the Communists, they feed on hatred. Like the Communists, they must seek, from time to time, and always at shorter intervals, a new target, a new prize, a new victim. The dictator in all his pride, is held in the grip of his Party machine. He can go forward; he cannot go back. He must blood his hounds and show them sport, or else, like Actaeon of old, be devoured by them. All-strong without, he is all-weak within.
London, October 16, 1938.

Dictatorship. One of the disadvantages of dictatorship is that the dictator is often dictated to by others; and what he did to others may often be done back again to him.
Commons, May 11, 1953.

Dictatorship in Britain. As a free-born Englishman, what I hate is the sense of being at anybody’s mercy or in anybody’s power, be it Hitler or Attlee. We are approaching very near to dictatorship in this country, dictatorship that is to say—I will be quite candid with the House—without either its criminality or its efficiency.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

Dictatorship, Party. Men in that position might very easily be tempted to do what even a military dictatorship would not do, because a military dictatorship, with all its many faults, at any rate is one that is based on a very accurate study of the real facts; and there is more danger in this new kind of [Party] dictatorship than there would be in a military dictatorship, because you have men who, to relieve themselves from the peril which confronts them at home, might easily plunge into a foreign adventure of catastrophic character to the whole world.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Dictatorships. It is in this fear of criticism that the Nazi and Bolshevik dictatorships run their greatest risk. They silence all criticism by the concentration camp, the rubber truncheon, or the firing party. Thus the men at the top must very often only be fed with the facts which are palatable to them. Scandals, corruption and shortcomings are not exposed, because there are no independent voices. Instead of being exposed, they continue to fester behind the pompous frontage of the State. The men at the top may be very fierce and powerful, but their ears are deaf, their fingers are numb; they cannot feel their feet as they move forward in the fog and darkness of the immeasurable and the unknown.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Difference, Degrees of. There is all the difference in the world between a man who knocks you down and a man who leaves you alone.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Dignity and Freedom. If I had to choose between the interests of the dignity of the House of Commons and its freedom I would pronounce for its freedom. It could not enjoy real dignity unless its debates were free.
Commons, March 15, 1905.

Dilke, Sir Charles. I think that the right hon. Baronet is also a remarkable instance of a very peculiar phenomenon. I have always noticed that whenever a radical takes to Imperialism he catches it in a very acute form.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Diplomacy, Secret. You talk of secret diplomacy, but let me tell you that there is a worse kind of secret diplomacy, and it is the diplomacy which spreads out hope and soothing-syrup for the good, while all the time winks are exchanged between the people who know actually what is going on.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Diplomatic Relations. The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience.
Commons, November 17, 1949.

Disarmament. It may be very virtuous and high-minded to press disarmament upon nations situated as these nations are, but if not done in the right way and in due season, and in moderation, with regard for other people’s points of view as well as our own sentiments, it may bring war nearer rather than peace, and may lead us to be suspected and hated instead of being honoured and thanked as we should wish to be.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

I have not been able to convince myself that the policy which the Government have pursued has been in sufficiently direct contact with the harsh realities of the European situation, but, of course, I admit most fully that they have made it clear before all the world, not only by words, which are so easy, but by actions, which are so hard, and by inaction, which is so questionable, how sincere has been, and still is, our desire to bring about a general measure of disarmament, especially in the air.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

This attempt to employ the energies of Geneva upon discriminating between offensive and defensive weapons will only lead to rigmarole and delay, and is in itself a silly expedient. The adoption of such topics for discussion casts a certain air of insincerity over the proceedings at Geneva.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

I have watched the Disarmament Conferences which have now been going on for many years, and I have formed certain opinions about them. Disarmament divides itself into disarmament by scale and disarmament by ratio. Disarmament by scale is not so important, but disarmament by ratio, the altering of the relative positions of nations, is the part of the problem which excites the most intense anxiety and even passion.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Disarmament, A fable. Once upon a time all the animals in the zoos decided that they would disarm, and they arranged to have a conference to arrange the matter. So the Rhinoceros said when he opened the proceedings that the use of teeth was barbarous and horrible and ought to be strictly prohibited by general consent. Horns, which were mainly defensive weapons, would, of course, have to be allowed. The Buffalo, the Stag, the Porcupine, and even the little Hedgehog all said they would vote with the Rhino, but the Lion and the Tiger took a different view. They defended teeth and even claws, which they described as honourable weapons of immortal antiquity. The Panther, the Leopard, the Puma, and the whole tribe of small cats all supported the Lion and the Tiger. Then the Bear spoke. He proposed that both teeth and horns should be banned and never used again for fighting by any animal. It would be quite enough if animals were allowed to give each other a good hug when they quarrelled. No one could object to that. It was so fraternal, and that would be a great step towards peace. However, all the other animals were very offended with the Bear, and the Turkey fell into a perfect panic.

The discussion got so hot and angry, and all those animals began thinking so much about horns and teeth and hugging when they argued about the peaceful intentions that had brought them together that they began to look at one another in a very nasty way. Luckily the keepers were able to calm them down and persuade them to go back quietly to their cages, and they began to feel quite friendly with one another again.
Aldersbrook Road, West Essex, October 25, 1928.

Disarmament, Failure of. The expectation of general disarmament upon a great scale has failed; the hope of one nation being able to disarm its rival has been frustrated by the very stout and stubborn resistance which every nation makes to that process. Now I am afraid that a large part of the object of every country is to throw the blame for an impending failure upon some other country while willing, if possible, to win the Nobel Peace Prize for itself.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Disarmament, Limits of. I am very doubtful whether there is any use in pressing national disarmament to a point where nations think their safety is compromised, while the quarrels which divide them and which lead to their armaments and their fears are still unadjusted. The elaborate process of measuring words around the table at Geneva, which has gone on for so many years, stirs all the deepest suspicions and anxieties of the various powers, and forces all the statesmen to consider many hypothetical contingencies which but for this prolonged process perhaps would not have crossed their minds and would only have remained buried in the archives of some general staff.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Disarmament and Peace. False ideas have been spread about the country that disarmament means peace.
Commons, March 14, 1934.

I am very glad that the Disarmament Conference is passing out of life into history. One of the greatest mistakes that can be made is to point to the failure of the Disarmament Conference as if it were really the failure of the League of Nations, and to mix up disarmament with peace. When you have peace you will have disarmament. But there has been during these years a steady deterioration in the relations between different countries and a rapid increase in armaments that has gone on in spite of the endless flow of oratory, of well-meaning sentiments, of perorations, and of banquets. Europe will be secure when nations no longer feel themselves in danger as many of them do now. Then the pressure and the burden of armaments will fall away automatically, as they ought to have done in a long peace, and it might be quite easy to seal a movement of that character by some general agreement.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Disarmament, Qualitative. I come now to the proposals of qualitative disarmament about which the Foreign Secretary was so insistent. He told us that it was difficult to divide weapons into offensive and defensive categories. It certainly is, because almost every conceivable weapon may be used either in defence or offence; it all depends upon the circumstances; and every weapon, whether offensive or defensive, may be used either by an aggressor or by the innocent victim of his assault.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Disaster, Military. Our thankfulness at the escape of our army and so many men, whose loved ones have passed an agonizing week, must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster. The French army has been weakened, the Belgian army has been lost, a large part of those fortified lines upon which so much faith had been reposed is gone, many valuable mining districts and factories have passed into the enemy’s possession, the whole of the Channel ports are in his hands, with all the tragic consequences that follow from that, and we must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately at us or at France.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

Disaster, Profiteers of. We are at this moment in the presence of a recession of our hopes and prospects in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean unequalled since the fall of France. If there are any would-be profiteers of disaster who feel able to paint the picture in darker colours, they are certainly at liberty to do so.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Discipline. The bond of discipline is subtle and sensitive. It may be as tense as steel or as brittle as glass. The main element of discipline in the British Service is a sense of justice and a sense of willing association among great bodies of men with the general policy of their country.
Commons, March 3, 1919.

Discretion. I make it a rule, as far as I possibly can, to say nothing in this House upon matters which I am not sure are already known to the General Staffs of foreign countries.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

It would be better to do what has been promised, that is, have a discussion without the enemy listening. I know a good deal about all this business. I have very good advisers who check, I can assure hon. Members, what I say, so that I do not inadvertently let out something detrimental; but hon. Members have not the same opportunity. A perfectly well-meaning speech might be resented by the troops when it got around and make them say: “Well, they have said this in the House of Commons.” We must be careful, and therefore I should not recommend a public debate.
Commons, July 6, 1944.

Discussion, Freedom of. In my opinion, based upon the experience of the most famous men whose names have adorned the records of the House, no national emergency short, let us say, of the actual invasion of this country itself ought in any way to restrict or prevent the entire freedom of Parliamentary discussion.
Commons, February 18, 1901.

Disease, Fight against. Fanned by the fierce winds of war, medical science and surgical art have advanced unceasingly, hand in hand. There has certainly been no lack of subjects for treatment. The medical profession at least cannot complain of unemployment through lack of raw material. The inventive genius of mankind is stirred and spurred by suffering and emergency, and the long succession of noble discoveries in the application of the healing art stand forth with all the greater brilliance against the dark and hideous background of hatred and chaos. The miseries of the population have given opportunities to the medical profession of rendering service to their fellow mortals on an unexampled scale. Science, in many spheres so baleful, offers an ever-broadening and brightening outlook for the toil and devotion of those who follow the practice of medicine. There is no profession or calling whose members can feel a greater or deeper conviction of duty of lasting value to be done. There is no profession in which they can feel a surer confidence in an expanding future in their fight against pain and disease.
Guildhall, London, September 10, 1947.

Dishcloth. When you have to hold a hot coffee pot, it is better not to break the handle off until you are sure that you will get another equally convenient and serviceable, or, at any rate, until there is a dishcloth handy.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Disinflation. The word “disinflation” has been coined in order to avoid the unpopular term “deflation”. . . . I suppose that presently when “disinflation” also wins its bad name, the Chancellor [Sir Stafford Cripps] will call it “non-undisinflation” and will start again.
Commons, October 27, 1949.

Dismissal. It is an unwholesome way of conducting public affairs in time of peace that ministers or viceroys should be dismissed or should resign, and should not feel it necessary to their self-respect to explain to the nation the reasons for their departure.
Commons, March 6, 1947.

Dispersal. People must be taught not to despise the small shelter. Dispersal is the sovereign remedy against heavy casualties.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Dispersal of Production. There is no doubt that this method of the widely distributed manufacture of components ought to be as much a part of the life of an industrial country in this present unhappy modern age as the practice of archery on the village green was in medieval England. It is the simplest and most primary method by which the freedom of a country can be assured, and it is the very heart of modern national defence.
Commons, March 10, 1936.

Dispersion of Forces. It is not the enemy in front that I fear, but the division which too often makes itself manifest in progressive ranks—it is that division, that dispersion of forces, that internecine struggle in the moments of great emergency, in the moments when the issue hangs in the balance—it is that which, I fear, may weaken our efforts and may perhaps deprive us of success otherwise within our grasp.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Distortion. My right hon. Friend [Mr. David Lloyd George] made to-night a deeply interesting speech, to which I listened, like everyone else, with admiration of the persuasive charm and skill with which he pressed his point. There is nothing that he can do as well as to draw one side of a picture in the most glowing manner and then reduce the other side to small pitiable proportions. He gave an account of the state of Europe. He represented that Germany might have a few thousand more rifles than was allowed by the Treaty, a few more boy scouts, and then he pictured the enormous armies of Czechoslovakia and Poland and France, with their thousands of cannon, and so forth. If I could believe that picture I should feel much comforted, but I cannot. I find it difficult to believe it in view of the obvious fear which holds all the nations who are neighbours of Germany, and the obvious lack of fear which appears in the behaviour of the German Government and a large proportion of the German people.
Commons, November 7, 1933.

Divergences. When you have half a dozen theatres of war in various parts of the globe, there are bound to be divergences of view when the problem is studied from different angles. There were many divergences of view before we came together, and it was for that reason that I had been pressing for so many months for the meeting of as many of the great Allies as possible. These divergences are of emphasis and priority rather than of principle. They can only be removed by the prolonged association of consenting and instructed minds. Human judgment is fallible. We may have taken decisions which will prove to be less good than we hoped, but at any rate anything is better than not having a plan. You must be able to answer every question in these matters of war, and have a good, clear, plain answer to the question: what is your plan, what is your policy? But it does not follow that we always give the answer. It would be foolish.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Division of Mankind. The world was divided into peoples that owned the governments and governments that owned the peoples.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, March 31, 1949.

Division of the World. We live in a period, happily unique in human history, when the whole world is divided intellectually and to a large extent geographically between the creeds of Communist discipline and individual freedom, and when at the same time, this mental and psychological division is accompanied by the possession by both sides of the obliterating weapons of the nuclear age.
Commons, March 1, 1955.

Dog Doesn’t Eat Dog. I was not invited to the conference that took place last week in Downing Street between the Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Party, but “my hon. Friend the Member for Treorchy” gave me a very shrewd account of the interview between the two Party leaders. After the usual compliments, the Prime Minister said: “We have never been colleagues, we have never been friends—at least, not what you would call holiday friends—but we have both been Prime Minister, and dog doesn’t eat dog. Just look at this monstrous Bill the trade unions and our wild fellows have foisted on me. Do me a service, and I will never forget it. Take it upstairs and cut its dirty throat.”
Commons, January 28, 1931.

Doing the Necessary. It is no use saying, “We are doing our best.” You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Commons, March 7, 1916.

Doing Without. We have had to dispense with the indispensable.
Commons, July 11, 1922.

Dominions, Devotion of. We have fully informed and consulted all the self-governing Dominions, these great communities far beyond the oceans who have been built up on our laws and on our civilization, and who are absolutely free to choose their course, but are absolutely devoted to the ancient Motherhood, and who feel themselves inspired by the same emotions which lead me to stake our all upon duty and honour.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Doom of Britain. I went through, as a minister, some of the worst periods of the U-boat attack in the last year. I have studied the conditions long and carefully, and have thought often about them in the intervening years. Nothing that happened then, nothing that we imagined in the interval, however alarming it seemed at the time, was comparable to the dangers and difficulties which now beset us. I repeat that every high authority I know of, if asked in cold blood a year ago how we should get through, would have found it impossible to give a favourable answer. I have no doubt that the able experts who advise Hitler told him that our doom was certain.
Commons, June 25, 1941.

Doom of Mankind. When Mr. Sterling Cole, the Chairman of the United States Congressional Committee, gave out a year ago—February 17, 1954—the first comprehensive review of the hydrogen bomb, the entire foundation of human affairs was revolutionized, and mankind placed in a situation both measureless and laden with doom.
Commons, March 1, 1955.

Doom, Ring of. I have always expected that this war would become worse in severity as the guilty Nazis feel the ring of doom remorselessly closing in upon them.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, October 12, 1942.

Downing Street, 11. There seemed to be something about the air of 11 Downing Street peculiarly exhilarating, something which not only gave to the occupant of that building clear views on financial questions, but which very often imparted to him the courage of a martyr and the most unalterable convictions. It was all the more remarkable that the atmosphere should have the effect when they reflected upon the obscurity which prevailed at the residence of the Prime Minister next door, and the very dangerous and poisonous fumes which, until a recent date, issued from the Colonial Office across the road.
Commons, May 16, 1904.

Drafting, Art of. In the art of drafting [Income Tax Law] there seems to be a complete disdain of the full stop, and even the humble colon is an object to be avoided.
Commons, April 19, 1927.

Dread Nought. We have the means, and we have the opportunity, of marshalling the whole vast strength of the British Empire, and of the Mother Country, and directing these steadfastly and unswervingly to the fulfilment of our purpose, and the vindication of our cause, and for each and for all, as for the Royal Navy, the watchword should be, “Carry on, and dread nought.”
Commons, December 6, 1939.

Drift. We seem to be moving, drifting, steadily, against our will, against the will of every race and every people and every class, towards some hideous catastrophe. Everybody wishes to stop it, but they do not know how.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Drones, Social. We cannot afford to have idle people. Idlers at the top make idlers at the bottom. No one must stand aside in his working prime to pursue a life of selfish pleasure. There are wasters in all classes. Happily they are only a small minority in every class. But anyhow we cannot have a band of drones in our midst, whether they come from the ancient aristocracy or the modern plutocracy or the ordinary type of pub crawler.
London, March 21, 1943.

Drugs. The recent advances in medicine are most remarkable and inspiring. Human inventiveness has been fanned by the fierce wings of war. New drugs of a remarkable healing potency are becoming commonplaces of science, and even the latest textbooks on many diseases require to have very considerable annotations and additions made to them. I personally have never failed to pay my tribute of respect and gratitude to M and B; although I am not competent to give you an exact description of how it works, it certainly has in my case always been attended by highly beneficial results. Then there is penicillin, which has broken upon the world just at a moment when human beings are being gashed and torn and poisoned by wounds on the field of war in enormous numbers, and when so many other diseases, hitherto insoluble, cry for treatment.
Royal College of Physicians, London, March 2, 1944.

Dual Control. Dual control is two persons attempting to control one thing. The reverse process is one person attempting to control two things.
Commons, March 11, 1920.

Dum-Dum Bullets. It is true that, as against a civilized foe, it is most undesirable that the Dum-Dum bullet should be used, and I believe that in the early days of the South African War a good deal of inconvenience was caused by the fact that the ammunition had to be changed.
Commons, July 19, 1906.

Dunkirk. We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance which should be noted. It was gained by the Air Force.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

This struggle was protracted and fierce. Suddenly the scene has cleared, the crash and thunder has for the moment—but only for the moment—died away. A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valour, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all. The enemy was hurled back by the retreating British and French troops. He was so roughly handled that he did not hurry their departure seriously. The Royal Air Force engaged the main strength of the German air force, and inflicted upon them losses of at least four to one; and the navy, using merely 1,000 ships of all kinds, carried over 335,000 men, French and British, out of the jaws of death and shame, to their native land and to the tasks which lie immediately ahead.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

In the fighting over Dunkirk, which was a sort of no-man’s-land, we undoubtedly beat the German air force, and gained the mastery of the local air, inflicting here a loss of three to four to one day after day. Anyone who looks at the photographs which were published a week or so ago of the re-embarkation, showing the masses of troops assembled on the beach and forming an ideal target for hours at a time, must realize that this re-embarkation would not have been possible unless the enemy had resigned all hope of recovering air superiority at that time and at that place.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Duties, McKenna. I do not grudge anybody any reason which may lead them to vote for the reimposition of these duties. To some they are a relish, to others a target, and to me a revenue.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Duties, Sumptuary. They are taxes which no man or woman—for women are going to play their part—need pay unless he or she chooses. They fall on a class of expenditure from which everyone can easily refrain without any detrimental effect on health or morals.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Duty. The destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes are on the move in the world, stirring all men’s souls, drawing them from their firesides, casting aside comfort, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness in response to impulses at once awe-striking and irresistible, we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.
London, June 16, 1941.

Victory or defeat are things which happen, but duty is a thing which is compulsory and has to go on irrespective, and carries with it its own rewards whatever the upshot of the struggle may be.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York, March 25, 1949.

Duty, Abdication of. I never would have believed that we should have been allowed to go on getting into this plight, month by month and year by year, and that even the Government’s own confessions of error would have produced no concentration of Parliamentary opinion and force capable of lifting our efforts to the level of emergency. I say that unless the House resolves to find out the truth for itself it will have committed an act of abdication of duty without parallel in its long history.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

Duty and Interest. It is not given to the cleverest and the most calculating of mortals to know with certainty what is their interest. Yet it is given to quite a lot of simple folk to know every day what is their duty.
London, August 31, 1943.

Duty, of a Nation. No nation endeavouring to maintain civilized government and institutions can allow its plighted word to be brought under insult and calumny, and allow those guilty of cruel and brutal murder to go unpunished.
Commons, April 12, 1922.

Duty, Path of. It is always a comfort in times of crisis to feel that you are treading the path of duty according to the lights that are granted you.
Guildhall, London, November 9, 1951.

Duty, Spiritual. The flame of Christian ethics is still our highest guide. To guard and cherish it is our first interest, both spiritually and materially. The fulfilment of spiritual duty in our daily life is vital to our survival. Only by bringing it into perfect application can we hope to solve for ourselves the problems of this world and not of this world alone.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, March 31, 1949.

Earth in Control of Air. I wish to draw the attention of the House and of the public to a question connected with air defence. The point is limited, and largely technical and scientific in its character, nevertheless it is important. It is concerned with the methods which can be invented, adopted or discovered to enable the earth to control the air, to enable defence from the ground to exercise control—domination—upon aeroplanes high above its surface.
Commons, June 7, 1935.

East Africa. I have some knowledge of the native populations in these regions, and certainly we are bound to regard them as the greatest trust that is confided to us, because they are the most helpless of the population, and it is for us to see that they are better, and not worse, from our responsible charge of the country.
Commons, July 14, 1921.

Economic Structure of Britain. The attempt to socialize Great Britain is fraught with mortal danger. There has never been a community in the world like ours. Here in this small island we maintain forty-six millions of people, who played a greater part per head in winning the world war than any other people, and who, before the war, had developed a standard of living and social services above that of any country in Europe and in many respects above that of the United States. These forty-six millions differ from every other community that has ever existed in the world by the fact that they are perched upon the completely artificial foundation of not providing even one half of their food, and being dependent for the purchase of the bulk of their food and raw materials on persuading foreign customers to accept the wares and the services they offer. Vast, intricate, delicate, innumerable, are the methods of acquiring external wealth which the British nation has developed in recent generations, and the population has grown step by step upon the livelihood produced.
Friends House, London, November 28, 1945.

Economics, Invisible. The difference between what is seen and what is not seen was often noticed by the old economists. What is not seen is the infinite variety of individual transactions and decisions which, in a civilized society, within the framework of just and well-known laws, insure the advantage not only of the individual concerned, but of the community, and provide that general body of well-being constituting the wealth of nations. All this is blotted out by an overriding State control, however imposing some of its manifestations may be. It is the vital creative impulse that I deeply fear the doctrines and policy of the Socialist Government have destroyed, or are rapidly destroying, in our national life. Nothing that they can plan and order and rush around enforcing will take its place. They have broken the mainspring, and until we get a new one the watch will not go.
Commons, October 28, 1947.

Economizing. If people who are dealing with matters of great consequence write their letters in their own hand instead of dictating them, walk to their business instead of riding, and send a message instead of speaking through the telephone, some people think economies will result, but, as a matter of fact, very few suggestions are less helpful than these.
Commons, December 15, 1919.

Economy, Cause of. I stand here to plead the cause of economy. I think it is about time that a voice was heard from this side of the House pleading that unpopular cause; that someone not on the bench opposite, but a conservative by tradition, whose fortunes are linked indissolubly to the Tory Party, who knows something of the majesty and power of Britain beyond the seas, upon whom rests no taint of cosmopolitanism, should stand forward and say what he can to protest against the policy of daily increasing the public burden. If such a one is to stand forward in such a cause, then I say it humbly, but with I hope becoming pride, no one has a better right than I have, for this is a cause for which the late Lord Randolph Churchill made the greatest sacrifice of any Minister of modern times.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Economy of Nature. In looking at the views of these two hon. Members [the brothers Sir Edgar Vincent and Col. Sir C. E. H. Vincent], I have always marvelled at the economy of nature which had contrived to grow from a single stock the nettle and the dock.
Commons, July 24, 1905.

Economy of the Poor. If in the realm of the very poor any economy is possible, which I do not assert, there would be more likely to be economy possible over a crust of bread than over a spoonful of tea.
Commons, May 12, 1902.

Eden, Anthony. He is the one fresh figure of the first magnitude arising out of a generation which was ravaged by the war.
Commons, February 1938.

I venture to suggest to my hon. Friend, in whose career the whole House has a common interest, because we do like to see new figures emerge, to be careful not to be too obliging in his departmental duties, and not to be too ready to do what is asked of him on all occasions, because he is very valuable, and we all hope that he will be associated with real success in the domain of foreign affairs.
Commons, March 14, 1934.

Here is the moment when the House should pay its tribute to the work of my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary. I cannot describe to the House the aid and comfort he has been to me in all our difficulties. His hard life when quite young in the infantry in the last war, his constant self-preparation for the tasks which have fallen to him, his unequalled experience as a minister at the Foreign Office, his knowledge of foreign affairs and their past history, his experience of conferences of all kinds, his breadth of view, his powers of exposition, his moral courage, have gained for him a position second to none among the Foreign Secretaries of the Grand Alliance. It is not only my own personal debt, but even more that of the House to him, which I now acknowledge.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Education, Advanced. Human beings are endowed with infinitely varying qualities and dispositions, and each one is different from the others. We cannot make them all the same. It would be a pretty dull world if we did. It is in our power, however, to secure equal opportunities for all. The facilities for advanced education must be evened out and multiplied. No one who can take advantage of a higher education should be denied this chance. You cannot conduct a modern community except with an adequate supply of persons upon whose education, whether humane, technical, or scientific, much time and money have been spent.
London, March 21, 1943.

Education, Popular. If there was any board upon which the working classes ought to be represented it was the education authority.
Commons, November 13, 1902.

Education, University. Owing to the pressure of life and everyone having to earn their living, a university education of the great majority of those who enjoy that high privilege is usually acquired before twenty. These are great years for young people. The world of thought and history and the treasures of learning are laid open to them. They have the chance of broadening their minds, elevating their view and arming their moral convictions by all the resources that free and wealthy communities can bestow.
University of Miami, February 26, 1946.

Effort, Collective. As we move through these tremendous times, with their swift succession of formidable or glittering events, we must not overlook, or consider as matters of mere routine, those unceasing daily and nightly efforts of millions of men and women which constitute the foundation of our capacity to wage this righteous war wherever it may carry us, all over the world.
London, May 14, 1943.

Effort, Supreme. Provided that every effort is made, that nothing is kept back, that the whole man-power, brain-power, virility, valour and civic virtue of the English-speaking world with all its galaxy of loyal, friendly, associated communities and states—provided all that is bent unremittingly to the simple and supreme task, I think it would be reasonable to hope that the end of 1942 will see us quite definitely in a better position than we are now, and that the year 1943 will enable us to assume the initiative upon an ample scale.
The Senate Chamber, Washington, D.C., December 26, 1941.

Egypt, Invasion of. It was always said that Egypt could never be successfully invaded across the Western Desert, and certainly that historical fact has now been established upon modern and far stronger foundations.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Eighth Army. The Desert Army is the product of three years of trial and error and the continued perfecting of transport, communications, supplies and signals, and the rapid moving forward of airfields and the like.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Eire. For reasons of high State policy involving the position of the whole British Empire in its relation to the rest of the world, we decided to give Irishmen in the twenty-six counties their opportunity of showing what they could do to make an ordered State.
Commons, June 26, 1922.

It would be a great disaster to Ireland if the Protestant population in the North stood aloof from a National Parliament.
Commons, April 30, 1912.

Eisenhower, General. General Eisenhower assumed the command of the Expeditionary Force gathered in Britain. No man has ever laboured more skillfully or intensely for the unification and goodwill of the great forces under his command than General Eisenhower. He has a genius for bringing all the allies together, and is proud to consider himself an allied as well as a United States commander.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Election, A lost General. A friend of mine, an officer, was in Zagreb when the results of the late General Election came in. An old lady said to him, “Poor Mr. Churchill! I suppose now he will be shot.” My friend was able to reassure her. He said the sentence might be mitigated to one of the various forms of hard labour which are always open to His Majesty’s subjects.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Election Pledges. I never remember a General Election which was not followed by a disagreeable, sterile, bickering over election pledges.
Commons, March 6, 1919.

Electioneering. It would indeed be disastrous if we were led into a fierce division here at home about foreign policy. An election fought on ordinary domestic issues is a process with which we are all familiar; but an election turning on the dread issues of defence and foreign policy might leave us a deeply divided nation, with an evenly balanced, incoherent Parliament, and this at the very moment when the danger on the Continent had reached its height.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Electioneering, Prolonged. Parliamentary democracy can only express itself by regular and not infrequent appeals to the electorate, but no one has ever suggested that prolonged electioneering is capable of settling our problems at home, or warding off our dangers from abroad. One can hardly imagine anything more unfortunate in Britain than that we should find ourselves at the present juncture split in half on domestic politics, with both parties gathering and arranging their forces for another trial of strength. That this should continue for many months without remedy can only be disastrous to our prosperity, and may well endanger both our life and even our survival as a great power.
Saltram Park, Plymouth, July 15, 1950.

Elections. All these balancings, limitations, and half pledges, these little devices by which an embarrassed Government staved off ruin from day to day would, after the next election, be swept as smooth as the sands of the shore after a flood tide.
Commons, February 10, 1904.

Eleventh Hour. Now is the time at last to rouse the nation. Perhaps it is the last time it can be roused with a chance of preventing war, or with a chance of coming through to victory should our efforts to prevent war fail. We should lay aside every hindrance and endeavour by uniting the whole force and spirit of our people to raise again a great British nation standing up before all the world; for such a nation, rising in its ancient vigour, can even at this hour save civilization.
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Emigration. Under Socialism, with all its malice and class jealousy, with all its hobbling and crippling of diligence, initiative and enterprise, it will not be possible for more than two-thirds of our present population to live in this island. That is why there is all this talk of emigration.
Royal Wanstead School, September 27, 1947.

Empire, Anxiety about the. There were, when I was young, some statesmen whose names are honoured, who spoke of the Colonies as burdens, and of the Dominions as fruit which would fall from the tree when ripe. I did not live myself in days when those speeches were made, but I remember well times of great anxiety about the Empire at the end of the last century.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

Empire, Bonds of. Some foreigners mock at the British Empire because there are no parchment bonds or hard steel shackles which compel its united action. But there are other forces, far more subtle and far more compulsive, to which the whole fabric spontaneously responds.

These deep tides are flowing now. They sweep away in their flow differences of class and Party. They override the vast ocean spaces which separate the Dominions of the King. The electric telegraph is an old story; the wireless broadcast is a new one; but we rely on a process far more widespread and equally instantaneous. There are certain things which could happen, which it would not be necessary for us to argue about. No Constitutional issues would arise. Everyone, in the loneliest ranch, or in the most self-centred legislature, would see duty staring him in the face, and all hearts would have the same conviction. And not only the same conviction, but the same resolve to action.
Commons, April 20, 1939.

Empire, A derelict. All sorts of greedy appetites have been excited and many itching fingers are stretching and scratching at the vast pillage of a derelict Empire.
Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

Empire as Family. The British Empire existed on the principles of a family and not on those of a syndicate.
Imperial Conference, Downing Street, May 7, 1907.

Empire, Inclusive. Let us then seek to impress year after year upon the British Empire an inclusive and not an exclusive character. We who sit on this side of the House, who look forward to larger brotherhoods and more exact standards of social justice, value and cherish the British Empire because it represents, more than any other similar organization has ever represented, the peaceful co-operation of all sorts of men in all sorts of countries, and because we think it is, in that respect at least, a model of what we hope the whole world will some day become.
Commons, July 15, 1907.

Empire, Price of. Already Mr. Gandhi moves about surrounded by a circle of wealthy men, who see at their finger-tips the acquisition of an Empire on cheaper terms than were ever yet offered in the world. Sir, the Roman senator, Didius Julianus, was dining in a restaurant when they told him that the Praetorian Guard put the Empire up to auction and were selling it in the ditch in their camp; he ran out, and, according to Gibbon, bought it for £200 sterling per soldier. That was fairly cheap; but the terms upon which the Empire is being offered to this group surrounding Mr. Gandhi are cheaper still.
Commons, March 12, 1931.

Empire, Solidarity of the. I remember coming out of the Cabinet meeting on an August afternoon in 1914, when war was certain and the fleet was already mobilized, with this feeling: “How are we to explain it all to Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand; nay, how are we to explain it all to our own people in the short time left?” But, when we came out from the fierce controversy of the Cabinet room into the open air, the whole of the peoples of the British Empire, of every race and every clime, had already sprung to arms. Our old enemies, recent enemies, Generals Botha and Smuts, were already saddling their horses to rally their commandos to the attack on Germany, and Irishmen, whose names I always bear in my memory with regard, John Redmond and his brother, and others of the old Irish Parliamentary Party, which fought us for so many years in this House, pleading the cause of Ireland, with great eloquence and Parliamentary renown; there they were, making these speeches of absolute support and unity with this country until everybody said everywhere “The brightest spot in the world is Ireland.” It may be that a grand opportunity was lost then. We must keep our eyes open. I always keep mine open on the Irish question.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

Employer, State as. I am of opinion that the State should increasingly assume the position of the reserve employer of labour.
Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Employers, Power of. It might well be in the interest of the factory workers, or indeed of the wage earners generally, not to have too strong an employer over them. I should like to feel that he would be strong in the sense of being capable and efficient as a producer or competitor in the world markets. But it is abhorrent to our idea of freedom that the employer should have undue power over his employees.
London, June 21, 1945.

Emulation. A natural and healthy emulation between the two Chambers may be conducive to their ultimate efficiency and improvement.
Commons, July 15, 1948.

Encirclement of Germany. What then, is this talk about encirclement? It is all nonsense. There is nothing that we ask for ourselves under collective security that we will not willingly concede, nay earnestly proffer, to Germany. Let her join the club, and make her great contribution and share its amenities and immunities.
Commons, November 5, 1936.

End, One. As in the last war, so in this, we are moving through many reverses and defeats to complete and final victory. We have only to endure and to persevere, to conquer. Now we are no longer unarmed; we are well armed. Now we are not alone; we have mighty allies, bound irrevocably by solemn faith and common interests to stand with us in the ranks of the United Nations. There can only be one end. When it will come, or how it will come, I cannot tell. But, when we survey the overwhelming resources which are at our disposal, once they are fully marshalled and developed—as they can be, as they will be—we may stride forward into the unknown with growing confidence.
London, May 10, 1942.

Endurance. We are passing through a bad time now, and it will probably be worse before it is better, but that it will be better, if we only endure and persevere, I have no doubt whatever.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

Enemy’s Two Hopes. The enemy has two hopes. The first is that by lengthening the struggle he may wear down our resolution; the second, and more important, hope is that division will arise between the three great powers by whom he is assailed, and whose continued union spells his doom. His hope is that there will be some rift in this Alliance; that the Russians may go this way, the British and Americans that; that quarrels may arise about the Balkans or the Baltic, about Poland or Hungary, which he hopes will impair the union of our councils and, consequently, the symmetry and momentum of our converging advance. There is the enemy’s great hope. It is to deprive that hope of all foundation and reality that our efforts must necessarily be bent.
Commons, October 27, 1944.

Engine, Internal Combustion. We are not far away—we cannot tell how far—from some form of internal combustion engines for warships of all kinds, and the indirect and wasteful use of oil to generate steam will, in the future, give place to the direct employment of its own explosive force.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

I have always considered that the substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse marked a very gloomy milestone in the progress of mankind.
Commons, June 24, 1952.

England. There are a few things I will venture to mention about England. They are spoken in no invidious sense. Here it would hardly occur to anyone that the banks would close their doors against their depositors. Here no one questions the fairness of the courts of law and justice. Here no one thinks of persecuting a man on account of his religion or his race. Here everyone, except the criminals, looks on the policeman as a friend and servant of the public. Here we provide for poverty and misfortune with more compassion, in spite of all our burdens, than any other country. Here we can assert the rights of the citizen against the State, or criticize the Government of the day, without failing in our duty to the Crown or in our loyalty to the King. This ancient, mighty London in which we are gathered is still the financial centre of the world. From the Admiralty building, half a mile away, orders can be sent to a fleet which, though much smaller than it used to be, or than it ought to be, is still unsurpassed on the seas. More than 80 per cent of the British casualties of the Great War were English. More than 80 per cent of the taxation is paid by the English taxpayers. We are entitled to mention these facts, and to draw authority and courage from them.
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

England, without Europe. Stripped of her Empire in the Orient, deprived of the sovereignty of the seas, loaded with debt and taxation, her commerce and carrying trade shut out by foreign tariffs and quotas, England would sink to the level of a fifth-rate power, and nothing would remain of all her glories except a population much larger than this island can support.
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

England and Ireland. We have consistently used—and we will continue to pursue the policy we have been pursuing—the two greatest weapons England has ever applied to Ireland, namely Irish responsibility and British good faith.
Commons, August 3, 1922.

England, Merrie. On this one night in the whole year we are allowed to use a forgotten, almost a forbidden word. We are allowed to mention the name of our own country, to speak of ourselves as “Englishmen,” and we may even raise the slogan “St. George for Merrie England.”
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

English, The. We are at once more experienced and more truly united than any people in the world.
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

English-Speaking Nations. I should like to set the great English-speaking nations to work together in majesty, in freedom and in peace. The road is open.
Commons, February 15, 1911.

Enlistment. The vital foundation of any army was the period of enlistment.
Commons, February 23, 1905.

Enough. Enough is as good as a feast.
Commons, April 25, 1918.

Entanglement. It must be remembered that Great Britain will have more power and will run far less risk in pressing for the redress of grievances than in pressing for disarmament. We can only promote disarmament by giving further guarantees of aid. We can press for the redress of grievances by merely threatening, if our counsels are not attended to, to withdraw ourselves at the proper time from our present close entanglement in European affairs. The first road of pressing for disarmament and offering more aid only leads us deeper and deeper into the European situation. The second either removes the cause of danger or leads us out of the danger zone.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Entente. For forty years or more I have believed in the greatness and virtue of France, often in dark and baffling days I have not wavered, and since the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904 I have always served and worked actively with the French in the defence of good causes.
London, August 31, 1943.

Enterprise, Free. Where you find that State enterprise is likely to be ineffective, then utilize private enterprises, and do not grudge them their profits.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

At the head of our mainmast we, like the United States, fly the flag of free enterprise. We are determined that the native genius and spirit of adventure, of risk-taking in peace as in war, shall bear our fortunes forward, finding profitable work and profitable trade for our people, and also we are determined that good and thrifty housekeeping, both national and private, shall sustain our economy.
Central Hall, Westminster, March 15, 1945.

The old Radical campaign against exploitation, monopolies, unfair rake-offs and the like, in which I took a part in my young days, was a healthy and necessary corrective to the system of free enterprise.
Perth, May 28, 1948.

Enterprise, Individual. We certainly could never earn our living by world trade or even exist in this island without full recognition of all forms of exceptional individual contribution, whether by genius, contrivance, skill, industry or thrift.
Woodford Green, October 9, 1951.

This is no country of vast spaces and simple forms of mass production. We have important and substantial basic industries. We have an agriculture which out of self-preservation we are expanding to the utmost. But it is by many thousands of small individual enterprises and activities that the margin by which alone we can maintain ourselves has been procured.
Friends House, London, November 28, 1945.

Entrenchment. There is no surer method of economizing and saving money than in the reduction of the number of officials.
Commons, April 24, 1928.

Envisage. Envisage—an unpleasant and overworked word.
Commons, March 5, 1953.

Epitaph, The. “Not in vain” may be the pride of those who have survived and the epitaph of those who fell.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Epoch, Terrible. We live in a terrible epoch of the human story, but we believe there is a broad and sure justice running through its theme.
County Hall, London, July 14, 1941.

Equality. A man may be poor; he may have nothing at all except his labour to sell; he may be a manual worker for a weekly wage, but in a free Commonwealth he must enjoy as good a right of citizenship as any lord, or prelate, or capitalist in the country.
Commons, May 30, 1911.

The only safe rule for doing justice electorally between man and man was to assume—a large assumption in some cases—that all men are equal and that all discriminations between them are unhealthy and undemocratic.
Commons, July 31, 1906.

Equality, Military. I would say to those who would like to see Germany and France on an equal footing in armaments, “Do you wish for war?” For my part, I earnestly hope that no such approximation will take place during my lifetime or that of my children. This does not in the least imply want of regard or admiration for the qualities of the German people, but I am sure that the thesis that they should be placed in an equal military position to France is one which, if it ever emerged in practice, would bring us within practical distance of almost measureless calamity.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Equality of Rights. The whole foundation of our political system is the equality of rights and the equal importance and value of the political rights enjoyed by persons in every class.
Commons, May 30, 1911.

Equality, Social. During this war great changes have taken place in the minds of men, and there is no change which is more marked in our country than the continual and rapid effacement of class differences.
Harrow School, Harrow, December 1, 1944.

Equilibrium. One set of evils are balanced against another set of evils, and we are invited to admire a perfect equilibrium.
Commons, April 18, 1947.

Error in Human Affairs. Error, of course, there is always in all human affairs—error of conception, error of statement, error of manner, error of weakness, error of partisanship.
National Liberal Club, London, October 9, 1909.

Espionage. The House may be sure that the Soviet Government know perfectly well what we have got in the navy and in the forces in Europe, and that they have got a lot of good friends moving freely about in this country, who will not hesitate to tell them about any little points on which they may be short.
Commons, March 31, 1947.

Esse, De Bene. I think the Government are quite right to let this [Anglo-Italian] Agreement stand De bene esse, as the lawyers say. This is a term of art which they apply to things that do not matter very much.
Commons, April 13, 1939.

Estimates. The Estimates of this year are made by events; the Estimates of next year will, I hope, be made by policy.
Commons, March 3, 1919.

Ethics. The light of Christian ethics remains the most precious guide. Their revival and application is a practical need, whether spiritual or secular in nature, whether to those who find comfort and solace in revealed religion or those who have to face the mystery of human destiny alone. And on this foundation alone will come the grace of life and that reconciliation of the right of the individual with the needs of society from which the happiness, the safety, and the glory, of mankind may spring.
University of London, November 18, 1948.

Europe, Concert of. I believe that we shall find our greatest safety in co-operating with the other powers of Europe, not taking a leading part but coming in with all the neutral states and the smaller states of Europe which will gather together anxiously in the near future at Geneva. We shall make a great mistake to separate ourselves entirely from them at this juncture. Whatever way we turn there is risk. But the least risk and the greatest help will be found in recreating the Concert of Europe through the League of Nations, not for the purpose of fiercely quarrelling and haggling about the details of disarmament, but in an attempt to address Germany collectively, so that there may be some redress of the grievances of the German nation and that that may be effected before this peril of [German] rearmament reaches a point which may endanger the peace of the world.
Commons, November 7, 1933.

Europe, Council of. One can imagine that under a world institution embodying or representing the United Nations, and some day all nations should bring into being a Council of Europe and a Council of Asia. As, according to the forecast I am outlining, the war against Japan will still be raging, it is upon the creation of the Council of Europe and the settlement of Europe that the first practical task will be centred. Now this is a stupendous business. In Europe lie most of the causes which have led to these two world wars. In Europe dwell the historic parent-races from whom our western civilization has been so largely derived. I believe myself to be what is called a good European, and deem it a noble task to take part in reviving the fertile genius and in restoring the true greatness of Europe.
London, March 21, 1943.

Europe, Decline of. In our task of reviving the glories and happiness of Europe, and her prosperity, it can certainly be said that we start at the bottom of her fortunes. Here is the fairest, most temperate, most fertile area of the globe. The influence and the power of Europe and of Christendom have for centuries shaped and dominated the course of history. The sons and daughters of Europe have gone forth and carried their message to every part of the world. Religion, law, learning, art, science, industry, throughout the world all bear, in so many lands, under every sky and in every clime, the stamp of European origin, or the trace of European influence.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, May 14, 1947.

Europe, Disunity of. If Europe were once united in the sharing of its common inheritance, there would be no limit to the happiness, to the prosperity and glory, which its three or four hundred million people would enjoy. Yet it is from Europe that have sprung the series of frightful nationalistic quarrels, originated by the Teutonic nations, which we have seen, even in this twentieth century and in our own lifetime, wreck the peace and mar the prospects of all mankind.
Zürich University, September 19, 1946.

Europe, Fate of. What will be the fate of Europe? Here in this continent of superior climates dwell the parent breeds of western and modern civilization. Here is the story, descending from the ancient Roman Empire, of Christendom, of the Renaissance and of the French Revolution. It is from the hatreds and quarrels of Europe that the catastrophes of the whole world have sprung.
Metz, July 14, 1946.

Europe, Feuds in. What is Europe now? It is a rubble-heap, a charnel-house, a breeding-ground of pestilence and hate. Ancient nationalistic feuds and modern ideological factions distract and infuriate the unhappy, hungry populations. Evil teachers urge the paying-off of old scores with mathematical precision, and false guides point to unsparing retribution as the pathway to prosperity.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, May 14, 1947.

Europe, Future of. I do not think it would be wise at this moment, while the battle rages and the war is still perhaps only in its earlier stage, to embark upon elaborate speculations about the future shape which should be given to Europe or the new securities which must be arranged to spare mankind the miseries of a third world war. The ground is not new, it has been frequently traversed and explored, and many ideas are held about it in common by all good men, and all free men. But before we can undertake the task of rebuilding we have not only to be convinced ourselves, but we have to convince all other countries, that the Nazi tyranny is going to be finally broken.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

Europe, Inheritance of. It is time indeed that that voice [of Europe] should be raised upon the scene of chaos and prostration, caused by the wrongs and hatreds of the past, and amid the dangers which lie about us in the present and cloud the future. We shall only save ourselves from the perils which draw near by forgetting the hatreds of the past, by letting national rancours and revenges die, by progressively effacing frontiers and barriers which aggravate and congeal our divisions, and by rejoicing together in that glorious treasure of literature, of romance, of ethics, of thought and toleration belonging to all, which is the true inheritance of Europe, the expression of its genius and honour, but which by our quarrels, our follies, by our fearful wars and the cruel and awful deeds that spring from war and tyrants, we have almost cast away.
The Hague, May 7, 1948.

Europe, Leadership of. It is easy to talk about the moral leadership of Europe. That great prize still stands before the statesmen of all countries, but it is not to be achieved merely by making speeches of unexceptionable sentiments. If it is to be won by any nation it will only be by an immense amount of wise restraint and timely, discreet action which, over a period of years, has created a situation where speeches are not merely fine exhortations but record the unity and conciliation which have been achieved. There is the moral leadership of Europe. It is not to be won by such easy methods as merely making speeches which will arouse the applause of every good-hearted person in this country.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Europe, Majesty of. After all, Europe has only to arise and stand in her own majesty, faithfulness and virtue, to confront all forms of tyranny, ancient and modern, Nazi or Communist, with forces which are unconquerable, and which if asserted in good time may never be challenged again.
The Hague, May 7, 1948.

Europe, Salvation of. I know that it is natural for ministers, for the Prime Minister, to wish to play a great part on the European stage, to bestride Europe in the cause of peace, and to be as it were its saviours. You cannot be the saviours of Europe on a limited liability.
Commons, November 7, 1933.

Europe, State of. The Secretary of State for War [Mr. Duff Cooper] has told us that conditions are worse than in 1914. How, then, can it be argued that conditions of emergency have not supervened? I do not ask that war conditions should be established for the production of munitions; it would not be necessary or helpful. All I ask is that the intermediate stage between ordinary peacetime and actual war should be recognized, that a state of emergency preparation should be proclaimed, and that the whole spirit and atmosphere of our rearmament should be raised to a higher pitch; that we should lay aside a good deal of the comfort and smoothness of our ordinary life, that we should not hesitate to make an inroad into our industry, and that we should make the most strenuous efforts in our power to execute the programmes that the Government have in mind at such pace as would make them relevant to the ever-growing dangers that gather round us.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Europe, The tragedy of. The tragedy of Europe shocks mankind. It darkens the pages of human history. It will excite the amazement and horror of future generations. Here in these beautiful, fertile and temperate lands, where so many of the noblest races of mankind, the heirs of Roman civilization, the champions of Christian chivalry, have developed their character, their arts and their literature, we have twice in our own lifetime seen all rent asunder and torn to pieces in frightful convulsions which have left their mark in blackened devastation throughout many ancient states and famous cities.
Brussels, November 16, 1945.

Europe, Unification of. Europe can only be united by the heartfelt wish and vehement expression of the great majority of all the peoples in all the Parties in all the freedom-loving countries, no matter where they dwell or how they vote.
The Hague, May 7, 1948.

Europe, Unity of. The safety of the world requires a new unity in Europe, from which no nation should be permanently outcast. It is from the quarrels of the strong parent races in Europe that the world wars we have witnessed, or which occurred in former times, have sprung.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

There can be no hope for the world unless the peoples of Europe unite together to preserve their freedom, their culture and their civilization, founded upon Christian ethics.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, April 21, 1948.

Europeans, Good. The best way in which a British Member of Parliament or statesman can be a good European is to make sure that our country is safe and strong in the first instance. The rest may be added to you afterwards, but without that you are no kind of European. All you are is a source of embarrassment and weakness to the whole of the rest of the world.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Even, All comes. If one does not prepare before a war, one has to prepare after, and be very thankful if time is given. But all this disparity of proportion will rectify itself in the passage of time. All comes even at the end of the day, and all will come out yet more even when all the days are ended.
Commons, December 2, 1941.

Events, Drift of. Events have drifted and marched on their wayward course.
Commons, March 3, 1910.

Evil, Beginnings of. Time passes quickly. Everything is in constant change. When the first beginnings of evil which may subsequently challenge peace and freedom and even the life of the State make their appearance on the horizon, it is right then to sound the alarm and to try, even by frantic exertions, to arouse somnolent authority to novel dangers; but once we are in the danger zone, once everybody can see that we are marching through that long, dark valley of which I spoke to the House two years ago, then a mood of coolness and calmness is enjoined.
Commons, March 4, 1937.

Evils. Evils can be created much quicker than they can be cured.
Liverpool, October 2, 1951.

Examination, Competitive. If there was one principle which had kept our civil service and public service free from corruption it was the test of a competitive examination.
Commons, July 13, 1905.

Exchequer, Chancellor of the. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is not a dictator. It would be grossly unconstitutional to suggest that any Chancellor of the Exchequer had the power to veto proposals of expenditure. He has not that power, and he has never had that power.
Commons, April 28, 1926.

Excise. Spirits hold their own somewhat better under bleak conditions, but they must be expected in normal weather to resume their continuous descent.
Commons, April 24, 1928.

Executive, The. For good or ill, in all sensible organization you must leave the execution of policies already prescribed to the responsible ministers and departments. If they cannot do it, no one can. It is to them that complaints should be addressed. It is to them that Members should write. Any case of which full particulars are provided—I must add that proviso—will be searchingly examined. We do not stand here to defend the slightest failure of duty or organization. But let us have the facts. A kind of whispering campaign has been set on foot; there is a flood of anonymous letters. Vague and general charges are made. And all this fills our shop window, greatly to our detriment.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Exertion, Supreme. Because we feel easier in ourselves and see our way more clearly through our difficulties and dangers than we did some months ago, because foreign countries, friends and foes, recognize the giant, enduring, resilient strength of Britain and the British Empire, do not let us dull for one moment the sense of the awful hazards in which we stand. Do not let us lose the conviction that it is only by supreme and superb exertions, unwearying and indomitable, that we shall save our souls alive. No one can predict, no one can even imagine, how this terrible war against German and Nazi aggression will run its course or how far it will spread or how long it will last. Long, dark months of trials and tribulations lie before us. Not only great dangers, but many more misfortunes, many shortcomings, many mistakes, many disappointments, will surely be our lot. Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valour our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible. Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the gloom of Europe until they become the veritable beacon of its salvation.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Exhaustion. There was brilliancy in decay; the human body preyed on itself and gained a feverish energy in the process of exhaustion.
Commons, May 16, 1904.

Exhaustion, National. We have sacrificed everything in this war. We shall emerge from it, for the time being, more stricken and impoverished than any other victorious country. The United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth are the only unbroken force which declared war on Germany of its own free will. We declared war not for any ambition or material advantage, but for the sake of our obligation to do our best for Poland against German aggression, in which aggression, there or elsewhere, it must also in fairness be stated, our own self-preservation was involved.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Expediency. There was a difference in a policy when it was put forward on the faith and honour of a public man and when it was put forward avowedly as a matter of convenient political tactics.
Commons, March 29, 1904.

Expenditure. Expenditure always is popular; the only unpopular part about it is the raising of the money to pay the expenditure.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Expenditure, Public. Public expenditure divided itself into three aspects. There was the policy of expenditure, the merit of expenditure, and the audit of expenditure.
Commons, July 26, 1905.

Expenditure, Veto on. If you gave the Chancellor of the Exchequer official powers to veto expenditure, or to ration departments against their will, it would be a departure from the whole system of constitutional Cabinet Government.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Experience, Bought. The electors, based on universal suffrage, may do what they like. And afterwards they have to like what they do. There is a saying in England, “Experience bought is better than taught.” We have bought the experience. I do not complain at all of the workings of our constitutional democratic system. If the majority of the people of Britain, on the morrow of our survival and victory, felt as they did, it was right that they should have their way.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Experience, Parliamentary. Five or ten years’ experience as a Member of this House [of Commons] is as fine an all-round education in public affairs as any man can obtain.
Commons, May 23, 1940.

Expert Evidence. I am very well accustomed to weigh expert evidence, and most of the important decisions which have been taken in the last three or four years at the Admiralty have been taken by me on a divergence of expert evidence.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

Experts. Expert knowledge, however indispensable, is no substitute for a generous and comprehending outlook upon the human story with all its sadness and with all its unquenchable hope.
University of Miami, February 26, 1946.

Experts, Agricultural. We cannot all claim to be agricultural experts.
Commons, July 24, 1922.

Experts and Government. It was a principle of our Constitution not to employ experts, whether business men or military men, in the highest affairs of State.
Commons, March 23, 1902.

Exports. I do not believe that a successful export trade can be founded upon a starved home market.
Commons, October 28, 1947.

Faction. I suppose we are all in this House admirers of the Party system of government, but I do not think that we should any of us carry our admiration of that system so far as to say that the nation is unfit to enjoy the privilege of managing its own affairs unless it can find some one to quarrel with and plenty of things to quarrel about.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Facts. I like the martial and commanding air with which the right hon. Gentleman treats facts. He stands no nonsense from them.
Commons, February 19, 1909.

You must look at facts because they look at you.
Commons, May 7, 1925.

It is no good the right hon. Gentleman [Ramsay MacDonald] shaking his head. He cannot shake away the facts.
Commons, September 27, 1926.

We must be on our guard equally against pessimism and against optimism. There are, no doubt, temptations to optimism. It is the fact that the mighty Russian State, so foully and treacherously assaulted, has struck back with magnificent strength and courage, and is inflicting prodigious and well-deserved slaughter for the first time upon the Nazi armies. It is the fact that the United States, the greatest single power in the world, is giving us aid on a gigantic scale and advancing in rising wrath and conviction to the very verge of war. It is the fact that the German air superiority has been broken, and that the air attacks on this country have for the time being almost ceased. It is a fact that the Battle of the Atlantic, although far from won, has, partly through American intervention, moved impressively in our favour. It is the fact that the Nile Valley is now far safer than it was twelve months ago or three months ago. It is the fact that the enemy has lost all pretence of theme or doctrine, and is sunk ever deeper in moral and intellectual degradation and bankruptcy, and that almost all his conquests have proved burdens and sources of weakness.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Facts, Concrete. A balloon goes up quite easily for a certain distance, but after a certain distance it refuses to go up any farther, because the air is too rarefied to float it and sustain it. And, therefore, I would say, let us examine the concrete facts.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Facts, Facing. It seems undoubted that there is an effective policy open to us at the present time by which we may preserve both our safety and our freedom. Never must we despair, never must we give in, but we must face facts and draw true conclusions from them. The policy of detachment or isolation, about which we have heard so much and which in many ways is so attractive, is no longer open. If we were to turn our backs upon Europe, thereby alienating every friend, we should by disinteresting ourselves in their fate invite them to disinterest themselves in ours.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

Failure. They [the Baldwin-Chamberlain Governments] neither prevented Germany from rearming, nor did they rearm ourselves in time. They quarrelled with Italy without saving Ethiopia. They exploited and discredited the vast institution of the League of Nations. They neglected to make alliances and combinations which might have repaired previous errors; and thus they left us in the hour of trial without adequate national defence or effective international security.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

I was taken to task the other day for saying that the Lord Privy Seal [Mr. Eden] in his mission to the three capitals in Europe had failed. I have listened to his very agreeably delivered speech, so excellent in its phrasing and so well meant in its sentiments, and I am bound to say that the farthest I can go in altering my statement that his mission had failed is to say that up to the present, at any rate, it has not succeeded.
Commons, March 14, 1934.

Fair Play. Britain, like any other country, is always changing but, like nature, never draws a line without smudging it. We have not the sharp logic of Continental countries. We seek to benefit private enterprise with the knowledge and guiding power of modern Governments, without sacrificing the initiative and drive of individual effort under free, competitive conditions. Our policy is based on the two main principles of fair play and adequate opportunity. We seek to establish a minimum standard of life and labour, below which no one who is prepared to meet the obligations of good citizenship should be allowed to fall. Above that minimum standard, we wish to give the fullest possible play for competitive individual enterprise and every chance for the native genius of our island race, springing perennially from every class, to win its full and fair reward.
Ayr, May 16, 1947.

Fair Traders. They watch the river flowing to the sea, and they wonder how long it will be before the land is parched and drained of all its water. They do not observe the fertilizing showers by which in the marvellous economy of nature the water is restored to the land.
Commons, July 29, 1903.

Faith. Faith is given to us, to help and comfort us when we stand in awe before the unfurling scroll of human destiny. And I proclaim my faith that some of us will live to see a fourteenth of July when a liberated France will once again stand forward as the champion of the freedom and the rights of man. When the day dawns, as dawn it will, the soul of France will turn with comprehension and with kindness to those Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, wherever they may be, who in the darkest hour did not despair of the Republic.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

Faith Cure. With regard to this faith cure, the faith must be absolute, or the cure did not work.
Commons, April 3, 1905.

Faith-Healing. There was nothing more remarkable than this doctrine of faith-healing. The principle was very simple; you said a thing was so and it was so, or you said it was not so, and it was not so.
Commons, April 3, 1905.

Faith, Profession of. I ask you to witness, Mr. Speaker, that I have never promised anything or offered anything but blood, tears, toil and sweat, to which I will now add our fair share of mistakes, shortcomings and disappointments, and also that this may go on for a very long time, at the end of which I firmly believe—though it is not a promise or a guarantee, only a profession of faith—that there will be complete, absolute, and final victory.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

Family, The. Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. No superior alternative has yet been found!
Commons, November 6, 1950.

Faroe Islands. We are also at this moment occupying the Faroe Islands, which belong to Denmark and which are a strategic point of high importance, and whose people showed every disposition to receive us with warm regard. We shall shield the Faroe Islands from all the severities of war and establish ourselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment comes when they will be handed back to the Crown and people of Denmark, liberated from the foul thraldom in which they have been plunged by the German aggression.
Commons, April 11, 1940.

Fear, Timely. It is much better to be frightened beforehand than when the danger actually comes to pass. Or it is much better to be frightened now than to be killed hereafter.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Fifth year of War. It is only in the proper framework that we can take any decision for the time that lies before us. The task is long, and the toil is heavy. The fifth year of the war in which everyone has given the utmost in him weighs harsh and heavy on our minds and on our shoulders. Do not let us add to our difficulties by any lack of clarity of thinking or any restive wavering in resolve. Upon the whole, with all our faults and the infirmities of which we are rightly conscious, this island is a model to the world in its unity and its perseverance towards the goal. However intense may be the strain of the fifth year upon us, it will be far worse for our enemies; and we have to continue to show them what they are now beginning reluctantly to realize, that our flexible system of free democratic government is capable alike of pursuing the most complex designs of modern war and of bearing invincibly all the varied strains which come upon our soldiers on the battlefield and upon all of us whose duty lies behind the fighting fronts.
Commons, October 13, 1943.

Fifty Millions. Never forget that fifty millions have come into being in Great Britain under the impact and inspiration of former generations; and now if our native genius is cribbed, cabined and confined these fifty millions will be left physically stranded and gasping, like whales which swum upon the high tide into a bay from which the waters have receded.
Woodford Green, July 21, 1951.

Fighter Pilots. There never has been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth. The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into the past: not only distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

Finance. There can be no true efficiency of Government without a sound and careful system of finance.
Commons, April 25, 1918.

The whole procedure of our Parliament arises primarily from the consideration of finance, and finance is the peg on which nearly all our discussions are hung, and from which many of them arise. That is the historic origin of a great portion of the House of Commons procedure, and there is no more deeply rooted maxim than the maxim of “grievances before supply.”
Imperial Conference, Downing Street, May 7, 1907.

Finance, Control of. It is a political impossibility to allow two Chambers, constituted as the House of Lords and the House of Commons are constituted, to have simultaneous control of finance.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Finest Hour. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Finger Prints. The adoption of the finger-print system in 1894 was due entirely to the labours of Mr. [now Sir Francis] Galton.
Commons, April 19, 1910.

Finland. Only Finland—superb, nay sublime—in the jaws of peril—Finland shows what free men can do. The service rendered by Finland to mankind is magnificent. They have exposed, for all the world to see, the military incapacity of the Red Army and of the Red Air Force. Many illusions about Soviet Russia have been dispelled in these few fierce weeks of fighting in the Arctic Circle.
London, January 20, 1940.

Finucane. If ever I feel a bitter feeling rising in me, in my heart, about the Irish, the hands of heroes like Finucane seem to stretch out to soothe it away.
Commons, October 28, 1948.

Fire, Living under. We have to make a job of this business of living and working under fire, and I have not the slightest doubt that, when we have settled down to it, we shall establish conditions which will be a credit to our island society and to the whole British family, and will enable us to maintain the production of those weapons in good time upon which our whole safety and future depend.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Fire Power, Modern. It is remarkable and indeed odd that the more efficient firearms have become, the fewer people are killed by them. The explanation of this apparent paradox is simply that human beings are much more ingenious in getting out of the way of missiles which are fired at them than they are at improving the direction and guidance of these individual missiles. In fact, the semi-automatic and automatic rifles have already, in a certain sense, gained their triumph by largely putting an end to the very mass attacks they were originally devised to destroy.
Commons, February 1, 1954.

Fiscal System. The most-favoured nation principle is one of the great foundations of our fiscal system.
Commons, December 17, 1924.

Fisher, Lord. The more Lord Fisher’s contribution to our naval efficiency is studied and examined, and tested by the passage of time, the more certainly will it be established that there has been within living memory no naval administrator possessed of abilities so rare and so distinguished.
Commons, August 5, 1912.

Flag of Freedom. Upon Britain fell the proud but awful responsibility of keeping the Flag of Freedom flying in the Old World till the forces of the New World could arrive. But now the tornado has passed away. The thunder of the cannons has ceased, the terror from the skies is over, the oppressors are cast out and broken, and we find ourselves breathless but still alive, exhausted but free. The future stands before us to make or mar.
Brussels, November 16, 1945.

Flag, The tattered. I am very glad the House allowed me, after an interval of fifteen years, to lift again the tattered flag of retrenchment and economy.
Commons, May 13, 1901.

Flame, Cleansing. The fact that the British Empire stands invincible, and that Nazidom is still being resisted, will kindle again the spark of hope in the breasts of hundreds of millions of down-trodden or despairing men and women throughout Europe, and far beyond its bounds, and from these sparks there will presently come cleansing and devouring flame.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

Flattery. The Rector has mentioned the trials and tribulations through which we have passed, and he has referred to my contribution to our efforts during that time in a manner which no man should hear until he is dead. I shall long remember the eloquent words which he has used, and I hope that I shall do nothing in the span of life which still remains to me to cause him to alter his opinion.
University of Oslo, May 12, 1948.

Fleet, British. There was one advantage we possessed over other countries in Europe, which enabled us to have a navy far greater and better than they could have, no matter how great were the sacrifices they made, and that was, while all these powers had to depend upon a great army and to consider enormous land preparations for the defence of their frontiers, we, in this island, were able to concentrate the whole of our energies and strength upon the fleet.
Commons, May 14, 1903.

Fleet, Command of a Battle. The command of a battle fleet is far more intimate and personal than any function discharged by generals on land.
Commons, March 7, 1916.

Fleet Movements. The First Sea Lord moves the fleet. No one else moves it.
Commons, March 5, 1917.

Flexibility. The best method of acquiring flexibility is to have three or four plans for all the probable contingencies, all worked out with the utmost detail. Then it is much easier to switch from one to the other as and when the cat jumps.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Flibbertigibbets. How many political flibbertigibbets are there not running up and down the land calling themselves the people of Great Britain and the social democracy, and the masses of the nation!
Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Flocculence. Everyone knows how ardently he [the Prime Minister] desires to work for peace, and everyone knows that there are no limits to his courage in such a calling. He said last month, to a deputation from the Churches which waited upon him, “I hope you will go on pressing and pressing and pressing. Do help us to do the broad, just, fundamental, eternal thing.” We all admire such sentiments. Dressed in noble, if somewhat flocculent eloquence, they obtain the allegiance of all.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Floor, Crossing the. I am a convinced supporter of the Party system in preference to the group system. I have seen many earnest and ardent Parliaments destroyed by the group system. The Party system is much favoured by the oblong form of Chamber. It is easy for an individual to move through those insensible gradations from Left to Right, but the act of crossing the floor is one which requires serious consideration. I am well informed on this matter, for I have accomplished that difficult process, not only once but twice.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

Foch, Marshal. At a moment of great disaster, when it seemed that the French and British armies might well be severed from one another by the German advance, the illustrious Marshal took command of the stricken field, and after a critical and even agonizing month, restored the fortunes of the war. General Weygand, who was head of his military family—as the French put it—said: “If Marshal Foch were here now, he would not waste time deploring what has been lost. He would say: ‘Do not yield another yard’.”
Corn Exchange, Cambridge, May 19, 1939.

Foe, The Principal. The British and Americans do not war with races or governments as such. Tyranny, external or internal, is our foe whatever trappings and disguises it wears, whatever language it speaks or perverts.
Dorchester Hotel, London, July 4, 1953.

Folk, The Little. My hope is that the generous instincts of unity will not depart from us . . . [so that we] become the prey of the little folk who exist in every country and who frolic alongside the Juggernaut car of war to see what fun or notoriety they can extract from the proceedings.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Folly. It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and as rapidly as folly.
Commons, August 16, 1947.

Food, Cheap. At present we stand on very firm ground in respect of food . . . The harvests of the world are at our disposal, and by the system which averages climatic risks we secure not only a low but a fairly stable price.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

It seems to those who examine the structure and composition of this country, with a vast industrial population, and mighty manufacturing power, on which our military and naval power have been upborne, that that industrial power, and those millions who have come into existence on the basis of industrial power, have only come into existence by the assurance to this country of cheap and abundant supplies of food. And the mere fact that we have had to prefer this major interest—for irresistible forces have led us to prefer this major interest—should certainly equally lead us, out of the wealth we have acquired through our manufacturing industry, to regard agriculture, which has suffered for the sake of this industrial development, as a fostered industry, provided that fostering and that favouring does not operate through the maintenance or creation of an artificial scarcity which cripples the main manufacturing power.
Commons, July 24, 1922.

Food Supplies. With that marvellous operation by which the crowded population of this island is fed we cannot take the responsibility of interfering.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

Food, Taxation of. It is a grand and cardinal error in Imperial statecraft to lay the foundations of a democratic Empire upon the protective taxation of food.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

Food in War. Many of the most valuable foods are essential to the manufacture of vital war material. Fats are used to make explosives. Potatoes make the alcohol for motor spirit. The plastic materials now so largely used in the construction of aircraft are made of milk. If the Germans use these commodities to help them to bomb our women and children, rather than to feed the populations who produce them, we may be sure that imported foods would go the same way, directly or indirectly, or be employed to relieve the enemy of the responsibilities he has so wantonly assumed.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

Force, Dominant. The dominant forces in human history have come from the perception of great truths and the faithful pursuance of great causes.
Commons, March 28, 1950.

Force, International. I do not believe you will ever succeed in building up an international force in a vague and general manner, or that it can be created in cold blood. But it might well be that an international force would come into being by an alliance of national forces for a particular emergency or for particular purposes, and once having been started, it might give the security to the world which would avert the approaching curse of war.
Commons, March 21, 1934.

Force and Legislation. The introduction of the element of force in a legislative assembly was so shocking and terrifying to the sense of the House that it should be marked totally different to an offence of any other kind.
Commons, February 11, 1902.

Force, Use of. No more force should be used than is necessary to secure compliance with the law.
Commons, July 8, 1920.

Foreign Affairs. My knowledge, such as it is, is not mainly derived from books and documents about foreign affairs, but from living through them for a long time.
Commons, May 11, 1953.

Foreign Policy, Basis of. There must be a moral basis for British foreign policy. People in this country, after all we have gone through, do not mean to be drawn into another terrible war in the name of old-world alliances or diplomatic combinations. If deep causes of division are to be removed from our midst, if all our energies are to be concentrated upon the essential task of increasing our strength and security, it can only be because of lofty and unselfish ideals which command the allegiance of all classes here at home, which rouse their echoes in the breasts even of the dictator-ridden peoples themselves, and stir the pulses of the English-speaking race in every quarter of the globe.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Foreign Policy, British. When we think of the great power and influence which this country exercises we cannot look back with much pleasure on our foreign policy in the past five years. They certainly have been disastrous years.
Commons, March 26, 1936.

Foresight. It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Commons, February 21, 1945.

The forces of aggression are gradually gathering, have, indeed, already been to a large extent gathered. Many people say that nothing will happen till the harvest has been garnered, and perhaps they are right, but personally I always distrust dates which are mentioned beforehand, because they may so easily be antedated, and after all, the harvest itself is not far off. I think we must consider July, August, and September as months in which the tension of Europe will become most severe.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Forewarning. I hold to the conviction I expressed some months ago, that if in April, May or June, Great Britain, France and Russia had jointly declared that they would act together upon Nazi Germany if Herr Hitler committed an act of unprovoked aggression against this small state [Czechoslovakia], and if they had told Poland, Yugoslavia and Rumania what they meant to do in good time, and invited them to join the combination of peace-defending powers, I hold that the German dictator would have been confronted with such a formidable array that he would have been deterred from his purpose.
London, October 16, 1938.

Forfeit. You will not have any means of abridging this war, or, indeed, of emerging from it safely, unless risks are run. Risks do imply that when forfeit is exacted, as it may be when a great ship is sunk or some bold attack repulsed with heavy slaughter, the House must stand by the Government and the military commanders.
Commons, December 19, 1940.

Fortifications, German. Germany is now fortifying the Rhine zone, or is about to fortify it. No doubt it will take some time. We are told that in the first instance only field entrenchments will be erected, but those who know to what perfection the Germans can carry field entrenchments like the Hindenburg Line, with all the masses of concrete and the underground chambers included—those who remember that will realize that field entrenchments differ only in degree from permanent fortifications, and work steadily up from the first cutting of the sods to their final and perfect form.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Fortune, Freaks of. I am afraid I cannot give any explanation of the freaks of fortune in the world.
Commons, April 20, 1910.

Foundation, Faulty. Once an improper or unjust contract has received the sanction of law it becomes the basis on which all manner of perfectly healthy and unobjectionable agreements are founded. Bargain is added to bargain, plan is built on plan, and a whole economic structure rises, tier above tier, upon the faulty foundation.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Fox Hunting. Mr. Jorrocks has described fox hunting as providing all the glory of war with only 35 per cent of its danger.
Commons, August 7, 1911.

France, Alliance with. Even an isolationist would, I think, go so far as to say: “If we have to mix ourselves up with the Continent, let us, at any rate, get the maximum of safety from our commitments.”
Commons, March 24, 1938.

For more than thirty years I have defended the cause of friendship, of comradeship, and of alliance, between France and Great Britain. I have never deviated from that policy throughout the whole of my life. For so many years past have these two nations shared the glories of western Europe that they have become indispensable to each other. It is a fundamental principle of British policy that the alliance with France should be unshakable, constant and effective.
Paris, November 11, 1944.

France as Ally. As long as France is strong and Germany is but inadequately armed there is no chance of France being attacked with success, and therefore no obligation will arise under Locarno for us to go to the aid of France. I am sure, on the other hand, that France, which is the most pacific nation in Europe at the present time, as she is, fortunately, the most efficiently armed, would never attempt any violation of the Treaty or commit an overt act against Germany without the sanction of the Treaty, without reference to the Treaty, and, least of all, in opposition to the country with which she is in such amicable relation—Great Britain.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

France, Battle of. I am not reciting these facts for the purpose of recrimination. That I judge to be utterly futile and even harmful. We cannot afford it. I recite them in order to explain why it was we did not have, as we could have had, between twelve and fourteen British divisions fighting in the line in this great battle instead of only three. Now I put all this aside. I put it on the shelf, from which the historians, when they have time, will select their documents to tell their stories. We have to think of the future and not of the past.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

France, Capitulation of. The news from France is very bad and I grieve for the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune. Nothing will alter our feelings towards them or our faith that the genius of France will rise again. What has happened in France makes no difference to our actions and purpose. We have become the sole champions now in arms to defend the world cause. We shall do our best to be worthy of this honour. We shall defend our island home, and with the British Empire we shall fight on unconquerable until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brows of mankind. We are sure that in the end all will come right.
London, June 17, 1940.

France, Collapse of. When you have a friend and comrade at whose side you have faced tremendous struggles, and your friend is smitten down by a stunning blow, it may be necessary to make sure that the weapon that has fallen from his hands shall not be added to the resources of your common enemy. But you need not bear malice because of your friend’s cries of delirium and gestures of agony. You must not add to his pain; you must work for his recovery. The association of interest between Britain and France remains. The cause remains. Duty inescapable remains.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

Many of these countries have been poisoned by intrigue before they were struck down by violence. They have been rotted from within before they were smitten from without. How else can you explain what has happened to France?—to the French army, to the French people, to the leaders of the French people?
Commons, July 14, 1940.

France, Contribution of. For forty years I have been a consistent friend of France and her brave army; all my life I have been grateful for the contribution France has made to the culture and glory of Europe, and above all for the sense of personal liberty and the rights of man which has radiated from the soul of France. But these are not matters of sentiment or personal feeling. It is one of the main interests of Great Britain that a friendly France should regain and hold her place among the major powers of Europe and the world. Show me a moment when I swerved from this conception, and you will show me a moment when I have been wrong.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

France, Disarmament of. I read in the newspapers to-day that the Prime Minister has been giving an ultimatum or making a strong appeal to France to disarm. Whether you deal with the army or the air, you are taking an altogether undue responsibility at a time like this in tendering such advice to a friendly nation. No; I hope and trust that the French will look after their own safety, and that we shall be permitted to live our life in our island without being again drawn into the perils of the Continent of Europe.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

France, Future of. Many ask themselves the question: Is France finished? Is that long and famous history, adorned by so many manifestations of genius and valour, bearing with it so much that is precious to culture and civilization, and above all to the liberties of mankind—is all that now to sink for ever into the ocean of the past, or will France rise again and resume her rightful place in the structure of what may one day be again the family of Europe? I declare to you here, on this considerable occasion, even now when misguided or suborned Frenchmen are firing upon their rescuers, I declare to you my faith that France will rise again. While there are men like General de Gaulle and all those who follow him—and they are legion throughout France—and men like General Giraud, that gallant warrior whom no prison can hold, while there are men like those to stand forward in the name and in the cause of France, my confidence in the future of France is sure.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942.

France and Germany. I am now going to say something that will astonish you. The first step in the re-creation of the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany. In this way only can France recover the moral and cultural leadership of Europe. There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany.
Zürich, September 19, 1946.

France, Pacifist. France, though armed to the teeth, is pacifist to the core.
Commons, December 23, 1932.

France, Restoration of. I wish to make it quite clear that I regard the restoration of France as one of the great powers of Europe as a sacred duty from which Great Britain will never recede. This arises not only from the sentiments which we hold towards France, so long our comrade in victory and misfortune, but also from the fact that it is one of the most enduring interests of Great Britain in Europe that there should be a strong France and a strong French army.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

France, Security of. We all know that the French are pacific. They are quite as pacific as we are. They want to be left alone, as we do, and, I would add, as the people of Soviet Russia also wish to be left alone. But the French seem much nearer to the danger than we are. There is no strip of salt water to guard their land and their liberties. We must remember that they are the only other great European country that has not reverted to despotism or dictatorship in one form or another.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

France, Shield of. If Europe has enjoyed peace this year, it has been under the shield of France. Be careful not to break that shield. It is perhaps not the broad basis on which we should like to see the harmony of Christendom stand, but it is a shield. Beware that you do not lower it or weaken it by any action in your power before you have, at least, something which gives as good practical security erected behind it to put in its place.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

France, Sorrow for. The House will feel sorrow at the fate of the great French nation and people, to whom we have been joined so long in war and peace, and whom we have regarded as trustees with ourselves for the progress of a liberal culture and tolerant civilization of Europe.
Commons, June 25, 1940.

France, Soul of. By all kinds of sly and savage means he [Hitler] is plotting and working to quench for ever the fountain of characteristic French culture and of French inspiration to the world. . . . Never will I believe that the soul of France is dead.
London, December 1, 1940.

Franchise. I have always been in favour of extending the franchise. I believe in the will of the people. I do not believe in the perversion of the will of the people by actively organized and engineered minorities, who, having seized upon power by force or fraud or chicane, come forward and then use that power in the name of vast masses with whom they have long lost all effective connection.
Commons, December 12, 1946.

Franchise, Extension of. It has often been remarked by bewildered foreign observers that every extension of the franchise in Great Britain has left the Conservative Party in a stronger position. But the reason, or one of the main reasons, which they do not see for this undoubted fact is the steady and ceaseless improvement in the education of the people and in the conditions of their life, and in their growing conscious power to govern their country effectively.
Central Hall, Westminster, March 15, 1945.

Fraternal Association. The drawing together in fraternal association of the British and American peoples, and of all the peoples of the English-speaking world may well be regarded as the best of the good things that have happened to us and to the world in this century of tragedy and storm.
Dorchester Hotel, London, July 4, 1950.

Free Speech. Free speech carries with it the evil of all foolish, unpleasant and venomous things that are said; but on the whole we would rather lump them than do away with it.
Commons, July 15, 1952.

Free Trade. The [sugar] bounty-giving Governments are confronted with deficits and financial embarrassment, and sugar is 7d. a pound to the population of the country in which the sugar is grown. And all this time free trade England, anchored by irrefragable logic to economic truth, rides out the gale—indolent, prosperous, triumphant.
Commons, July 29, 1903.

Freedom. The cause of freedom has in it a recuperative power and virtue which can draw from misfortune new hope and new strength.
London, October 16, 1938.

Freedom, Lights of. And now the old lion with her lion cubs at her side stands alone against hunters who are armed with deadly weapons and impelled by desperate and destructive rage. Is the tragedy to repeat itself once more? Ah no! This is not the end of the tale. The stars in their courses proclaim the deliverance of mankind. Not so easily shall the onward progress of the people be barred. Not so easily shall the lights of freedom die.
London, June 16, 1941.

Freedom, Preservation of. It is not only the supreme question of self-preservation that is involved in the realization of these dangers, but also the human and the world cause of the preservation of free Governments and of western civilization against the ever advancing forces of authority and despotism.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

Freedom, Spirit of. We have our mistakes, our weaknesses and failings, but in the fight which this island race has made, had it not been the toughest of the tough, if the spirit of freedom which burns in the British breast had not been a pure, dazzling, inextinguishable flame, we might not yet have been near the end of this war.
Bristol University, Bristol, April 21, 1945.

Freedom, Tests of. It has been said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The question arises, “What is freedom?” There are one or two quite simple, practical tests by which it can be known in the modern world in peace conditions—namely:—

Is there the right to free expression of opinion and of opposition and criticism of the Government of the day?

Have the people the right to turn out a Government of which they disapprove, and are constitutional means provided by which they can make their will apparent?

Are their courts of justice free from violence by the Executive and from threats of mob violence, and free of all association with particular political Parties?

Will these courts administer open and well-established laws which are associated in the human mind with the broad principles of decency and justice?

Will there be fair play for poor as well as for rich, for private persons as well as Government officials?

Will the rights of the individual, subject to his duties to the State, be maintained and asserted and exalted?

Is the ordinary peasant or workman, who is earning a living by daily toil and striving to bring up a family, free from the fear that some grim police organization under the control of a single Party, like the Gestapo, started by the Nazi and Fascist Parties, will tap him on the shoulder and pack him off without fair or open trial to bondage or ill-treatment?
London, August 28, 1944.

Freedom, Title-deeds of. The people of any country have the right, and should have the power by constitutional action, by free unfettered elections, with secret ballot, to choose or change the character or form of government under which they dwell: that freedom of speech and thought should reign; that courts of justice, independent of the executive, unbiased by any Party, should administer laws which have received the broad assent of large majorities or are consecrated by time and custom. Here are the title-deeds of freedom which should lie in every cottage home. Here is the message of the British and American peoples to mankind. Let us preach what we practise—let us practise what we preach.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Freedom, Use of. What was the good of an abstract assertion of freedom unless there was an understanding of the use that was to be made of it?
March 29, 1904.

French Capital Ships. During the last fortnight the British navy, in addition to blockading what is left of the German fleet and chasing the Italian fleet, has had imposed upon it the sad duty of putting effectually out of action for the duration of the war the capital ships of the French navy. These, under the Armistice terms, signed in the railway coach at Compiègne, would have been placed within the power of Germany. The transference of these ships to Hitler would have endangered the security of both Great Britain and the United States. We, therefore, had no choice but to act as we did, and to act forthwith. Our painful task is now complete. Although the unfinished battleship the Jean Bart still rests in a Moroccan harbour and there are a number of French warships at Toulon and in various French ports all over the world, these are not in a condition or of a character to derange our preponderance of naval power. As long, therefore, as they make no attempt to return to ports controlled by Germany or Italy, we shall not molest them in any way. That melancholy phase in our relations with France has, so far as we are concerned, come to an end.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

French, The Fighting. The Germans by their oppression, will soon procure for us the unity of Metropolitan France. That unity can now only take an anti-German form. In such a movement the spirit of the Fighting French must be continually in the ascendant. Their reward will come home on the tide. We must try to bring about as speedily as possible a working arrangement and ultimately a consolidation between all Frenchmen outside the German power. The character and constitution of Admiral Darlan’s Government must be continuously modified by the introduction of fresh and, from our point of view, clean elements. We have the right, and I believe we have the power, to effect these necessary transformations so long as Great Britain and the United States act harmoniously together. But meanwhile, above all, let us get on with the war.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

French National Committee. The French National Committee are not the owners but the trustees of the title-deeds of France. These must be restored to the French nation when freedom is achieved, for it is only on the will of the people, freely expressed under conditions of reasonable tranquillity, that in France, as in other enslaved countries, any permanent structure can be raised.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1943.

French Navy. Under the long care of Admiral Darlan and M. Campinchi, the Minister of Marine, a magnificent fighting and seafaring force has been developed. Not only have we been assisted in every way agreed upon before the war, but besides a whole set of burdens have been lifted off our shoulders by the loyal and ever-increasingly vigorous co-operation of the French fleet. It seems to me a wonderful thing that when France is making so great an effort upon land she should at the same time offer to the allied cause so powerful a reinforcement by sea.
Commons, November 8, 1939.

Frenchmen. The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

Frenzy. The human race is going through tormenting convulsions, and there is a profound longing for some breathing space, for some pause in the frenzy.
London, October 8, 1951.

Friendships, Personal. Here in this country, the forerunner of all the democratic and Parliamentary conceptions of modern times, we in this country, who are very old at the game of Party politics hard fought out, have learned how to carry through and debate great fiercely-contested political issues without the severance of personal and private friendships.
Commons, November 9, 1944.

Frightfulness. Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British pharmacopoeia.
Commons, July 8, 1920.

Front, Second. When I look at all that Russia is doing and the vast achievements of the Soviet armies, I should feel myself below the level of events if I were not sure in my heart and conscience that everything in human power is being done, and will be done, to bring British and American forces into action against the enemy with the utmost speed and energy, and on the largest scale.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Front, Third. Personally, I always think of the Third Front as well as the Second Front. I have always thought that the western democracies should be like a boxer who fights with two hands and not one. I believe that the great flanking movement into North Africa, made under the authority of President Roosevelt and of His Majesty’s Government, for whom I am a principal agent, will be regarded in the after time as quite a good thing to do in all the circumstances.
London, August 31, 1943.

Fructification. What noble opportunities have the new Government inherited! Let them be worthy of their fortune, which also is the fortune of us all. To release and liberate the vital springs of British energy and inventiveness, to let the honest earnings of the nation fructify in the pockets of the people, to spread well-being and security against accident and misfortune throughout the whole nation, to plan wherever State planning is imperative, and to guide into fertile and healthy channels the native British genius for comprehension and goodwill—all these are open to them, and all these ought to be open to all of us now.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Frustration. The only chance for the defenders of liberty and democracy in a world like this is to substitute for the many advantages which despotic authority gains in the field of action a lively comradeship and association which enables them, by co-operation of all sorts and kinds of citizens, to produce not merely an equally fine but a more flexible and more durable organization. The fact that nearly three years have passed in this squabble without any practical agreement is a reproach to the system of free government which we enjoy, love, and seek to preserve.
Commons, November 16, 1937.

Fuel. We used to be a source of fuel; we are increasingly becoming a sink. These supplies of foreign liquid fuel are no doubt vital to our industry, but our ever-increasing dependence upon them ought to arouse serious and timely reflection. The scientific utilization, by liquefaction, pulverization, and other processes, of our vast and magnificent deposits of coal, constitutes a national object of prime importance.
Commons, April 24, 1928.

Functions of Society. No view of society can possibly be complete which does not comprise within its scope both collective organization and individual incentive. The whole tendency of civilization is, however, towards the multiplication of the collective functions of society. The ever-growing complications of civilization create for us new services which have to be undertaken by the State, and create for us an expansion of the existing services.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Futility of Socialism. In spite of the great numbers of the Socialist Party in Germany, in spite of the high ability of its leaders, it has hardly any influence whatever upon the course of public affairs. It has to submit to food taxes and to conscription; and I observe that Herr Bebel, the distinguished leader of that Party, at Mannheim the other day was forced to admit, and admitted with great candour, that there was no other country in Europe so effectively organized as Germany to put down anything in the nature of a violent Socialist movement.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Future, Mysteries of the. Let us see how the course of events develops, and let us not endeavour to pry too closely or speculate too audaciously upon those mysteries of the future which are veiled from our eyes, and which, if they were not veiled from our eyes by the wisdom of Providence, would confront us with a state of existence here below very much less interesting and exciting than that in which we find ourselves.
Cairo, February 3, 1943.

Gab, Gift of the. It is a very old saying that one man can make more assertions in the course of half an hour than another can offer in a week.
Commons, April 13, 1927.

Gallipoli. I will not have it said that this was a civilian plan, foisted by a political amateur upon reluctant officers and experts.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

I am concerned to make it clear to the House, and not only to the House but to the navy, that this enterprise was profoundly, maturely, and elaborately considered, that there was a great volume of expert opinion behind it, that it was framed entirely by expert and technical minds, and that in no circumstances could it have been regarded as having been undertaken with carelessness or levity.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

It seems to me that if there were any operations in the history of the world which, having been begun, it was worth while to carry through with the utmost vigour and fury, with a consistent flow of reinforcements, and an utter disregard of life, it was the operation so daringly and brilliantly begun by Sir Ian Hamilton in the immortal landing of April 25.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

Gallup Poll. Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup Poll, always feeling one’s pulse and taking one’s temperature.
Commons, September 30, 1941.

Gandhi. I am against this surrender to Gandhi. I am against these conversations and agreements between Lord Irwin and Mr. Gandhi. Gandhi stands for the permanent exclusion of British trade from India. Gandhi stands for the substitution of Brahmin domination for British rule in India. You will never be able to come to terms with Gandhi.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

Ganging Up. Here let me deal with two expressions of prejudice which are now used in an endeavour to prevent friendly peoples’ coming together to mutual advantage without hostility to anyone else in the world. The first is the word “bloc.” To be on good, easy, sympathetic terms with your neighbours is to form a bloc. To form a bloc is a crime, according to every Communist in every land, unless it be a Communist bloc. So much for the word “bloc.” It happens also that we are closely associated with the United States. We think very much alike on great world problems on the morrow of our victory—because the British and Americans did have something to do with the victory. The Foreign Secretary often finds himself at these conferences in agreement with Mr. Byrnes, just as my right hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington [Mr. Eden] was often in agreement with Mr. Hull, and just as I was often in agreement with President Roosevelt, and, after him, with President Truman. Now all this process, without which I can assure hon. Members we should not be sitting here this afternoon, is to be condemned and ruled out by the expression “ganging up.” If two countries who are great friends agree on something which is right, they are “ganging up,” so they must not do it. We should brush aside these terms of prejudice, which are used only to darken counsel, and which replace, in certain minds, the ordinary processes of thought and human feeling.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Gangsterdom. There shall be no halting, or half-measures, there shall be no compromise, or parley. These gangs of bandits have sought to darken the light of the world; have sought to stand between the common people of all the lands and their march forward into their inheritance. They shall themselves be cast into the pit of death and shame, and only when the earth has been cleansed and purged of their crimes and their villainy shall we turn from the task which they have forced upon us, a task which we were reluctant to undertake, but which we shall now most faithfully and punctiliously discharge.
Ottawa, December 30, 1941.

Gap. In my experience and interior knowledge of the working of governments, which extends over nearly a quarter century, I cannot recall any time when the gap between the kind of words which statesmen used and what was actually happening in many countries was as great as it is now. The habit of saying smooth things and uttering pious platitudes and sentiments to gain applause, without relation to the underlying facts, is more pronounced now than it has ever been in my experience.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Gas, Poison. The attitude of the British Government has always been to abhor the employment of poison gas. As I understand it, our only procedure is to keep alive such means of studying this subject as shall not put us at a hopeless disadvantage if, by any chance, it were used against us by other people.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Gasolene. The African excursions of the two dictators have cost their countries in killed and captured 950,000 soldiers, in addition to nearly 2,400,000 tons of shipping destroyed, both of these figures being exclusive of large numbers of ships and aircraft damaged. There have also been lost to the enemy 6,200 guns, 2,550 tanks and 70,000 trucks, which is the American name for lorries, and which, I understand, has been adopted by the combined staffs in North-West Africa in exchange for the use of the word petrol in place of gasolene.
The U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1943.

Gaulle, General de. That General de Gaulle was right in believing that the majority of Frenchmen in Dakar was favourable to the Free French movement, I have no doubt; indeed, I think his judgment has been found extremely surefooted, and our opinion of him has been enhanced by everything we have seen of his conduct in circumstances of peculiar and perplexing difficulty. His Majesty’s Government have no intention whatever of abandoning the cause of General de Gaulle until it is merged, as merged it will be, in the larger cause of France.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

In these last four years I have had many differences with General de Gaulle, but I have never forgotten, and can never forget, that he stood forth as the first eminent Frenchman to face the common foe in what seemed to be the hour of ruin of his country, and possibly of ours; and it is only fair and becoming that he should stand first and foremost in the days when France shall again be raised, and raise herself, to her rightful place among the great powers of Europe and of the world.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

General Staff. The General Staff of our army was more expensive in proportion to the number of men than that of any other army in the world, except, perhaps, that of the Venezuelan army.
Commons, March 2, 1905.

General Strike. We now know with accuracy the injury which has been done, at any rate to our finances. We meet this afternoon under the shadow of last year. It is not the time to bewail the past; it is the time to pay the bill. It is not for me to apportion the blame; my task is only to apportion the burden. I cannot present myself before the Committee in the guise of an impartial judge; I am only the public executioner.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Generalities. We are often told that “The House of Commons thinks this” or “feels that.” Newspapers write: “The general feeling was of grave uneasiness,” “There was much disquiet in the Lobby,” etc. All this is telegraphed all over the world and produces evil effects. No one has a right to say what is the opinion of the House of Commons. We suffer now from not having divisions. We have debates, to which a very small minority of Members are able to contribute because of the time available. They express their anxiety and grievances and make our affairs out as bad as they possibly can, and these views bulk unduly in the reports which reach the public or are heard abroad. These Members do not represent the opinion of the House of Commons or of the nation, nor do their statements give a true picture of the prodigious war efforts of the British people. Parliament should be an arena in which grievances and complaints became vocal. The Press also should be a prompt and vigilant alarm bell, ringing when things are not going right. But it is a heavy burden added to the others we have to bear if, without a vote being cast, the idea should be spread at home and abroad that it is the opinion of the House of Commons that our affairs are being conducted in an incompetent and futile manner and that the whole gigantic drive of British industry is just one great muddle and flop.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Generals, Number of. One of the most remarkable features of the British army for a great number of years had been its number of generals.
Commons, February 24, 1903.

Generation, The missing. Remember we have a missing generation, we must never forget that—the flower of the past, lost in the great battles of the last war. There ought to be another generation in between these young men and us older figures who are soon, haply, to pass from the scene. There ought to be another generation of men, with their flashing lights and leading figures. We must do all we can to try to fill the gap, and, as I say, there is no safer thing to do than to run risks in youth.
Commons, November 29, 1944.

Geography and Bombing. The next point is a matter of geography. The frontiers of Germany are very much nearer to London than the seacoasts of this island are to Berlin, and whereas practically the whole of the German bombing air force can reach London with an effective load, very few, if any, of our aeroplanes can reach Berlin with any appreciable load of bombs. That must be considered as one of the factors in judging between the two countries.
Commons, March 19, 1935.

George VI, King. I have seen the King, gay, buoyant, and confident when the stones and rubble of Buckingham Palace lay newly scattered in heaps upon its lawns.
Edinburgh, October 12, 1942.

George, David Lloyd. The right hon. Member for Caernarvon Boroughs has distinguished himself upon this subject in a manner which deserves the widest public notice. He said on Saturday: “you are blessed, for you will not receive, you will give. Every time the lamp illuminates your cottage, and perfumes it, as it used to do in my own days, you will have the feeling that the wick is oozing wealth for Sir Alfred Mond and Mr. Samuel Courtauld.” That is the contribution to an important public controversy of a man who has been nine years Chancellor of the Exchequer and five years Prime Minister, who, after having held the greatest situation in Europe, looks forward with the utmost gusto to another series of “Limehouse Nights.”
Commons, May 1, 1928.

The right hon. Gentleman has always been a man of expedients, never a man of theme and system. The great services which he rendered to the country were rendered by instinct and nimbleness in dealing with point after point as they arose, but they did not take the form of laying out a smooth and ordered scheme either in politics or in strategy.
Commons, June 7, 1928.

He launched the Liberal and Radical forces of this country effectively into the broad stream of social betterment and social security along which all modern Parties now steer.
Commons, March 28, 1955.

His warm heart was stirred by the many perils which beset the cottage homes, the health of the breadwinner, the fate of his widow, the nourishment and upbringing of his children, the meagre and haphazard provision of medical treatment and sanatoria, and the lack of any organized accessible medical service from which the mass of the wage earners and the poor in those days suffered so severely. All this excited his wrath. Pity and compassion lent their powerful wings. He knew the terror with which old age threatened the toiler—that after a life of exertion he could be no more than a burden at the fireside and in the family of a struggling son.
Commons, March 28, 1955.

In his prime, his power, his influence his initiative, were unequalled in the land. He was the champion of the weak and the poor. Those were great days. Nearly two generations have passed. Most people are unconscious of how much their lives have been shaped by the laws for which Lloyd George was responsible. Health Insurance and Old Age Pensions were the first large-scale State-conscious efforts to set a balustrade along the crowded causeway of the people’s life, and, without pulling down the structures of society, to fasten a lid over the abyss into which vast numbers used to fall, generation after generation, uncared-for and indeed unnoticed. Now we move forward confidently into larger and more far-reaching applications of these ideals.
Commons, March 28, 1945.

I was his lieutenant in those bygone days, and shared in a minor way in the work. I have lived to see long strides taken, and being taken, and going to be taken, on this path of insurance by which the vultures of utter ruin are driven from the dwellings of the nation. The stamps we lick, the roads we travel, the system of progressive taxation, the principal remedies that have so far been used against unemployment—all these to a very great extent were part not only of the mission but of the actual achievement of Lloyd George; and I am sure that as time passes, his name will not only live but shine on account of the great, laborious, constructive work he did for the social and domestic life of our country.
Commons, March 28, 1945.

When the calm, complacent, self-satisfied tranquillities of the Victorian era had exploded into the world convulsions and wars of the terrible twentieth century, Lloyd George had another part to play on which his fame will stand with equal or even greater firmness. Although unacquainted with the military arts, although by public repute a pugnacious pacifist, when the life of our country was in peril he rallied to the war effort and cast aside all other thoughts and aims.
Commons, March 28, 1945.

German Air Superiority. If Germany continues this expansion and if we continue to carry out our scheme, then some time in 1936 Germany will be definitely and substantially stronger in the air than Great Britain.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

German General Staff. The German General Staff system, which we failed to liquidate after the last war, represents an order comprising many thousands of highly trained officers and a school of doctrine of long, unbroken continuity. It possesses great skill, both in the handling of troops in action and in their rapid movement from place to place. The recent fighting in Italy should leave no doubt on these points.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

German Politics. Politics in Germany are not what they are over here. There you do not leave Office to go into Opposition. You do not leave the Front Bench to sit below in the Gangway. You may well leave your high office at a quarter of an hour’s notice to drive to the police station, and you may be conducted thereafter, very rapidly, to an even harder ordeal.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

German Rearmament. Now the demand is that Germany should be allowed to rearm. Do not delude yourselves. Do not let His Majesty’s Government believe—I am sure they do not believe—that all that Germany is asking for is equal status. I believe the refined term now is equal qualitative status, or, as an alternative, equal quantitative status by indefinitely deferred stages. That is not what Germany is seeking. All these bands of sturdy Teutonic youths, marching through the streets and roads of Germany, with the light of desire in their eyes to suffer for their Fatherland, when they have the weapons, believe me they will then ask for the return of lost territories and lost colonies, and when that demand is made it cannot fail to shake and possibly shatter to their foundations every one of the countries I have mentioned, and some other countries I have not mentioned.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

German War Machine. You must never underrate the power of the German machine. It is the most terrible machine that has been created. After the last war they kept the brains of the German army together. They kept their Great Staff together. Although their weapons were taken away, this tremendous association of people who think nothing but war, studying war, ruthless scientific war, was held together, thousands of them, and they were able to train and build up an army which, as you saw, in a few weeks shattered to pieces the once famous army of France, and which has marched into country after country and laid it low, and laid low every form of opposition, and only now in the vast spaces of Russia is confronted with this immense and valiant race which has stood against them.
Westminster Central Hall, London, October 31, 1942.

Germans, The. They combine in the most deadly manner the qualities of the warrior and the slave. They do not value freedom themselves, and the spectacle of it in others is hateful to them. Whenever they become strong they seek their prey, and they will follow with an iron discipline anyone who will lead them to it.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Germans as Foes. Those who fight the Germans fight a stubborn and resourceful foe, a foe in every way worthy of the doom prepared for him.
Commons, December 11, 1941.

Germany. I bear no grudge; I have no prejudice against the German people. I have many German friends, and I have a lively admiration for their splendid qualities of intellect and valour and for their achievements in science and art. The re-entry into the European circle of a Germany at peace within itself, with a heart devoid of hate, would be the most precious benefit for which we could strive, and a supreme advantage which alone would liberate Europe from its peril and its fear, and I believe that the British and French democracies would go a long way in extending the hand of friendship to realize such a hope.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Germany, Air Armaments of. Here, again, mystery shrouds all German preparations. At various points facts emerge which enable a general view to be taken. Enormous sums of money are being spent on German aviation and upon other armaments. I wish we could get at the figures which are being spent upon armaments. I believe that they would stagger us with the terrible tale they would tell of the immense panoply which that nation of nearly 70,000,000 of people is assuming, or has already assumed.
Commons, May 19, 1935.

Germany, Arms Production of. The arms production has the first claim on the entire industry of Germany. The materials required for the production of armaments are the first charge on the German exchange. The whole of their industry is woven into an immediate readiness for war. You have a state of preparedness in German industry which was not attained by our industry until after the late War had gone on probably for two years.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

Germany, Bombing of. Even if the Nazi legions stood triumphant on the Black Sea, or indeed upon the Caspian, even if Hitler was at the gates of India, it would profit him nothing if at the same time the entire economic and scientific apparatus of German war power lay shattered and pulverized at home.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

Germany, Cause of anxiety. There is even a theory that the Germans are rearming only out of national self-respect and that they do not mean to hurt anyone at all. Whatever you believe, whatever you think, I venture to submit that we cannot have any anxieties comparable to the anxiety caused by German rearmament.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Germany, Defeat of. While the German lines extend far beyond their frontiers, while their flag flies over conquered capitals and subjugated provinces, while all the appearances of military successes attend their arms, Germany may be defeated more fatally in the second or third year of the war than if the allied armies had entered Berlin in the first.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

The character of Hitler’s Nazi Party was such as to destroy almost all independent elements in the German people. The struggle was fought to the bitter end. The mass of the people were forced to drain the cup of defeat to the dregs. A headless Germany has fallen into the hands of the conquerors.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

I must say that in talking about all these various campaigns that are going on at once all over the world, I have left the obvious, essential fact till this point, namely, that it is the Russian armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and on the oceans we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and manhandling that has befallen it through the strength of the Russian Soviet armies.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Germany, Defeat at Sea. Defeat to Germany at sea means nothing but loss of the ships sunk or damaged in battle. Behind the German “Dreadnoughts” stand four and a half million soldiers and a narrow sea-front bristling with fortresses and batteries. Nothing we could do, after a naval victory, could effect the safety or freedom of a single German hamlet.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Germany in Europe. My hope is that free, liberal civilization and democratic Parliamentary processes will win the soul of Germany for Europe, and that the great underlying harmonies of the European family will predominate over the feuds that have hitherto rent our famous parent Continent and brought upon it miseries and humiliations beyond the power of statistics to measure or language to describe.
Commons, October 28, 1948.

Germany, Ferocity of. When we read about Germany, when we watch with surprise and distress the tumultuous insurgence of ferocity and war spirit, the pitiless ill-treatment of minorities, the denial of the moral protection of civilized society to large numbers of individuals solely on the ground of race—when we see that occurring in one of the most gifted, learned, scientific, and formidable nations in the world, one cannot help feeling glad that the fierce passions that are raging in Germany have not found, as yet, any other outlet but upon Germans.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Germany, Hatred of. Certainly we see the Germans hated as no race has ever been hated in human history, or with such good reason. We see them sprawled over a dozen once free and happy countries, with their talons making festering wounds, the scars of which will never be effaced. Nazi tyranny and Prussian militarism, those two loathsome dominations, may well foresee and dread their approaching doom.
London, August 31, 1943.

Germany and the League. I must say that I do not see how anyone who wishes to induce Germany to come back to the League, as she has a perfect right to do at any moment, can possibly find reasons for objecting to Russia also joining that body.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Germany, Mercantile ascendancy. Absolved from all the burden of reparations, with a moratorium upon all commercial debts, with her factories equipped to the very last point of science by British and American money, freed from internal debt, mortgages, fixed charges, debentures and so forth by the original flight from the mark, Germany only awaits trade revival to gain an immense mercantile ascendancy throughout the world.
Commons, July 11, 1932.

Germany, Negotiations with. When we are asked whether we will grasp the proffered hand of German friendship, I think we should answer “Yes,” but at the same time one wants to know what happens after that. Often when these conversations begin they go nicely for a certain time, and then it appears that what the Germans want is that peace and goodwill should be translated forthwith into tangible and solid immediate benefits to themselves. Very often it is suggested that we should promise to do something, or, what is perhaps even more difficult, stand by and see something or other done that may not be desirable. When the conversations reach that point, they become halting and embarrassed.
Commons, December 21, 1937.

Germany, Punishment of. The allies are resolved that Germany shall be totally disarmed, that Nazi-ism and militarism in Germany shall be destroyed, that war criminals shall be justly and swiftly punished, that all German industry capable of military production shall be eliminated or controlled, and that Germany shall make compensation in kind to the utmost of her ability for damage done to allied nations.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Germany, Rearmament of. It is extremely dangerous for people to talk lightly about German rearmament and say that, if the Germans chose to do it, no one can stop them. I am very doubtful if Germany would rearm in defiance of the Treaty if there were a solidarity of European and world opinion that the Treaty could only be altered by discussion, and could not be altered by a violent one-sided breach. I, therefore, do not subscribe to the doctrine that we should throw up our hands and recognize the fact that Germany is going to be armed up to an equality with the neighbouring states in any period which we can immediately foresee. There may be other periods, but certainly we ought not to admit it at the moment.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

What is the great new fact which has broken in upon us during the last eighteen months? Germany is rearming. That is the great new fact which rivets the attention of every country in Europe—indeed, in the world—and which throws almost all other issues into the background.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Germany is already well on her way to become, and must become, incomparably the most heavily armed nation in the world and the nation most completely ready for war. There is the dominant factor; there is the factor which dwarfs all others, and effects the movements of politics and diplomacy in every country throughout Europe; and it is a melancholy reflection in the last hours of this Parliament that we have been the helpless, perhaps even the supine, spectators of this vast transformation, to the acute distress of Europe and to our own grievous disadvantage.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Germany, Reparations. Let me give one striking instance which came to my notice when I was crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We and America took under the Peace Treaty three great liners from Germany. The Germans surrendered them at a valuation and then borrowed the money to build two very much better ones. They immediately captured the Blue Riband of the Atlantic, and they have it still. Now the loans with which the Germans built these ships are subject to a moratorium, while we are unable to go on with our new Cunarder because of our financial crisis. That is typical of what I mean when I say that Germany has not nearly so much reason to complain as some people suppose.
Commons, July 11, 1932.

Germany, Strength of. Beware. Germany is a country fertile in military surprises. The great Napoleon, in the years after Jena, was completely taken by surprise by the strength of the German army which fought the War of Liberation. Although he had officers all over the place, the German army which fought in the campaign of Leipzig was three or four times as strong as he expected.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Germany, Temper of. Nothing in life is eternal, of course, but as surely as Germany acquires full military equality with her neighbours while her own grievances are still unredressed and while she is in the temper which we have unhappily seen, so surely should we see ourselves within a measurable distance of the renewal of general European war.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Germany, Unrestrained. Germany is ruled by a handful of autocrats who are the absolute masters of that gifted nation. They are men who have neither the long interests of a dynasty to consider, nor those very important restraints which a democratic Parliament and constitutional system impose upon any executive government. Nor have they the restraint of public opinion, which public opinion, indeed, they control by every means which modern apparatus renders possible. They are men who owe their power to, and are, indeed, the expression of the bitterness of defeat, and of the resolved and giant strength of that mighty German Empire.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Germany, War preparations of. What is the real problem, the real peril? It is not reoccupation of the Rhineland, but this enormous process of the rearmament of Germany. There is the peril. Mr. Lansbury says that in the Election I seemed to be haunted by this thought. I confess that I have been occupied with this idea of the great wheels revolving and the great hammers descending day and night in Germany, making the whole of its population into one disciplined war machine. There is the problem that lies before you. There is what is bringing war nearer. This Rhineland episode is but a step, a stage, an incident in this process. There is fear in every country, all round. Even here, in this island, with some protection from distance, there is fear, deep fear. What is the fear and what is the question which arises from that fear? It is, “How are we going to stop this war which seems to be moving towards us in so many ways?”
Commons, March 26, 1936.

Gestapo. No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp, or worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to fall back on some sort of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance. And this would nip opinion in the bud; it would stop criticism as it reared its head, and it would gather all the power to the supreme Party and the Party leaders, rising like stately pinnacles above their vast bureaucracies of civil servants, no longer servants and no longer civil. And where would the ordinary simple folk—the common people, as they like to call them in America—where would they be, once this mighty organism had got them in its grip?
London, June 4, 1945.

Gettysburg. I was driving the other day not far from the field of Gettysburg, which I know well, like most of your battlefields. It was the decisive battle of the American Civil War. No one after Gettysburg doubted which way the dread balance of war would incline, yet far more blood was shed after the Union victory at Gettysburg than in all the fighting which went before.
The U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1943.

Gettysburg, Ideal. I am a child of the House of Commons. I was brought up in my father’s house to believe in democracy. “Trust the people”—that was his message. I used to see him cheered at meetings and in the streets by crowds of working men way back in those aristocratic Victorian days when, as Disraeli said, the world was for the few, and for very few. Therefore I have been in full harmony all my life with the tides which have flowed on both sides of the Atlantic against privilege and monopoly, and I have steered confidently towards the Gettysburg ideal of “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
The U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., December 26, 1941.

Gibraltar. For certain purposes it may be convenient to reckon Gibraltar in home waters, but there is no intention of assuming that for strategical purposes its distance from home can be ignored.
Commons, January 22, 1913.

Giraud, General. We all thought General Giraud was the man for the job, and that his arrival would be electrical. In this opinion, General Giraud emphatically agreed.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

Give and Take. I said last year that our policy was one of moderation, endeavouring to persuade one side to concede and the other to forbear, endeavouring to keep a certain modicum of military force available in order to prevent violent collisions between the two sides. [Arabs and Jews in Palestine.]
Commons, March 9, 1922.

Giving. It is certainly more agreeable to have power to give than to receive.
Commons, April 28, 1949.

Gleam of Victory. The bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers, and warmed and cheered all our hearts.
London, November 10, 1942.

Gliders. Gliders are a wonderful means of training pilots, giving them air sense.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Glory, True. Once again the British Commonwealth and Empire emerges safe, undiminished, and united from a mortal struggle. Monstrous tyrannies which menaced our life have been beaten to the ground in ruin, and a brighter radiance illumines the Imperial Crown than any which our annals record. The light is brighter because it comes not only from the fierce but fading glow of military achievements . . . but because there mingle with it in mellow splendour the hopes, joys, and blessings of almost all mankind. This is the true glory, and long will it gleam upon our forward path.
Commons, August 15, 1945.

Glut of Victory. During the war [1914-1918] we repeatedly asked ourselves the question: How are we going to win? and no one was able to answer it with much precision, until at the end, quite suddenly, quite unexpectedly, our terrible foe collapsed before us, and we were so glutted with victory that in our folly we threw it away.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Gnat, The Camel and the. Now that I have shown hon. Members the camel they have already swallowed, I hope they will address themselves with renewed sense of proportion to this somewhat inconsiderable gnat.
Commons, February 27, 1941.

Gold. In this land of bewildering paradox [South Africa] good produces evil and evil produces good. The gold mines, so long needed to repair the annual deficits, have proved to be the greatest of curses, overwhelming the land from end to end with blood and fire, leaving an evil legacy of debt and animosity behind.
Commons, February 28, 1906.

Gold Standard. We are often told that the gold standard will shackle us to the United States. I will deal with that in a moment. I will tell you what it will shackle us to. It will shackle us to reality. For good or for ill, it will shackle us to reality.
Commons, April 4, 1925.

Good Men, Scarcity of. It is sometimes said that good men are scarce. It is perhaps because the spate of events with which we attempt to cope and which we strive to control have far exceeded, in this modern age, the old bounds, that they have been swollen up to giant proportions, while, all the time, the stature and intellect of a man remain unchanged.
Commons, February 6, 1941.

Goose. I do not in the least mind being called a goose. I have been called many worse things than that.
Commons, December 3, 1952.

Government Action. Because a government cannot at every moment give an explanation of what it is doing and what is going on, it would be, and it will be, a great mistake to assume that nothing is being done.
Commons, November 11, 1942.

Government, Arbitrary. It is odious to us that Governments should seek to maintain their rule otherwise than by free, unfettered elections by the mass of the people. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, says the Constitution of the United States. This must not evaporate in swindles and lies propped up by servitude and murder.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Government, Control of. It is just the fact that in this country the people own the government, and that all classes of the people and almost every shade of political influence can be represented not merely in the sterile business of criticism, or in the arid work of political theorizing, but in the actual control from day to day of the government which they themselves have returned in accordance with their choice—it is that fact which associates in this country, more than in the other great states of Europe, the whole people with the business of government.
Commons, May 2, 1911.

Government, Democratic. Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried, in this world of sin and woe. . . . No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

Government, Duty of. There were some things which a government must do, not because the government will do them well, but because nobody else would do them at all.
Commons, February 10, 1904.

Government, Functions of. The functions of government in relation to industrial life may be divided into three categories—discipline, organization and relief.
Commons, May 19, 1909.

Government, within the Law. His Majesty’s Government are bound by the laws which they administer. They are not above the law.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Government, Minority. When the Socialist Government, in their clumsy arrogance, imposed upon us wartime controls for five more long years, they had not got a majority of the electorate behind them. Together with the Liberals and Independents who voted, we represented a larger total of votes against the five years’ restriction than those who voted for it. The Socialists have no majority in the nation; even with all the adventitious aid they got at the last election, they are a minority. They have a right to govern and administer the country but they have no right to ride rough-shod over the majority of their fellow countrymen.
Friends House, London, November 28, 1945.

Government, National. Hon. Members opposite may not agree with the millions of their countrymen who vote for the Liberal and Radical Party, but after all, those millions belong to the same stock as they do. They are of the same flesh and blood, they have the same primary interests and needs, they have the same love of their country, they have the same Christian ethics and the same reasoning powers. How can it be supposed that a government resting upon more than one-half of this great civilized nation is not capable of maintaining and carrying on the necessary and essential business of the state?
Commons, March 31, 1910.

It was always found in the past to be a misfortune to a country when it was governed from one particular point of view, or in the interests of any particular class, whether it was the Court, or the Church, or the Army, or the mercantile or labouring classes. Every country ought to be governed from some central point of view, where all classes and all interests are proportionately represented.
Commons, July 29, 1903.

Governments and Rebels. The leader of the Liberal Party speaks of the Government and the rebels. He seems to think that all governments must be infallible and all rebels must be vile. It all depends on what is government, and what are rebels.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Government, Representative. The system of representative government without responsible ministers, without responsible powers, has led to endless friction and inconvenience wherever and whenever it has been employed. It has failed in Canada, it has failed in Natal and Cape Colony.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Government, System of. Is our system of government adapted to the present fierce, swift movement of events? Twenty-two gentlemen of blameless Party character sitting round an overcrowded table, each having a voice—is that a system which can reach decisions from week to week and cope with the problems descending upon us and with the men at the head of the dictator States? It broke down hopelessly in the war. But is this peace in which we are living? Is it not war without cannon firing? Is it not war of a decisive character, where victories are gained and territories conquered, and where ascendancy and dominance are established over large populations with extraordinary rapidity? If we are to prevent this bloodless war being turned into a bloody war, ought not His Majesty’s Government to adopt a system more on a level with the period of crisis in which we live?
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Governor. I do feel most strongly that there ought to be in the machinery of the state something which corresponds to the governor of an engine, which does to some extent regulate the speed of the machinery.
Commons, February 17, 1909.

Gradualness. In my experience of large enterprises, I have found it is often a mistake to try to settle everything at once. Far off, on the skyline, we can see the peaks of the Delectable Mountains. But we cannot tell what lies between us and them. We know where we want to go; but we cannot foresee all the stages of the journey, nor can we plan our marches as in a military operation.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, May 14, 1947.

Grand Alliance. If a number of states were assembled around Great Britain and France in a solemn treaty for mutual defence against aggression; if they had their forces marshalled in what you may call a Grand Alliance; if they had their staff arrangements concerted; if all this rested, as it can honourably rest, upon the Covenant of the League of Nations, in pursuance of all the purposes and ideals of the League of Nations; if that were sustained, as it would be, by the moral sense of the world; and if it were done in the year 1938—and, believe me, it may be the last chance there will be for doing it—then I say that you might even now arrest this approaching war. Then perhaps the curse which overhangs Europe would pass away. Then perhaps the ferocious passions which now grip a great people would turn inwards and not outwards in an internal rather than an external explosion, and mankind would be spared the deadly ordeal towards which we have been sagging and sliding month by month.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

Gratitude, British. The British public, and the great nation which inherits this somewhat foggy island, are less likely to be grateful for benefits received than they are for evils averted.
Commons, April 13, 1927.

Greatheart. It is in the years of peace that wars are prevented and that those foundations are laid upon which the noble structures of the future can be built. But peace will not be preserved without the virtues that make victory possible in war. Peace will not be preserved by pious sentiments expressed in terms of platitudes or by official grimaces and diplomatic correctitude, however desirable this may be from time to time. It will not be preserved by casting aside in dangerous years the panoply of warlike strength. There must be earnest thought. There must also be faithful perseverance and foresight. Greatheart must have his sword and armour to guard the pilgrims on their way. Above all, among the English-speaking peoples, there must be the union of hearts based upon conviction and common ideals. That is what I offer. That is what I seek.
General Assembly of Virginia, Richmond, March 8, 1946.

Greatness, Human. There are many tests by which we may try to measure the greatness of the men who have served high causes, but I shall select only one of them this morning, namely the favourable influence exerted upon the fortunes of mankind.
Commons, October 11, 1946.

Greatness, National. We are not going to measure the strength of great powers only in their material forces. We think that the security and the predominance of our country depends upon the maintenance of the vigour and health of its population, just as its true glory will always be found in the happiness of its cottage homes.
Commons, May 3, 1909.

Greatness, Price of. The price of greatness is responsibility. If the people of the United States had continued in a mediocre station, struggling with the wilderness, absorbed in their own affairs, and a factor of no consequence in the movement of the world, they might have remained forgotten and undisturbed beyond their own protecting oceans: but one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilized world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

Great Powers. The world organization cannot be based upon a dictatorship of the great powers. It is their duty to serve the world and not to rule it.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Greece, Invasion of. Without the slightest provocation, with no pretence at parley, Signor Mussolini has invaded Greece, or tried to do so, and his aircraft have murdered an increasing number of Greek civilians, women and children in Salonika and many other open Greek towns. The Greek King, his Government and the Greek people have resolved to fight for life and honour, lest the world should be too easily led in chains.
Commons, November 5, 1940.

To the valiant Greek people and their armies—now defending their native soil from the latest Italian outrage, to them we send from the heart of old London our faithful promise that, amid all our burdens and anxieties, we will do our best to aid them in their struggle, and that we will never cease to strike at the foul aggressors in ever-increasing strength from this time forth until the crimes and treacheries which hang around the neck of Mussolini and disgrace the Italian name have been brought to condign and exemplary justice.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1940.

Greece and Turkey. The disentanglement of populations which took place between Greece and Turkey after the last war was in many ways a success, and has produced friendly relations between Greece and Turkey ever since. That disentanglement, which at first seemed impossible of achievement, and about which it was said that it would strip Turkish life in Anatolia of so many necessary services, and that the extra population could never be assimilated or sustained by Greece having regard to her own area and population—I say that disentanglement solved problems which had before been the cause of immense friction, of wars and of rumours of wars.
Commons, December 15, 1944.

Grievances, Redress of. The removal of the just grievances of the vanquished ought to precede the disarmament of the victors. To bring about anything like equality of armaments [between the vanquished and the victor nations] if it were in our power to do so, which it happily is not, while those grievances remain unredressed, would be almost to appoint the day for another European war—to fix it as if it were a prize-fight.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Ground against Air. I was very glad indeed that the Prime Minister to-day, in answer to Sir Austen Chamberlain, spoke about the committee which is to examine defensive measures against aeroplane attacks. That is a matter in which all countries, in my opinion, have a similar interest—all peaceful countries. It is a question not of one country against another, but of the ground against the air, and unless the dwellers upon the earth can manage to secure the air above their heads, it is almost impossible to forecast the misfortunes and fears which this invention, of which the world has proved itself so utterly unworthy, may bring upon them.
Commons, March 19, 1935.

Growl, Healthy. One healthy growl from those benches three years ago—and how different to-day would be the whole lay-out of our armaments production! Alas, that service was not forthcoming. We have drifted on in general good-natured acquiescence for three whole years—not for three whole years of ignorance or unawareness, but for three whole years with the facts glaring us full in the face.
Commons, November 17, 1938.

Growth, Freedom of. What the British Empire exhibits more than anything else is the result of freedom of growth.
Commons, March 2, 1922.

Growth, Healthy. The British oak, on which for centuries our navy depended, grows slowly and noiselessly without headlines or sensation, and no one should ever cut one down without planting another. It is very much easier and quicker to cut down trees than to grow them. In cases where bad, oppressive laws warp the free development of human society, much cutting down may be needed, and sometimes the forest itself has to be cleared. Great work was done by the Liberal and Conservative Parties in the nineteenth century, but the twentieth century with its terrible events has brought us problems of a different order, not many of which can be solved merely by passing Acts of Parliament.
Woodford, September 6, 1952.

Guarantee, British. We strove long, too long, for peace, and suffered thereby; but from the moment when we gave our guarantee that we would not stand by idly and see Poland trampled down by Nazi violence, we have never looked back, never flagged, never doubted, never flinched. We were sure of our duty, and we have discharged it, and will discharge it, without swerving or slackening, to the end.
Guildhall, London, June 8, 1943.

Guide. The true guide of life is to do what is right.
Huddersfield, October 15, 1951.

Guillotine. Those who talk of revolution ought to be prepared for the guillotine.
Commons, October 10, 1902.

Gulf, Doctrinal. Between us and the orthodox Socialists there is a great doctrinal gulf, which yawns and gapes . . . There is no such gulf between Conservative and National Governments I have formed, and Liberals. There is scarcely a Liberal sentiment which animated the great Liberal leaders of the past which we do not inherit and defend.
London, June 4, 1945.

Gullets. I have heard of people straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, but I have never before heard of people who, having already swallowed a camel, come forward and plead that their gullets are not sufficiently expansive to accommodate a gnat.
Commons, April 12, 1910.

Gullibility. I have sympathy with, and respect for, the well-meaning, loyal-hearted people who make up the League of Nations Union in this country, but what impresses me most about them is their long-suffering and inexhaustible gullibility. Any scheme of any kind for disarmament put forward by any country, so long as it is surrounded by suitable phraseology, is hailed by them, and the speeches are cheered, and those who speak gain the meed of their applause.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Habitation. It is quite impossible to maintain a permanent service in healthy discipline without that reasonable degree of comfort which can only be afforded by permanent habitation.
Commons, December 15, 1919.

Hagiology, in Medicine. I have been inclined to feel from time to time that there ought to be a hagiology of medical science and that we ought to have saints’ days to commemorate the great discoveries which have been made for all mankind, and perhaps for all time—or for whatever time may be left to us. Nature, like many of our modern statesmen, is prodigal of pain. I should like to find a day when we can take a holiday, a day of jubilation, when we can fête good Saint Anaesthesia and chaste and pure Saint Antiseptic.
Guildhall, London, September 10, 1947.

Haile Selassie. It was a satisfaction for me to see for the first time in the flesh Haile Selassie, that historical figure who pleaded the cause of his country amid the storms of the League of Nations, who was the first victim of Mussolini’s lust for power and conquest, and who was also the first to be restored to his ancient throne by the heavy exertions of our British and Indian armies in the far-off days of 1940 and 1941.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Halifax, Lord. In Edward Halifax we have a man of light and leading, whose company is a treat and whose friendship it is an honour to enjoy. I have often disagreed with him in the twenty years I have known him in the rough and tumble of British politics, but I have always respected him and his actions because I know that courage and fidelity are the essence of his being, and that, whether as soldier with his regiment in the last war, or as a ruler of, and trustee for, 400,000,000 in India, he has never swerved from the path of duty as he saw it shining out before him.

As a man of deep but unparaded and unaffected religious convictions, and as for many years an ardent lover of the chase, he has known how to get the best out of both worlds. Like all Members of the present National Government in Great Britain, most of whom seem to be gathered around this board to-day, he has vowed himself to prosecute this war against the Nazi tyranny at whatever cost until its last vestiges are destroyed.
London, January 9, 1941.

Hamilton, General Bruce. The hon. Member for Caernarvon Boroughs [Mr. David Lloyd George] has drawn attention to the case of one general officer, and although I deprecate debates upon the characters of individual general officers who are serving the country at this moment, because I know personally General Bruce Hamilton, whom the hon. Member with admirable feeling described as General Brute Hamilton, I feel unable to address the House without offering my humble testimony to the fact that in all His Majesty’s army there are few men with better feeling, more kindness of heart, or with higher courage, than General Bruce Hamilton.
Commons, February 18, 1901.

Handicap. Peaceful Parliamentary nations have more difficulty in transforming themselves into vast warmaking organisms than dictator states who glorify war and feed their youth on dreams of conquest.
London, March 30, 1940.

Hansard. It is open to any person or organization to publish an extract from Hansard with what comments they please.
Commons, March 23, 1943.

Hard things. Things are not always right because they are hard, but if they are right one must not mind if they are also hard.
Llandudno, October 9, 1948.

Harmony, Anglo-American. When one beholds how many currents of extraordinary and terrible events have flowed together to make this harmony, even the most sceptical person must have the feeling that we all have the chance to play our part and do our duty in some great design, the end of which no mortal can foresee. Awful and horrible things are happening in these days. The whole of Europe has been wrecked and trampled down by the mechanical weapons and barbaric fury of the Nazis; the most deadly instruments of war-science have been joined to the extreme refinements of treachery and the most brutal exhibitions of ruthlessness, and thus have formed a combine of aggression the like of which has never been known, before which the rights, the traditions, the characteristics and structure of many ancient honoured states and peoples have been laid prostrate and are now ground down under the heel and terror of a monster.
London, August 24, 1941.

Harrow. Hitler, in one of his recent discourses, declared that the fight was between those who have been through the Adolf Hitler schools and those who have been at Eton. Hitler has forgotten Harrow.
Harrow, December 18, 1940.

Harvard. Here, now to-day, I am once again in academic groves—groves is, I believe, the right word—where knowledge is garnered, where learning is stimulated, where virtues are inculcated and thought encouraged. Here, in the broad United States, with a respectable ocean on either side of us, we can look out upon the world in all its wonder and in all its woe.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

Hate. Hate is not a good guide in public or in private life. I am sure that class hatred and class warfare, like national revenge, are the most costly luxuries in which anyone can indulge.
Commons, April 24, 1950.

Haters. Hate is a bad guide. I have never considered myself at all a good hater—though I recognize that from moment to moment it has added stimulus to pugnacity.
Commons, November 6, 1950.

Hatred of Germany. It will not be by German hands that the structure of Europe will be rebuilt or the union of the European family achieved. In every country into which the German armies and the Nazi police have broken there has sprung up from the soil a hatred of the German name and a contempt for the Nazi creed which the passage of hundreds of years will not efface from human memory. We cannot yet see how deliverance will come, or when it will come, but nothing is more certain than that every trace of Hitler’s footsteps, every stain of his infected and corroding fingers, will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth.
St. James’s Palace, London, June 12, 1941.

Hawkey, Sir James. In Sir James Hawkey I have found a supporter, a champion and a loyal friend in most difficult times, and it may be well that if his influence, hard work and resolute conviction had not prevailed after Munich in this constituency, I might not have had the opportunity of rendering you any of those services which he has mentioned.
Woodford Green, July 10, 1948.

Headlines, Newspaper. The newspapers, with their alluring headlines, do not do justice to the proportion of current events. Everyone is busy, or is oppressed by the constant cares and difficulties of daily life. Headlines flicker each day before them. Any disorder or confusion in any part of the world, every kind of argument, trouble, dispute, friction or riot—all flicker across the scene. People go tired to bed, at the end of their long, bleak, worrying days, or else they cast care aside, and live for the moment. But, all this time, a tremendous event in Asia is moving towards its culmination, and we should be unworthy of the times in which we live, or of the deeds which we have done if, through unduly careful restraint, we appeared to others unconscious of the gravity, or careless of the upshot, of events which affect the lives of vast numbers of human beings who, up to the present, have dwelt for well or ill beneath our protecting shield.
Commons, December 12, 1946.

Healing. The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman, simply on the ground that it is the enemy; and it must be attacked just in the same way as the fire brigade will give its full assistance to the humblest cottage as readily as to the most important mansion.
Royal College of Physicians, London, March 2, 1944.

Heartbeat of France. Bearing in mind some mistakes in our own policy between the wars; bearing in mind also the failure of the League of Nations, in consequence, largely, of the falling out of America, and other weaknesses for which other powers are responsible, to give general security to the world; bearing in mind the withdrawal of the United States from the Anglo-American guarantee against German aggression promised by President Wilson, on the strength of which France relinquished her claims to the Rhine frontier; bearing in mind, above everything, the loss of nearly two million men which France, with her small and declining population, sustained in bearing the brunt, as she bore it, of the last war, and the terrible effect of this unexampled bloodletting upon the heartbeat, the life heartbeat, of France; bearing all this, and much else, in mind, I have always felt the liveliest sympathy for the French in the years when we watched, supinely, the dreadful and awe-inspiring growth of the German power.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Hedgehog. Our country should suggest to the mind of a potential paratrooper the back of a hedgehog rather than the paunch of a rabbit.
Commons, December 6, 1951.

Henderson, Sir Reginald. I should like to associate myself with the tribute which he paid to Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson. Those of us who know that officer—and I knew him when he was gunnery lieutenant doing the gunnery trials of the ships we were building before the Great War—will realize the rare and remarkable qualities which he brought to the service of the Royal Navy. He has expended his energy, his life, his thought, his mental energy, an attribute which is rare nowadays, in the most generous manner, and if he has been stricken down by an affliction, which we all hope is only temporary, he is in exactly the same position as a brave officer who is wounded fighting for his country in action. It is well known that at the most critical period of the war this officer, then in a subordinate station, taking his career in his hands, presented facts and figures and arguments which eventually reached the highest authority—the Prime Minister—and that through that report a great change was made in our naval disposition, without which it could not be said with certainty that the submarine menace at that time would have been overcome.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Hereditary Principle. It is very easy to deride the Party system—it is almost as easy to deride the hereditary principle.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Heroic Period of History. What a triumph the life of these battered cities is, over the worst that fire and bomb can do. What a vindication of the civilized and decent way of living we have been trying to work for and work towards in our island. What a proof of the virtues of free institutions. What a test of the quality of our local authorities, and of institutions and customs and societies so steadily built. This ordeal by fire has even in a certain sense exhilarated the manhood and womanhood of Britain. The sublime but also terrible and sombre experiences and emotions of the battlefield, which for centuries had been reserved for the soldiers and sailors, are now shared, for good or ill, by the entire population. All are proud to be under the fire of the enemy. Old men, little children, the crippled veterans of former wars, aged women, the ordinary hard-pressed citizen or subject of the King as he likes to call himself, the sturdy workmen who swing the hammers or load the ships, skilful craftsmen, the members of every kind of A.R.P. service, are proud to feel that they stand in the line together with our fighting men, when one of the greatest of causes is being fought out, as fought out it will be, to the end. This is indeed the grand heroic period of our history, and the light of glory shines on all.
London, April 27, 1941.

Herrenfolk, Rule of. What is this New Order which they seek to fasten first upon Europe and if possible—for their ambitions are boundless—upon all the continents of the globe? It is the rule of the Herrenfolk—the master-race—who are to put an end to democracy, to Parliaments, to the fundamental freedoms and decencies of ordinary men and women, to the historic rights of nations; and give them in exchange the iron rule of Prussia, the universal goose-step, and a strict, efficient discipline enforced upon the working-classes by the political police, with the German concentration camps and firing parties, now so busy in a dozen lands, always handy in the background. There is the New Order.
London, August 24, 1941.

Hiatus in Air Armaments. There is the same kind of helplessness and hopelessness about dealing with this air problem as there is about dealing with the unemployment problem, or the currency question, or the question of economy. All the evils are vividly portrayed, and the most admirable sentiments are expressed, but as for a practical course of action, solid footholds on which we can tread step by step, there is in this great sphere, as in other spheres of government activity, a gap, a hiatus, a sense that there is no message from the lips of the prophet. There is no use gaping vacuously on the problems of the air. Still less is there any use in indulging in pretence in any form.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Hindsight. Nothing is more easy, nothing is cheaper, nothing is more futile, than to criticize the hazardous and incalculable events and tendencies of war after the event has occurred.
Commons, February 21, 1917.

Hiroshima. There are voices which assert that the bomb should never have been used at all. I cannot associate myself with such ideas. Six years of total war have convinced most people that had the Germans or Japanese discovered this new weapon they would have used it upon us to our complete destruction with the utmost alacrity. I am surprised that very worthy people, but people who in most cases had no intention of proceeding to the Japanese front themselves, should adopt the position that rather than throw this bomb, we should have sacrificed a million American and a quarter of a million British lives in the desperate battles and massacres of an invasion of Japan. Future generations will judge these dire decisions, and I believe that if they find themselves dwelling in a happier world from which war has been banished, and where freedom reigns, they will not condemn those who struggled for their benefit amid the horrors and miseries of this gruesome and ferocious epoch.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

The bomb brought peace, but men alone can keep that peace, and henceforward they will keep it under penalties which threaten the survival not only of civilization but of humanity itself. I may say that I am in entire agreement with the President that the secrets of the atomic bomb should so far as possible not be imparted at the present time to any other country in the world. This is in no design or wish for arbitrary power, but for the common safety of the world. Nothing can stop the progress of research and experiment in every country, but although research will no doubt proceed in many places, the construction of the immense plants necessary to transform theory into action cannot be improvised in any country.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

History. In case at any forthcoming General Election there may be an attempt to revive these former controversies, we are taking steps to have little booklets prepared recording the utterances, at different moments, of all the principal figures involved in those baffling times. For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all Parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
Commons, January 23, 1948.

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.
Commons, November 12, 1940.

History, Course of. The right to guide the course of history is the noblest prize of victory. We are still toiling up the hill; we have not yet reached the crest-line of it; we cannot survey the landscape or even imagine what its condition will be when that longed-for morning comes. The task which lies before us immediately is at once practical, more simple and more stern. I hope—indeed I pray—that we shall not be found unworthy of our victory if after toil and tribulation it is granted to us. For the rest we have to gain the victory. That is our task.
Commons, August 20, 1940.

History, Lesson of. It has been said that the dominant lesson of history is that mankind is unteachable.
The General Assembly of Virginia, Richmond, March 8, 1946.

History, Repetition of. When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

History, Unwritten Chapters of. It may well be that the most glorious chapters of our history are yet to be written. Indeed, the very problems and dangers that encompass us and our country ought to make Englishmen and women of this generation glad to be here at such a time. We ought to rejoice at the responsibilities with which destiny has honoured us, and be proud that we are guardians of our country in an age when her life is at stake.
The Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

Hitler. So besotted is this man in his lust for blood and conquest, so blasting is the power he wields over the lives of Germans, that he even blurted out the other day that his armies would be better clothed and his locomotives better prepared for their second winter in Russia than they were for their first.
London, May 10, 1942.

Hitler, Corporal. When Herr Hitler escaped his bomb on July 20th he described his survival as providential; I think that from a purely military point of view we can all agree with him, for certainly it would be most unfortunate if the allies were to be deprived, in the closing phases of the struggle, of that form of warlike genius by which Corporal Schickelgruber has so notably contributed to our victory.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Hitler and Napoleon. I always hate to compare Napoleon with Hitler, as it seems an insult to the great Emperor and warrior to connect him in any way with a squalid caucus boss and butcher. But there is one respect in which I must draw a parallel. Both these men were temperamentally unable to give up the tiniest scrap of any territory to which the high watermark of their hectic fortunes had carried them. Thus, after Leipzig in 1813, Napoleon left all his garrisons on the Rhine, and 40,000 men in Hamburg. He refused to withdraw many other vitally important elements of his armies, and he had to begin the campaign of 1814 with raw levies and a few seasoned troops brought in a hurry from Spain. Similarly, Hitler has successfully scattered the German armies all over Europe, and by obstinating at every point, from Stalingrad and Tunis down to the present moment, he has stripped himself of the power to concentrate in main strength for the final struggle.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Hitler, Repentant. I know of no reason to suppose that Hitler is not in full control of his faculties and the resources of his country.

I think he probably repents that he brought appetite unbridled and ambition unmeasured to his dealings with other nations.

I have very little doubt that if Hitler could have the past back he would play his hand a little differently. He probably regrets having turned down repeated efforts to avoid war, efforts which almost brought the British Government into disrepute. I should think he now repents that he did not curb his passions before he brought the world to misery.
Washington, D.C., May 25, 1943.

Hitler’s Empire. No one can say how far Herr Hitler’s empire will extend before this war is over, but I have no doubt that it will pass away as swiftly as, and perhaps more swiftly than, did Napoleon’s empire, although, of course, without any of its glitter or its glory.
Commons, September 5, 1940.

Hitler’s Generalship. He has lost, or will lose when the tally is complete, nearly a million men in France and the Low Countries. Other large armies may well be cut off in the Baltic States, in Finland, and in Norway. Less than a year ago, when the relative weakness of Germany was already becoming apparent, he was ordering further aggressive action in the Aegean, and the reoccupation of the islands which the Italians had surrendered, or wished to surrender. He has scattered and squandered a very large army in the Balkan Peninsula, whose escape will be very difficult; 27 divisions, many of them battered, are fighting General Alexander in Northern Italy. Many of these will not be able to recross the Alps to defend the German Fatherland. Such a vast frittering-away and dispersal of forces has never been seen, and is, of course, a prime cause of the impending ruin of Germany.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Hitler’s Resolve. Herr Hitler is not thinking only of stealing other people’s territories, or flinging gobbets of them to his little confederate. I tell you truly what you must believe when I say this evil man, this monstrous abortion of hatred and defeat, is resolved on nothing less than the complete wiping out of the French nation, and the disintegration of its whole life and future.
London, October 21, 1940.

Hitler’s Strategy. I salute Marshal Stalin, the great champion, and I firmly believe that our twenty years’ treaty with Russia will prove one of the most lasting and durable factors in preserving the peace and the good order and the progress of Europe. It may well be that Russian success has been somewhat aided by the strategy of Herr Hitler—of Corporal Hitler. Even military idiots find it difficult not to see some faults in some of his actions. Here he now finds himself with perhaps ten divisions in the north of Finland and 20 or 30 divisions cut off in the Baltic States, all of which three or four months ago could have been transported with their material and their weapons to stand between Germany and the Russian advance. It is far too late for him to achieve that at the present time. Altogether, I think it is much better to let officers rise up in the proper way.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Home and Abroad. When I am abroad I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the Government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
Commons, April 18, 1947.

Home Guard. Our eyes are fixed upon the future, but we may spare a moment to glance back to those past days of 1940, which are so strangely imprinted upon our memories that we can hardly tell whether they are near or far away. In those days of May, and June, and July, in that terrible summer, when we stood alone, and as the world thought, forlorn, against the all-powerful aggressor with his vast armies and masses of equipment, Mr. Anthony Eden, as Secretary of State for War, called upon the local Defence Volunteers to rally round the searchlight positions. Shot-guns, sporting rifles, and staves, were all they could find for weapons; it was not until July that we ferried safely across the Atlantic the 1,000,000 rifles and 1,000 field guns, with ammunition proportionable, which were given to us by the Government and people of the United States by an act of precious and timely succour.
London, May 14, 1943.

Home Rule for Ireland, 1886. I have read attentively the history of the great Home Rule crisis in 1886; and it seems to me that much injury might have been saved the Liberal Party, if all those who viewed the Home Rule policy of Mr. Gladstone with distrust and suspicion had taken the very earliest opportunity after its inception of protesting against it in the most emphatic manner. Instead of that, they allowed themselves to slip from point to point; and then, when there was no means of retreat, the Party found itself committed to a policy which for twenty years has hung round its neck like a millstone.
Commons, May 28, 1903.

Honour as guide. I have thought in this difficult period, when so much fighting and so many critical and complicated manoeuvres are going on, that it is above all things important that our policy and conduct should be upon the highest level, and that honour should be our guide.
London, April 27, 1941.

Hop-Growers. I remember many years ago Mr. Lloyd George sending for me to receive with him a deputation of hop-growers. . . We could give them nothing but sympathy, but we gave them a double dose of that.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Horse, The. Our generation has to a great extend parted company with the horse. Instead, we have been blessed with the internal combustion engine. I can say nothing about the future, which is unknown to us, but I wonder whether the generation to which I belong has won or lost by this change.
University of Oslo, May 12, 1948.

Hour, Their finest. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, than the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, “This was their finest hour.”
Commons, June 18, 1940.

House of Commons. There is no situation to which it cannot address itself with vigour and ingenuity. It is the citadel of British liberty. It is the foundation of our laws.
Commons, October 28, 1942.

House of Lords, Powers of the. The powers of the House of Lords to impede, and by impeding to discredit, the House of Commons are strangely bestowed, strangely limited, and still more strangely exercised. There are little things which they can maul; there are big things they cannot touch; there are Bills which they pass, although they believe them to be wrong; there are Bills which they reject, although they know them to be right. The House of Lords can prevent the trams running over Westminster Bridge; but it cannot prevent a declaration of war.
Birmingham, January 13, 1909.

Housing. Houses are built of bricks, mortar and goodwill, not of politics, prejudices and spite.
Cardiff, February 8, 1950.

Good housing is the first of the social services. Bad housing makes more disease than the best health service can cure.
Glasgow, May 18, 1951.

Humanity, Laws of. Consideration for the lives of others and the laws of humanity, even when one is struggling for one’s life and in the greatest stress, does not go wholly unrewarded.
Commons, February 2, 1917.

Humbug. We ought not to deal with humbug. There are good people in this country who care about disarmament. In many ways I think they are wrong, but I do not see why they should be tricked. I think they should have the plain truth told them, and if they disagree they have their constitutional remedy.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Hydrogen Bomb. The hydrogen bomb carries us into dimensions which have never confronted practical human thought and have been confined to the realms of fancy and imagination.
Commons, April 4, 1954.

Hypocrisy preferable. I say frankly that I would rather have a peacekeeping hypocrisy than straightforward, brazen vice, taking the form of unlimited war.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Ideas, Power of. What is this miracle, for it is nothing less, that called men from the uttermost ends of the earth, some riding twenty days before they could reach their recruiting centres, some armies having to sail 14,000 miles across the seas before they reached the battlefield? What is this force, this miracle which makes governments, as proud and sovereign as any that have ever existed, immediately cast aside all their fears, and immediately set themselves to aid a good cause and beat the common foe? You must look very deep into the heart of man, and then you will not find the answer unless you look with the eye of the spirit. Then it is that you learn that human beings are not dominated by material things, but by ideas for which they are willing to give their lives or their life’s work.
Commons, April 21, 1944.

Ideologies. We are told that we must not involve ourselves in a quarrel about ideologies. If this means that we are not to back Communism against Nazi-ism or vice versa, we all agree. Both doctrines are equally obnoxious to the principles of freedom. Certainly we should not back one against the other. But surely we must have an opinion between Right and Wrong? Surely we must have an opinion between Aggressor and Victim?
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

If. I give no guarantee, I make no promise or prediction for the future. But if the next six months, during which we must expect even harder fighting and many disappointments, should find us in no worse position than that in which we stand to-day; if, after having fought so long alone, single-handed against the might of Germany, and against Italy, and against the intrigues and treachery of Vichy, we should still be found the faithful and unbeaten guardian of the Nile Valley and of the regions that lie about it, then I say that a famous chapter will have been written in the martial history of the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Illusion. We are going away on our holidays. Jaded ministers, anxious but impotent Members of Parliament, a public whose opinion is more bewildered and more expressionless than anything I can recall in my life—all will seek the illusion of rest and peace.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Imagination. You cannot tell from appearances how things will go, sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist, certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination.
Harrow School, Harrow, October 29, 1941.

Immunity. When all is said and done as regards defence methods, pending some new discovery the only direct measure upon a great scale is the certainty of being able to inflict simultaneously upon the enemy as great damage as he can inflict upon ourselves. Do not let us undervalue the efficacy of this procedure. It may well prove in practice—I admit you cannot prove it in theory—capable of giving complete immunity.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Immunity of Britain. It may be hard for our island people, with their long immunity, to realize this ugly, unpleasant alteration in our position. We are an undefeated people. Nearly a thousand years have passed since we were subjugated by external force. All our outlook for several generations has been influenced by a sense of invincible, inexpugnable security at home. That security is no longer absolute or certain, and we must address our minds courageously, seriously, to the new conditions under which we have now to dwell, and under which Continental nations have always dwelt.
Commons, March 4, 1937.

Impartiality. I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire. When you are in a great difficulty and in a fight of this kind, however unfortunate it may be, it is absolutely no use people pretending they do not know what side they are on. The ancient Greeks had a very salutary law that in disturbances of this kind, which sometimes in that country took a very serious form, anyone who could not make up his mind which side he was on was put to death.
Commons, July 7, 1926.

Imperial Preference. They knew that as to Imperial preference the right hon. Gentleman [A. J. Balfour] was opposed to it, not because he thought it was not good for the country, but because he thought it would not win many votes at the General Election. It was not a noble reason, but it was a practical one, and it was a reason of some sort.
Commons, March 29, 1904.

We are told what a splendid thing preference is, what noble results it would achieve, what inexpressible happiness and joy it would bring to all parts of the Empire and to all parts of the earth, what wealth would be created, how the Exchequer would gain, and how the food of the people would cheapen in price. But though the Government is blamed for not acting on these suggestions, we are never told what is the schedule of taxes which it is proposed to introduce to give effect to these splendid and glittering aspirations.
Commons, July 15, 1907.

Imperialism, Bastard. There were two kinds of Imperialism. There was the Imperialism of the camp, about which some of them who were leaving the Protectionist Party knew something, and there was the Imperialism of the caucus, about which they had known something during the last few months. They ought to distinguish between the amateur Imperialists who gave their lives on the field, and the professional Imperialists who got their living by practising it in politics; they ought to distinguish between the sentiment which united us to our colonies, and the bastard Imperialism which was ground out by a Party machine and was convenient for placing a particular set of gentlemen in power.
Commons, May 16, 1904.

Imperium et Libertas. The maxim of Lord Beaconsfield, Imperium et Libertas, is still our guide. This truth has already been proved abundantly since those words were spoken. Without freedom there is no foundation for our Empire; without Empire there is no safeguard for our freedom.
Central Hall, Westminster, March 15, 1945.

Incantations. I myself do not believe that we shall come through our difficulties by reliance on any particular logical or doctrinaire theory, I do not believe that there is any way in which, by chanting some incantation, we shall be able to produce a solution of the difficulties with which we are confronted.
Commons, July 24, 1928.

Income, Earned. There is all the difference in the world between the income which a man makes from month to month or from year to year by his continued exertion, which may stop at any moment, and will certainly stop if he is incapacitated, and the income which is derived from the profits of accumulated capital, which is a continuing income irrespective of the exercise of the owner.
Edinburgh, July 17, 1909.

Income Tax. The income tax had always been looked upon as the great reserve for war, and when it stood at one shilling in time of peace it was inevitable that the whole elasticity of their financial system was destroyed.
Commons, July 20, 1904.

Income Tax, Exemption from. Exemption from income tax is in effect a subsidy.
Commons, June 21, 1926.

Income Tax, Foundation of. The foundation of the British income tax is deducted at a standard rate at the source from every form of income capable of being so treated.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Incongruity. To abandon India, with all the dire consequences that would follow therefrom, but to have a war with the Jews in order to give Palestine to the Arabs amid the execration of the world, appears to carry incongruity of thought and policy to levels which have rarely been attained in human history.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

Incorruptibility. There is a gulf fixed between private conduct and that of persons in an official, and, above all, in a ministerial position. The abuse or misuse for personal gain of the special powers and privileges which attach to office under the State is rightly deemed most culpable, and, quite apart from any question of prosecution under the law, is decisive in respect of ministers.
Commons, February 3, 1949.

Increment, Unearned. Again we say that the unearned increment in land is reaped in proportion to the disservice done to the community, is a mere toll levied upon the community, is an actual burden and imposition upon them, and an appropriation by an individual, under existing law no doubt, of socially created wealth.
Abernethy, July 7, 1909.

Indemnity, German. Germany has paid since the war an indemnity of about one thousand millions sterling, but she has borrowed in the same time about two thousand millions sterling with which to pay that indemnity and to equip her factories.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Independence. We cannot afford to confide the safety of our country to the passions or the panic of any foreign nation which may be facing some desperate crisis. We must be independent. We must be free. We must preserve our full latitude and discretion of choice. In the past we have always had this freedom and independence.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Independence, Declaration of. We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law, find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

India. It makes me sick when I hear the Secretary of State saying of India “she will do this,” and “she will do that!” India is an abstraction . . . India is no more a political personality than Europe. India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

What has been the effect of our immense act of surrender in India? On the morrow of our victory and of our services, without which human freedom would not have survived, we are divesting ourselves of the mighty and wonderful empire which had been built up in India by two hundred years of effort and sacrifice, and the number of the King’s subjects is being reduced to barely a quarter of what it has been for generations. Yet at this very moment and in the presence of this unparalleled act of voluntary abdication, we are still ceaselessly abused by the Soviet wireless and by certain unfriendly elements in the United States for being a land-grabbing Imperialistic power seeking expansion and aggrandizement. While Soviet Russia is expanding or seeking to expand in every direction, and has already brought many extra scores of millions of people directly or indirectly under the despotic control of the Kremlin and the rigours of Communist discipline, we, who sought nothing from this war but to do our duty and are in fact reducing ourselves to a fraction of our former size and population, are successfully held up to world censure.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

India, Britain’s Work in. The reason why, in my judgment, Lord Irwin, for all his virtue and courage, has not succeeded in India as he deserved to, is that he has been proceeding upon a wrong mental theme. His attitude towards India has throughout been an apology. He has not shown sufficient confidence in the indispensable work which our country has done, and is doing, for India, or in British resolution that it shall not be interrupted or destroyed. That is the sole foundation upon which the peaceful and successful administration of India can be used.
Manchester, January 30, 1931.

India, British Concessions to. Where there have been differences between Indians and Great Britain, some adjustment has been made by Great Britain giving way; but as to differences between Indians themselves, there has not been one concession, not one difficulty has been solved or surmounted. Nevertheless, on we go, moving slowly, in a leisurely manner, jerkily onwards, towards an unworkable conclusion, crawling methodically towards the abyss which we shall reach in due course.
Commons, July 9, 1931.

India, Choices in. In all this confusion, uncertainty, and gathering storm, which those who have studied the Indian problem over long years might well have foreseen, there appear at the present time to be three choices—the proverbial three choices—before the British Parliament. The first is to proceed with ruthless logic to quit India regardless of what may happen there. This we can certainly do. Nothing can prevent us, if it be the will of Parliament, from gathering together our women and children and unarmed civilians, and marching under strong rearguards to the sea. That is one choice. The second is to assert the principle, so often proclaimed, that the King needs no unwilling subjects and that the British Commonwealth of Nations contemplates no compulsory partnership, that, in default of real agreement, the partition of India between the two different races and religions, widely differing entities, must be faced: that those who wish to make their own lives in their own way may do so, and the gods be with them; and that those who desire to find, in a variety of systems, a means of association with our great free Commonwealth may also be permitted to take the course which, ultimately, they may show themselves ready to take.
Commons, December 12, 1946.

India, Departure from. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the departure of the British from India, which Mr. Gandhi advocates, and which Mr. Nehru demands, would be followed first by a struggle in the North and thereafter by a reconquest of the South by the North and of the Hindus by the Moslems. This danger has not escaped the crafty foresight of the Brahmins. It is for that reason that they wish to have control of a British army, or failing that, a white army of janissaries officered, as Mr. Gandhi has suggested, by Germans or other Europeans.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

India, Divisions in. India is a continent as large as and more populous than Europe, and not less deeply divided by racial and religious differences than Europe. India has no more unity than Europe, except that superficial unity which has been created by our rule and guidance in the last 150 years.
Westminster, May 7, 1946.

India, Dominion Status. You will ask me what, then, are we to make of our promises of Dominion status and responsible government. Surely we cannot break our word! There I agree. The formal, plighted word of the King-Emperor is inviolable. It does not follow, however, that every Socialist jack-in-office can commit this great country by his perorations. . . . Except as an ultimate visionary goal, Dominion status like that of Canada or Australia is not going to happen in India in any period which we can even remotely foresee.
Manchester, January 30, 1931.

India and the Empire. No one will doubt the sincerity and the earnestness with which the Cabinet ministers concerned and the viceroy [Lord Wavell], have laboured to bring about the solution of Indian disagreement. They have worked for that solution with the zeal that would be natural if it were to gain an empire and not to cast one away.
Commons, May 16, 1946.

India, Loss of. In this melancholy tale of the casting away of the British Empire in India and of the misfortunes and slaughter which are falling upon its peoples, all the blame cannot be thrown on one Party. But the Socialist Government on gaining power threw themselves into the task of destroying our long-built-up and splendid structure in the East with zeal and gusto, and they certainly have brought widespread ruin, misery and bloodshed upon the Indian masses, to an extent no man can measure, by the methods with which they have handled the problem.
Brighton, October 4, 1947.

India, Parties in. The Indian political Parties and political classes do not represent the Indian masses. It is a delusion to believe that they do. I wish they did. They are not as representative of them as the movements in Britain represent the surges and impulses of the British nation.
Commons, March 6, 1947.

India, Provincial governments. We believe that the next forward step is the development of Indian responsibility in the provincial governments of India. Efforts should be made to make them more truly representative of the real needs of the people. Indians should be given ample opportunities to try their hand at giving capable government in the provinces; and meanwhile the central Imperial executive, which is the sole guarantee of impartiality between races, creeds and classes, should preserve its sovereign power intact, and allow no derogation from its responsibility to Parliament.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

India, Withdrawal from. Take stock round the world at the present moment; after all we are entitled to survey the whole field. We declare ourselves ready to abandon the mighty Empire and Continent of India with all the work we have done in the last 200 years, territory over which we possess unimpeachable sovereignty. The Government are, apparently, ready to leave the 400 million Indians to fall into all the horrors of sanguinary civil war—civil war compared to which anything that could happen in Palestine would be microscopic; wars of elephants compared with wars of mice.
Commons, August 1, 1946.

Indian Army. All the great countries in this war count their armies by millions, but the Indian Army has a peculiar characteristic not found in the armies of Britain or the United States or Russia or France or in the armies of our foes, in that it is entirely composed of volunteers. No one has been conscripted or compelled. The same thing is broadly true throughout our great Colonial Empire.
Guildhall, London, June 30, 1943.

Indignation. It is very easy to say that your opponents have been guilty of a breach of faith, but it is a great mistake to splash the paint about so freely that your words cease to have any real meaning and cease to carry any sense of affront even to those to whom they are applied, and cease to bear any connection with any genuine feeling of indignation on the part of those on whose behalf they are spoken.
Commons, March 27, 1911.

My hon. and gallant Friend must really not develop more indignation than he can sustain. [Ref. to Captain Wedgwood Benn, now Lord Stansgate.]
Commons, February 23, 1920.

Individual versus Party. I think that great Parties should endeavour to avoid conflicts with private persons.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

Individual, Rights of the. Since the dawn of the Christian era a certain way of life has slowly been shaping itself among the western peoples, and certain standards of conduct and government have come to be esteemed. After many miseries and prolonged confusion, there arose into the broad light of day the conception of the right of the individual; his right to be consulted in the government of his country; his right to invoke the law even against the State itself.
London, October 16, 1938.

In moving steadily and steadfastly from a class to a national foundation in the politics and economics of our society and civilization, we must not forget the glories of the past, nor how many battles we have fought for the rights of the individual and for human freedom.
London, March 21, 1943.

Inexactitude, Terminological. The conditions of the Transvaal Ordinance under which Chinese labour is now being carried on do not, in my opinion, constitute a state of slavery. A labour contract . . . may not be a desirable contract, may not be a healthy or proper contract, but it cannot in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Inexorable Laws. I am not basing myself on individual promises, but on the working of inexorable laws.
Commons, June 5, 1928.

Infantry. This war proceeds along its terrible path by the slaughter of infantry. It is this infantry which is the most difficult to replenish, which is continually worn away on both sides, and though all the other services of the army are necessary to its life, and to its maintenance . . . it is this fighting part that is the true measure of your military power, and the only true measure.
Commons, May 23, 1916.

Inflation. On the whole, when there is inflation and undue expansion, I believe it to be true that wages follow with somewhat slower footsteps the swiftly rising scale of prices.
Commons, May 5, 1925.

Influence, British. It is known, alike by peoples and rulers that, upon the whole—and it is upon the whole that we must judge these things—British influence is a kindly and healthy influence and makes for the general happiness and welfare of mankind.
Commons, March 16, 1901.

Initiative in War. Almost the first of the great principles of war is to seize the initiative, to rivet the attention of the enemy on your action, and to confront him with a series of novel and unexpected situations which leave him no time to pursue a policy of his own.
Commons, February 21, 1917.

Innovations. We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic.
Commons, December 17, 1942.

Inquiries. When the House became very anxious a few months ago about our existing granaries being only about half full, and some hon. Members had the audacity to suggest that perhaps it might be just as well to fill them right up and keep them almost filled instead of half empty, the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence came forward with a plan. It was the kind of plan which is always popular, always acceptable, and always most effective in allaying agitation and staving off Parliamentary questions. His plan was to have an inquiry. There would be an inquiry over which he himself would preside. Of course, once that has been announced, obviously all other questions whenever they are raised can be answered most effectively by saying, “Hush! The inquiry is still proceeding; the case is sub judice. We must not interrupt these most searching toils and studies which are being undertaken. We must wait with patience until the whole matter can be presented.” That inquiry is still proceeding.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Inskip, Sir Thomas. I am sure everyone will feel that the right hon. Gentleman who fills the office of Minister of Co-ordination of Defence is extraordinarily capable of co-ordinating the Parliamentary defence of the Government and its policy against whatever criticism may be directed upon it from any quarter of the House.
Commons, May 29, 1936.

Inspiration. We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
London, September 11, 1940.

A wonderful story is unfolding before our eyes. How it will end we are not allowed to know. But on both sides of the Atlantic we all feel, I repeat, all, that we are a part of it, that our future and that of many generations is at stake. We are sure that the character of human society will be shaped by the resolves we take and the deeds we do. We need not bewail the fact that we have been called upon to face such solemn responsibilities. We may be proud, and even rejoice amid our tribulations, that we have been born at this cardinal time for so great an age and so splendid an opportunity of service here below.
London, June 16, 1941.

It is a message of good cheer to our fighting forces on the seas, in the air, and in our waiting armies in all their posts and stations, that we send them from this capital city. They know that they have behind them a people who will not flinch or weary of the struggle—hard and protracted though it be; but that we shall rather draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival, and of a victory won not only for ourselves but for all; a victory won not only for our own time, but for the long and better days that are to come.
London, September 11, 1940.

Instinctive Urge. The British race is not actuated mainly by the hope of material gain. Otherwise we should long ago have sunk in the ocean of the past. It is stirred on almost all occasions by sentiment and instinct, rather than by programmes or worldly calculations.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Instrumentalities. But arms—the instrumentalities, as President Wilson called them—are not sufficient by themselves. We must add to them the power of ideas. People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now. It is this very conflict of spiritual and moral ideas which gives the free countries a great part of their strength. You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like—they boast and vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home—all the more powerful because forbidden—terrify them.
London, October 16, 1938.

Insults. Every kind of insult was flung out, not that we seasoned politicians mind what was said about us by people for whom we entertain no respect.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

Insurance. If I had to sum up the immediate future of democratic politics in a single word I should say “insurance.” That is the future—insurance against dangers from abroad, insurance against dangers scarcely less grave and much more near and constant which threaten us here at home in our own island.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Insurance, Compulsory. The time is now ripe for another great advance, and anyone can see what large savings there will be in the administration once the whole process of insurance has become unified, compulsory, and national. Here is a real opportunity for what I once called “bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of the millions.” Therefore you must rank me and my colleagues as strong partisans of national compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to the grave.
London, March 21, 1943.

Insurance, National. I personally am very keen that a scheme for the amalgamation and extension of our present incomparable insurance systems should have a leading place in our Four Years’ Plan. I have been prominently connected with all these schemes of national compulsory organized thrift from the time when I brought my friend Sir William Beveridge into the public service thirty-five years ago, when I was creating the labour exchanges, on which he was a great authority, and when, with Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith, I framed the first unemployment insurance scheme. The prime parent of all national insurance schemes is Mr. Lloyd George. I was his lieutenant in those distant days, and afterwards it fell to me, as Chancellor of the Exchequer eighteen years ago, to lower the pensions age to sixty-five and to bring in the widows and orphans.
London, March 21, 1943.

Insurance Risk. No one is able to forecast the exact moment of his death. That is a mystery which is hidden from us. Still, as the years pass by, and as each of us, in our turn, pass the summit on the way and descend slowly and gradually or rapidly as the case may be, the actuarial position of each taxpayer is definitely and effectively altered.
Commons, June 21, 1926.

Insurance, Social. Roughly, I believe it to be no exaggeration to say that the rates to cover a man till seventy are in many cases scarcely half what they would be if they had to cover him till death. Do you see what that means? It is a prodigious fact. It is the sort of fact by the discovery of which people make gigantic fortunes; and I suggest to you that we should make this gigantic fortune for John Bull.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Insure. If I had my way I would write the word “insure” over the door of every cottage, and upon the blotting book of every public man, because I am convinced that by sacrifices which are conceivably small, which are all within the power of the very poorest man in regular work, families can be secured against catastrophes which otherwise would smash them up for ever.
Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Intellectuals. Historians have noticed, all down the centuries, one peculiarity of the English people which has cost them dear. We have always thrown away after a victory the greater part of the advantages we gained in the struggle. The worst difficulties from which we suffer do not come from without. They come from within. They do not come from the cottages of the wage-earners. They come from a peculiar type of brainy people always found in our country, who, if they add something to its culture, take much from its strength.
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

Intercourse, International. The dangers which threaten the tranquillity of the modern world come not from those powers that have become interdependent upon others, interwoven by commerce with other states; they come from those powers which are more or less aloof from the general intercourse of mankind, and are comparatively independent and self-supporting.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

Interdependence. We do not mind even if we become dependent on foreign nations, because we know that by that very fact we make foreign nations dependent upon us.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

Interest, British. If we in this small island have gradually grown to a considerable estate, and have been able to give our wage-earners some relief from the harder forms of economic pressure, and to build up a decent, tolerant, compassionate, flexible, and infinitely varied society, it is because in all the great crises of our history, the interest of Britain has marched with the progress and freedom of mankind.
Canada Club, London, April 20, 1939.

Interest, National. The only sure guide to the actions of mighty nations and powerful governments is a correct estimate of what are and what they consider to be their own interests.
Commons, November 3, 1953.

Interference. I sometimes have a feeling, in fact I have it very strongly, a feeling of interference. I want to stress that. I have a feeling sometimes that some guiding hand had interfered. I have a feeling that we have a guardian because we serve a great cause, and that we shall have that guardian so long as we serve that cause faithfully. And what a cause it is! One has only to look at the overwhelming evidence which pours in day by day of the bestial cruelties of the Nazis and the fearful miseries of Europe in all the lands into which they have penetrated; the people ground down, exploited, spied upon, terrorized, shot by platoons of soldiers, day after day the executions, and every kind of petty vexation added to those dark and bloody acts of terrorism. Think what they would do to us if they got here. Think what they would do to us, we who have barred their way to the loot of the whole world, we whom they hate the most because they dread and envy us the most. Think what they would do to us.
Westminster Central Hall, London, October 31, 1942.

Internationalist. I am a great admirer of the Scots, I am quite friendly with the Welsh, especially one of them. I must confess to some sentiment about old Ireland, in spite of the ugly mask she tries to wear.
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

Interruptions. All the years that I have been in the House of Commons I have always said to myself one thing: “Do not interrupt,” and I have never been able to keep to that resolution.
Commons, July 10, 1935.

Intuition, Hitler’s. I am free to admit that in North Africa we builded better than we knew. The unexpected came to the aid of the design and multiplied the results. For this we have to thank the military intuition of Corporal Hitler. We may notice, as I predicted in the House of Commons three months ago, the touch of the masterhand. The same insensate obstinacy which condemned Field-Marshal von Paulus and his army to destruction at Stalingrad has brought this new catastrophe upon our enemies in Tunisia.
Speech to the U.S. Congress, May 19, 1943.

Invasion. Above all, we must not be led by the Lord President [Mr. Stanley Baldwin] into this helpless, hopeless mood. Our island is surrounded by the sea. It always has been, and, although the House may not realize it, the sea was in early times a great disadvantage because an invader could come across the sea and no one knew where he would land; very often he did not know himself.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Invasion, Airborne. It seems quite clear that no invasion on a scale beyond the capacity of our land forces to crush speedily is likely to take place from the air until our air force has been definitely overpowered. In the meantime, there may be raids by parachute troops and attempted descents of airborne soldiers.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Invasion of Britain. The plain fact that an invasion, planned on so vast a scale, has not been attempted in spite of the very great need of the enemy to destroy us in our citadel, and that all these anxious months, when we stood alone and the whole of the world wondered, have passed safely away—that fact constitutes in itself one of the historic victories of the British Isles and is a monumental milestone on our onward march.
Commons, November 5, 1940.

Invasion, Danger of. It would not be a good thing for me to go into details of this. [Dangers of invasion.] It might suggest ideas to other people which they have not thought of, and they would not be likely to give us any of their ideas in exchange.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Invasion, Threat of. The difficulties of the invader are not ended when he sets foot on shore. A new chapter of perils opens upon him. I am confident that we shall succeed in defeating and largely destroying this most tremendous onslaught by which we are now threatened, and anyhow, whatever happens, we will all go down fighting to the end. I feel as sure as the sun will rise to-morrow that we shall be victorious.
Commons, September 17, 1940.

The shipping available and now assembled is sufficient to carry in one voyage nearly half a million men. We should, of course, expect to drown a great many on the way over, and to destroy a large proportion of their vessels. But when you reflect upon the many points from which they could start, and upon the fact that even the most likely sector of invasion, i.e. the sector in which enemy fighter support is available for their bombers and dive-bombers, extending from the Wash to the Isle of Wight, is nearly as long as the whole front in France from the Alps to the sea, and also upon the dangers of fog or artificial fog, one must expect many lodgements or attempted lodgements to be made on our island simultaneously. These we shall hope to deal with as they occur, and also to cut off the supply across the sea by which the enemy will seek to nourish his lodgements.
Commons, September 17, 1940.

Inversion. The Romans had a maxim: “Shorten your weapons and lengthen your frontiers.” But our maxim seems to be “Diminish your weapons and increase your obligations.” Aye, and “diminish the weapons of your friends.”
Commons, March 14, 1934.

Invitations. It is a very fine thing to refuse an invitation, but it is a good thing to wait till you get it first.
Commons, February 22, 1911.

Ireland. I strongly urge that this question shall not be settled by the shouting of ordinary Party cries of bigotry and intolerance, but that a fair effort should be made by Parliament to do justice to it, in the light of the conditions of the age in which we are living, and not upon the principles of moving and stirring events which happened centuries ago.
Commons, February 15, 1911.

Ireland, The case of. The case of Ireland is not comparable with the Dominions. Southern Ireland is not a Dominion; it has never accepted that position. It is a state based upon a Treaty, which Treaty has been completely demolished. Southern Ireland, therefore, becomes a state which is an undefined and unclassified anomaly. No one knows what its juridical and international rights and status are.
Commons, May 5, 1938.

Ireland, Dark forces in. The dark forces in Ireland renew themselves from year to year. When some are conciliated, others present themselves. They are very powerful in Ireland now. No one has ever been brought to justice in Ireland since the Treaty for murdering an Englishman. There is a whole organization of secret men bound together on the old principle that England’s danger is Ireland’s opportunity.
Commons, May 5, 1938.

Ireland and the Empire. I may cherish the hope that some day all Ireland will be loyal, because it is free, will be united because it is loyal, and will be united within itself and united to the British Empire.
Belfast, May 16, 1925.

Ireland and England. The discontent that prevailed between England and Ireland arose not so much from differences of religion and race as from the belief that the English connection was not a profitable nor paying one. If Ireland were more prosperous she would be more loyal, and if more loyal more free.
Commons, May 19, 1904.

I defy respectfully, and I dialectically defy, you, by the utmost exercise of your imagination to conjure up or picture even any set of circumstances in which the ruin of England would not mean the ruin of Ireland also.
Commons, April 30, 1912.

Ireland, Freedom of. Let us on our part be very careful that we do all we have to do in scrupulous and meticulous good faith—in scrupulous, meticulous, and even—if I may dare the word—in credulous good faith. Let us not be led by impatience, by prejudice, by vexation, by anxiety, into courses which would lay us open to charges of fickleness or levity in dealing with those issues so long lasting as the relations between the two islands.
Commons, May 31, 1922.

Ireland, Government of. Ireland was governed by neither King nor people. The system of government was not democratic, autocratic or even oligarchic.
Commons, February 20, 1905.

Ireland, Home Rule for. Never before has so little been asked, and never before have so many people asked for it.
Commons, April 30, 1912.

Ireland, Neutrality of. The fact that we cannot use the south and west coasts of Ireland to refuel our flotillas and aircraft and thus protect the trade by which Ireland as well as Great Britain lives, is a most heavy and grievous burden and one which should never have been placed on our shoulders, broad though they be.
Commons, November 5, 1940.

In the case of the Irish ports, in the spring of 1938, absolutely wrong political data, in my opinion, were put before the Chiefs of Staff—another set of Chiefs of Staff—and they gave advice which nearly brought us to our ruin. [Laughter.] I have heard all this mocking laughter before in the time of a former government. I remember being once alone in the House, protesting against the cession of the Southern Irish ports. I remember the looks of incredulity, the mockery, derision and laughter I had to encounter on every side, when I said that Mr. de Valera might declare Ireland neutral.
Commons, May 24, 1946.

Ireland, A Parent Nation. It is a curious reflection to inquire why Ireland should bulk so largely in our lives. How is it that the great English Parties are shaken to their foundations, and even shattered, almost every generation, by contact with Irish affairs? Whence did Ireland derive its power to drive Mr. Pitt from office, to drag down Mr. Gladstone in the summit of his career, and to draw us who sit here almost to the verge of civil war, from which we were only rescued by the outbreak of the Great War? Whence does this mysterious power of Ireland come? It is a small, poor, sparsely-populated island, lapped about by British sea-power, accessible on every side, without iron or coal. How is it she sways our councils, shakes our Parties, and infects us with her bitterness, convulses our passions, and deranges our action? How is it she has forced generation after generation to stop the whole traffic of the British Empire, in order to debate her domestic affairs? Ireland is not a daughter state. She is a parent nation. The Irish are an ancient race. “We too are,” said their plenipotentiary, “a far-flung nation.”
Commons, December 15, 1921.

Ireland, Power of. If the power of Ireland to harm us will be small, the power of Ireland to help us will be very great.
Commons, March 8, 1922.

Ireland, Unity of. If Irish unity can be achieved, it can only be because the Government of the Irish Free State will have convinced Ulster of its loyal association with the British Empire, and will have offered Ulster conditions of security and partnership in every way satisfactory to her.
Commons, December 15, 1921.

Irish, The. Suppose there is one island in the world and one race upon the surface of the earth so curiously disposed, so strangely fashioned, that self-interest does not stir them, that the desire of prosperity does not dwell in their hearts: suppose there were a race whose two fiercest passions were, first of all, to quarrel with their own bread-and-butter, and secondly, to cut off their own noses to spite their faces; suppose there were such a people, suppose that the Irish were that people, suppose they deliberately set themselves—all this concatenation of absurd suppositions must be made—to wreck and ruin the constitution they had so painfully acquired, to bring about a deadlock to infuriate or to irritate their all-powerful neighbour, to quarrel with the great protecting credit-giving, revenue-paying, and produce-purchasing power—what then? Why then, even for this inverted pyramid of absurd, and unnatural assumptions, there is full provision in the Bill. The Imperial Parliament, in which the Irish will be represented, will have not only the legal but the moral right to legislate.
Commons, April 30, 1912.

Irish Character. No people in the world are really less likely to turn Bolshevik than the Irish. Their strong sense of personal possession, their respect for the position of women, their love of country and their religious convictions constitute them in a peculiar sense the most sure and unyielding opponents of the withering and levelling doctrines of Russia.
Commons, February 16, 1922.

Irish Feuds. The British Empire cannot afford to be drawn continually by these brutal Irish feuds into a position dishonouring to its general and long-maintained reputation.
Commons, April 12, 1922.

Irish Prosperity. Under complete fiscal freedom England holds Irish prosperity in the hollow of her hand.
Commons, December 15, 1921.

Irish Question. There never was a time when there was a great number of moderate sensible people who were prepared to give consideration to the Irish question without passion, to see what a rotten system of government prevailed in that country, and to approach one of the most difficult, as it was one of the most attractive, questions which could occupy the minds of English politicians.
Commons, February 20, 1905.

Irishism. As I said the other night in the small hours of the morning—[Laughter]—that is an Irishism; I mean the other day in the small hours of the morning.
Commons, June 12, 1925.

Iron Cross. At the start of the last war the Iron Cross was a highly prized decoration, but by 1918 it had been granted so freely that it was little valued except, I believe, by Herr Hitler, who, it is alleged, gave it to himself some time later.
Commons, March 22, 1944.

Iron Crosses. After the Armistice, the Germans, who are the most adaptive people, manufactured large numbers of Iron Crosses for sale to the French troops as souvenirs. In the present war they have already some fifteen new medals and twenty-nine new distinctive badges. They have not yet reached the stage of manufacturing them for sale to the allies.
Commons, March 22, 1944.

Iron Curtain. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in many cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Iron Curtain, Abolition of. Let there be sunshine on both sides of the Iron Curtain; and if ever the sunshine should be equal on both sides, the curtain will be no more.
Blenheim, August 4, 1947.

Iron Curtain, Behind the. Ten ancient capitals of Europe are behind the Iron Curtain. A large part of this continent is held in bondage. They have escaped from Nazi-ism only to fall into the other extreme of Communism. It is like making a long and agonizing journey to leave the North Pole only to find out that, as a result, you have woken up in the South Pole. All around are only ice and snow and bitter piercing winds.
Strasbourg, August 17, 1949.

Ironclads, Battle between. If you want a true picture in your mind of a battle between great modern ironclad ships, you must not think of it as if it were two men in armour striking at each other with heavy swords. It is more like a battle between two egg-shells striking each other with hammers.
Commons, April 10, 1914.

Ironmongery in War. It was true that the lance was not so noticeable in time of war as in time of peace, but even then the lance-pole, showing up above hedgerows and kopjes, was a sure tell-tale of the movement of mounted men. I hope the Government would go boldly forward and throw away “ironmongery” altogether. Modern war was fought with firearms, and if cavalry were to play a great role on the battlefield in the future they would have to use modern weapons, and not the sharp sticks and long irons with which the wars of savagery and medieval chivalry were conducted.
Commons, April 14, 1904.

Israel. The coming into being of a Jewish State in Palestine is an event in world history to be viewed in the perspective not of a generation or a century, but in the perspective of a thousand, two thousand or even three thousand years.
Commons, January 26, 1949.

Italian Empire, Fall of. The events in Libya are only part of the story: they are only part of the story of the decline and fall of the Italian Empire, that will not take a future Gibbon so long to write as the original work.
London, February 9, 1941.

Italian Navy. We are also told that the Italian navy is to come out and gain sea superiority in these waters. If they seriously intend it, I shall only say that we shall be delighted to offer Signor Mussolini a free and safeguarded passage through the Straits of Gibraltar in order that he may play the part to which he aspires. There is a general curiosity in the British fleet to find out whether the Italians are up to the level they were at in the last war or whether they have fallen off at all.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Italy and Abyssinia. I do not believe that Signor Mussolini would have embarked upon his Abyssinian venture but for the profound preoccupation of France with German rearmament, and, I must add, but for the real or supposed military and naval weakness of Great Britain. It was the fear of a rearmed Germany that led France to settle her differences with Italy at the beginning of this year, and very likely when these matters were being settled what is called a “free hand in Abyssinia” was thrown in. We may regret it, but we must first see and consider the forces operating upon France before we presume to utter reproaches.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Italy and Britain. We have never been your foes till now. In the last war against the barbarous Huns we were your comrades. For fifteen years after that war we were your friends. Although the institutions which you adopted after that war were not akin to ours, and diverged, as we think, from the sovereign impulses which had commanded the unity of Italy, we could still march forward in peace and good will.
London, December 23, 1940.

Italy at War. It is for the Italian people, forty millions of them, to say whether they want this terrible thing to happen to their country or not. One man, and one man alone, has brought them to this pass. There was no need for them to go to war; no one was going to attack them. We tried our best to induce them to remain neutral, to enjoy peace and prosperity and exceptional profits in a world of storm. But Mussolini could not resist the temptation of stabbing prostrate France, and what he thought was helpless Britain, in the back. Mad dreams of imperial glory, the lust of conquest and of booty, the arrogance of long-unbridled tyranny, led him to his fatal, shameful act. In vain I warned him: he would not harken. On deaf ears and a stony heart fell the wise far-seeing appeals of the American President. The hyena in his nature broke all bounds of decency and even common sense. To-day his empire is gone. We have over a hundred Italian generals and nearly three hundred thousand of his soldiers in our hands as prisoners of war. Agony grips the fair land of Italy. This is only the beginning, and what have the Italians to show for it? A brief promenade by German permission along the Riviera; a flying visit to Corsica; a bloody struggle with the heroic patriots of Yugoslavia; a deed of undying shame in Greece; the ruins of Genoa, Turin, Milan; and this is only a foretaste. One man and the régime he has created have brought these measureless calamities upon the hardworking, gifted and once happy Italian people, with whom, until the days of Mussolini, the English-speaking world had so many sympathies and never a quarrel. How long must this endure?
London, November 29, 1942.

Italy, Fate of. The fate of Italy is indeed terrible, and I personally find it very difficult to nourish animosity against the Italian people. The overwhelming mass of the nation rejoiced in the idea of being delivered from the subtle tyranny of the Fascists, and they wished, when Mussolini was overthrown, to take their place as speedily as possible by the side of the British and American armies who, it was expected, would quickly rid the country of the Germans.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Italy, Friendship with Britain. As we stand to-day there is no doubt that a cloud has come over the old friendship between Great Britain and Italy, a cloud which may very easily not pass away, although undoubtedly it is everyone’s desire that it should. It is an old friendship, and we must not forget, what is a little-known fact, that at the time Italy entered into the Triple Alliance in the last century she stipulated particularly that in no circumstances should her obligations under the Alliance bring her into armed conflict with Great Britain.
Commons, July 11, 1935.

Italy, Intervention of. Where was the need for Italy to intervene? Where was the need to strike at prostrate France? Where was the need to declare war on Britain? Where was the need to invade Egypt, which is under British protection? We were content with Italian neutrality. During the first eight months of the war we paid great deference to Italian interests. But this was all put down to fear. We were told we were effete, worn out, an old chatterbox people mouthing outworn shibboleths of nineteenth century Liberalism. But it was not due to fear. It was not due to weakness.
London, December 23, 1940.

Italy, Liberation of. We must be careful not to get ourselves into the kind of position into which the Germans have blundered in so many countries—that of having to hold down and administer in detail, from day to day, by a system of gauleiters, the entire life of very large populations, thereby becoming responsible under the hard conditions of this present period for the whole of their up-keep and well-being. Such a course might well, in practice, turn the sense of liberation, which it may soon be in our power to bestow upon the Italian people, into a sullen discontent against us and all our works. The rescuers might soon, indeed, be regarded as tyrants; they might even be hated by the Italian people as much or almost as much as their German allies. I certainly do not wish, in the case of Italy, to tread a path which might lead to execution squads and concentration camps, and above all having to carry on our shoulders a lot of people who ought to be made to carry themselves.
Commons, July 17, 1943.

Italy, Plight of. No one wishes to take the native soil of Italy from the Italians, who will have their place in Europe after the war. The trouble is that they allow themselves to be held in bondage by intriguers, with the result that they are now in a terrible plight. I think they would be well advised to throw themselves upon the justice of those whom they have so grossly attacked. We shall not stain our name for posterity by any cruel, inhuman acts. It is a matter for the Italians to settle among themselves. All we can do is to apply the physical stimuli which we have at our disposal to bring about a change of mind in these recalcitrant persons. Of this you may be sure: we shall continue to operate on the Italian donkey at both ends, with the carrot and with a stick.
Washington, D.C., May 25, 1943.

Italy in Peril. Behind this fine façade, there was every sign that the Italian dictator, at any rate, was in a very difficult position: the industrious, amiable Italian people long overstrained; everything in the country eaten up in order to augment the magnificence of the state; taxes enormous; finances broken; officials abounding; all kinds of indispensable raw materials practically unpurchasable across the exchange; Abyssinia a curse, a corpse bound on the back of the killer; Libya and Spain, perhaps 400,000 men overseas, all to be maintained by a continuous drain on the hard-driven, ground-down people of Italy. One would have thought that these corrective processes upon external arrogance and ambition might have been allowed to run their course for a while; or, otherwise, how are the healing processes of human society to come into play?
Commons, February 22, 1938.

Italy, Surrender of. The Italian surrender was a windfall, but it had nothing to do with the date fixed for harvesting the orchard. The truth is that the Armistice announcement was delayed to fit in with the attack, and not the attack delayed to fit in with the announcement.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Jam. The union between sugar and fruit is natural, pleasant, profitable, and prolific. [Re. Sugar Convention Bill.]
Commons, July 29, 1903.

Japan. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The injury she has inflicted . . . and her detestable cruelties call for justice and retribution . . .
London, May 8, 1945.

Japan, Alliance with. I must admit that, having voted for the Japanese alliance nearly 40 years ago, in 1902, and having always done my very best to promote good relations with the Island Empire of Japan, and always having been a sentimental well-wisher to the Japanese and an admirer of their many gifts and qualities, I should view with keen sorrow the opening of a conflict between Japan and the English-speaking world.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1941.

Japan, Defeat of. In our conferences in January 1942, between the President and myself, and between our high expert advisers, it was evident that, while the defeat of Japan would not mean the defeat of Germany, the defeat of Germany would infallibly mean the ruin of Japan.
U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1943.

Japan, Designs of. I do not believe that Japan, deeply entangled in China, nay, bleeding at every pore in China, her strength ebbing away in a wrongful and impossible task, and with the whole weight of Russia upon her in the north of China, will wish to make war upon the British Empire until she sees how matters go in Europe.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Japan as Foe. No one must underrate any more the gravity and efficiency of the Japanese war machine. Whether in the air or upon the sea, or man to man on land, they have already proved themselves to be formidable, deadly, and, I am sorry to say, barbarous antagonists. This proves a hundred times over that there never was the slightest chance, even though we had been much better prepared in many ways than we were, of our standing up to them alone while we had Nazi Germany at our throat and Fascist Italy at our belly.
London, February 15, 1942.

Japan, Secret Societies in. We know that for many years past the policy of Japan has been dominated by secret societies of subalterns and junior officers of the army and navy, who have enforced their will upon successive Japanese Cabinets and Parliaments by the assassination of any Japanese statesman who opposed, or who did not sufficiently further, their aggressive policy. It may be that these societies, dazzled and dizzy with their own schemes of aggression and the prospect of early victories, have forced their country against its better judgment into war. They have certainly embarked upon a very considerable undertaking.
U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., December 26, 1941.

Japan, War against. It is no doubt true that the defeat of Japan will not necessarily entail the defeat of Hitler, whereas the defeat of Hitler would enable the whole forces of the United Nations to be concentrated upon the defeat of Japan. But there is no question of regarding the war in the Pacific as a secondary operation. The only limitation applied to its vigorous prosecution will be the shipping available at any given time.
Commons, January 29, 1942.

Japanese Game. The Japanese, whose game is what I may call to make hell while the sun shines. . . .
Commons, January 27, 1942.

Japanese Madness. Another mistake of our foes was made by Japan when they attacked the United States at Pearl Harbour instead of attacking us alone who were already busy with Italy and Germany in Europe. It was most fortunate that, led away by their dark conspiracies and schemes, dizzy and dazzled from poring over plans, they sprang out upon a peaceful nation with whom they were at that time in peaceful parley, and were led away and tottered over the edge and, for the sake of sinking half a dozen ships of war and beating up a naval port, brought out against them the implacable energies and the measureless power of the 130 million educated people who live in the United States. We have much to be thankful for.
Westminster Central Hall, London, October 31, 1942.

Jeromes, The. The great Burke has truly said, “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors,” and I feel it most agreeable to recall to you that the Jeromes were rooted for many generations in American soil, and fought in Washington’s armies for the independence of the American Colonies and the foundation of the United States. I expect I was on both sides then. And I must say I feel on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean now.
University of Rochester, New York, June 16, 1941.

Jewish Brigade. The Government have decided to accede to the request of the Jewish Agency for Palestine that a Jewish Brigade group should be formed to take part in active operations. I know there are vast numbers of Jews serving with our forces and the American forces throughout all the armies, but it seems to me indeed appropriate that a special Jewish unit, a special unit of that race which has suffered indescribable torments from the Nazis, should be represented as a distinct formation amongst the forces gathered for their formal overthrow, and I have no doubt they will not only take part in the struggle but also in the occupation which will follow.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Johannesburg. Was it not rather a sad thing that Johannesburg, the great spring of wealth, where all the gold rose to the surface of the ground, and where they ought to be able to pay the best wages and offer the most attractive conditions, should be in the mind of the South African native a place of melancholy tribulation and hard work?
May 5, 1904.

Jones, Jack, M.P. I was very much surprised that the hon. Member for Silvertown, who certainly does not bear the reputation of being mealy-mouthed, should have been brought into such a state of extreme agitation by language which, I should have thought, a man of his moral fibre and physical structure could have afforded to sustain with a fair degree of composure.
Commons, December 15, 1921.

Journalism. I have been a journalist and half my lifetime I have earned my living by selling words and I hope thoughts.
Ottawa, January 12, 1952.

Joy. Soberness and restraint do not necessarily prevent the joyous expression of the human heart.
Commons, May 1, 1945.

Judge, Functions of a. The judge has not only to do justice between man and man. He also—and this is one of his most important functions considered incomprehensible in some large parts of the world—has to do justice between the citizens and the State. He has to ensure that the Administration conforms with the law, and to adjudicate upon the legality of the exercise by the Executive of its powers.
Commons, March 23, 1954.

Judges, British. Judges had to maintain, and did in fact maintain, though free from criticism, a far more vigorous standard than was required from any class I knew in the realm. What would be thought of a Lord Chief Justice if he won the Derby? [Laughter.] Yet I could cite a solid precedent where such an act had been perpetrated by a Prime Minister who, on the whole, had got away with it all right. [Laughter.]
Commons, March 23, 1954.

Judges, Independence of. The only subordination which a judge knows in his judicial capacity is that which he owes to the existing body of legal doctrine enunciated in years past by his brethren, and upon the laws passed by Parliament which have received the Royal Assent.
Commons, March 23, 1954.

Judgment, Human. Human judgment may fail. You may act very wisely, you think, but it may turn out a great failure. On the other hand, one may do a foolish thing which may turn out well. I have seen many things happen, but the fact remains that human life is presented to us as a simple choice between right and wrong. If you obey that law you will find that that way is far safer in the long run than all calculation which can ever be made.
Hotel Bristol, Oslo, May 12, 1948.

Judgment, Political. I personally accept what the Prime Minister [Neville Chamberlain] says, and when he makes solemn public declarations I believe that he will do his best to carry them out. I trust his good faith in every respect, but that does not really dispose of the whole issue. It might be that his good faith was in no way in question, either about the rising of the House or other matters at all, but there might be a difference of judgment. I use the word “judgment” with some temerity, because my right hon. Friend twitted me some time ago about that notorious defect which I have in my composition. I have not looked up all his own declarations in any captious spirit, and I will not pursue that this afternoon, but it is quite clear that the judgment which the Prime Minister might form upon the facts as they unfolded would be a legitimate and natural topic upon which differences of opinion would arise between us.
Commons, August 2, 1939.

Judiciary, The British. The British judiciary, with its traditions and record, was one of the greatest living assets of our race and people, and its independence was part of our message to the ever-growing world that was rising so swiftly around us.
Commons, March 23, 1954.

Juggernaut, German. That monstrous juggernaut engine of German might and tyranny has been beaten and broken, outfought and outmanoeuvred by Russian valour, generalship and science, and it has been beaten to an extent which may well prove mortal.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1943.

Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar gained far more by his clemency than by his prowess.
Commons, July 1, 1952.

Jumping. A great many men can jump four feet, but very few can jump six feet. After a certain distance the difficulty increases progressively.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Jurisprudence. The first maxim of English jurisprudence is that complainers should come into Court with clean hands.
Commons, April 28, 1914.

Jury, Trial by. The ancient Anglo-Saxon foundation of all our system of criminal justice is trial by jury.
Commons, July 15, 1948.

We regard it as a fundamental safeguard of our democratic liberties and life, and a principle which has been woven into the whole history of our judicial system, that the supreme question, “Guilty or Not Guilty?” shall be decided by ordinary folk.
Commons, July 15, 1948.

Justice. Justice moves slowly and remorselessly upon its path, but it reaches its goal eventually.
Commons, July 23, 1929.

Justice, Administration of. I think it is desirable that persons concerned with the administration of justice should carefully acquaint themselves with the nature and character of any punishment which they may be authorized to order.
Commons, February 24, 1910.

Justice first. One ought to be just before one is generous.
Belle Vue, Manchester, December 6, 1947.

Justice, Social. Establish a basic standard of life and labour and provide the necessary basic foods for all. Once that is done, set the people free, get out of the way, and let them all make the best of themselves, and win whatever prizes they can for their families and for their country. Only in this way will Britain be able to keep alive and feed its disproportionate population, who were all brought into existence here upon the tides of freedom, and will all be left stranded and gasping on the Socialist ebb. Only in this way will an active, independent, property-owning democracy be established.
Commons, October 28, 1947.

Justice, Sword of. When we remind ourselves of the frightful tyrannies and cruelties with which the German armies, their gauleiters and subordinate tormentors, are now afflicting almost all Europe; when we read every week of the mass executions of Poles, Norwegians, Dutchmen, Czechoslovaks, Frenchmen, Yugoslavs and Greeks; when we see these ancient and honoured countries, of whose deeds and traditions Europe is the heir, writhing under the merciless alien yoke, and when we see their patriots striking back with every week a fiercer and more furious desperation, we may feel sure that we bear the sword of justice, and we resolve to use that sword with the utmost severity to the full and to the end.
Guildhall, London, June 30, 1943.

Kent, Duke of. The loss of this gallant and handsome Prince, in the prime of his life, has been a shock and a sorrow to the people of the British Empire, standing out lamentably even in these hard days of war. To His Majesty the King it is the loss of a dearly-loved brother, and it has affected him most poignantly. I knew the late Duke of Kent from his childhood, and had many opportunities of meeting him during the war, both at the Admiralty and thereafter. His overpowering desire was to render useful service to his King and country in this period when we are all of us on trial.
Commons, September 8, 1942.

There is something about death on active service which makes it different from common or ordinary death in the normal course of nature. It is accepted without question by the fighting men. Those they leave behind them are also conscious of a light of sacrifice and honour which plays around the grave or the tomb of the warrior. They are for the time being uplifted. This adds to their fortitude, but it does not in any way lessen their pain. Nothing can fill the awful gap, nothing can assuage or comfort the loneliness and deprivation which fall upon wife and children when the prop and centre of their home is suddenly snatched away. Only faith in a life after death in a brighter world where dear ones will meet again—only that and the measured tramp of time can give consolation.
Commons, September 8, 1942.

Kimmeridge Clay. Immense deposits of Kimmeridge clay, containing the oil-bearing bands or seams, stretch across England from Dorsetshire to Lincolnshire.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

King George VI. I do not think that any Prime Minister has ever received so much personal kindness and encouragement from his sovereign as I have. Every week I have my audience, the greater part of which occurs most agreeably at luncheon, and I have seen the King at close quarters in every phase of our formidable experiences. I remember well how in the first months of this administration the King would come in from practising with his rifle and his tommy-gun in the garden at Buckingham Palace, and if it had come to a last stand in London, a matter which had to be considered at one time, I have no doubt that His Majesty would have come very near departing from his usual constitutional rectitude by disregarding the advice of his ministers.
Commons, May 15, 1945.

The last few months of King George’s life, with all the pain and physical stresses that he endured—his life hanging by a thread from day to day—and he all the time cheerful and undaunted—stricken in body but quite undisturbed and even unaffected in spirit—these have made a profound and an enduring impression and should be a help to all. He was sustained not only by his natural buoyancy but by the sincerity of his Christian faith. During these last months the King walked with death, as if death were a companion, an acquaintance, whom he recognized and did not fear. In the end death came as a friend; and after a happy day of sunshine and sport, and after “good night” to those who loved him best, he fell asleep as every man or woman who strives to fear God and nothing else in the world may hope to do.
London, February 7, 1952.

King, The—can do no wrong. There is an old constitutional doctrine that the King can do no wrong, and if the King does what is thought to be wrong it is his bad advisers who are blamed; but to apply that doctrine to the controversial head of a political government would be an altogether undue extension of the principle.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Knack. We must not allow our insular pride to blind us to the fact that some of these foreigners are quite intelligent, that they have an extraordinary knack on occasion of rising fully up to the level of British comprehension.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Knights of the Air. The great French army was very largely, for the time being, cast back and disturbed by the onrush of a few thousands of armoured vehicles. May it not also be that the cause of civilization itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen? There never had been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth. The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into the past: not only distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be said that “Every morn brought forth a noble chance, and every chance brought forth a noble knight,” deserve our gratitude, as do all of the brave men who, in so many ways and on so many occasions, are ready, and continue ready, to give life and all for their native land.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

Knock at the Door. At the present time—I trust a very fleeting time—“police governments” rule over a great number of countries. It is a case of the odious 18B, carried to a horrible excess. The family is gathered round the fireside to enjoy the scanty fruits of their toil and to recruit their exhausted strength by the little food that they have been able to gather. There they sit. Suddenly there is a knock at the door, and a heavily armed policeman appears. He is not, of course, one who resembles in any way those functionaries whom we honour and obey in the London streets. It may be that the father or son, or a friend sitting in the cottage, is called out and taken off into the dark, and no one knows whether he will ever come back again, or what his fate has been. All they know is that they had better not inquire. There are millions of humble homes in Europe at the moment, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, in Austria, in Hungary, in Yugoslavia, in Rumania, in Bulgaria—where this fear is the main preoccupation of the family life.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

We see before our eyes hundreds of millions of humble homes in Europe and in lands outside which have been affected by war. Are they never to have a chance to thrive and flourish? Is the honest, faithful, breadwinner never to be able to reap the fruits of his labour? Can he never bring up his children in health and joy and with the hopes of better days? Can he never be free from the fear of foreign invasion, the crash of the bomb or the shell, the tramp of the hostile patrol, or what is even worse, the knock upon his door of the political police to take the loved one far from the protection of law and justice, when all the time, by one spontaneous effort of his will he could wake from all these nightmare horrors and stand forth in his manhood, free in the broad light of day?
The Royal Albert Hall, London, May 14, 1947.

Knock down. You don’t want to knock a man down except to pick him up in a better frame of mind.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, New York, March 25, 1949.

Knowledge. While all knowledge continues to expand, as Lord Balfour said to-day, the human faculty remains stationary, and that has induced an experimental mood in all our studies and sciences, a desire to test matters and not to yield oneself completely to clear-cut and logical definitions.
Commons, July 24, 1928.

No technical knowledge can outweigh knowledge of the humanities.
University of Oslo, May 12, 1948.

Gradually, as I have passed through life, I have developed a strong feeling that a university training should not be too practical in its aims. Young people study at universities to achieve knowledge, and not to learn a trade. We must all learn how to support ourselves, but we must also learn how to live. We need a lot of engineers in the modern world, but we do not want a world of modern engineers. Great events have come to pass during our lifetime.
University of Oslo, May 12, 1948.

The privilege of university education is a great one; the more widely it is extended the better for any country. It should not be looked upon as something to end with youth but as a key to open many doors of thought and knowledge.
University of London, November 18, 1948.

Kremlin, The. We are in the presence of the collective mind, whose springs of action we cannot define. There are thirteen or fourteen very able men in the Kremlin who hold all Russia and more than a third of Europe in their control. Many stresses and pressures, internal as well as external, are working upon them, as upon all human beings. I cannot presume to forecast what decisions they will take, or to observe what decisions they may have already taken; still less can I attempt to foresee the time factor in their affairs.
Commons, October 23, 1946.

Kremlin, Oligarchy in the. I have had the opportunity several times of seeing in conditions of grave business some of these commissars who form the oligarchy in the Kremlin and their chiefs, and I can tell you that these men are apt to form designs and to carry them out, and that when confronted with farces and shams they very often retaliate by strong and real measures.
Commons, February 15, 1951.

Labour. Labour! It is a great word. It moves the world, it comprises the millions, it combines many men in many lands in the sympathy of a common burden.
Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

The two systems [Labour Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance] are complementary; they are man and wife; they mutually support and sustain each other.
Commons, May 19, 1909.

Labour, Discontent of. We have to face the growing discontent of the immense labouring population of this country with the social economic conditions under which they dwell. We have somehow or other to create for them decent and fair conditions of living and labour.
Commons, April 30, 1912.

Labour Exchanges. Labour Exchanges are the gateway to industrial security.
Commons, February 17, 1909.

Labour, Freedom of. It is in the interest of the wage-earner to have many other alternatives open to him than service under one all-powerful employer called the State. He will be in a better position to bargain collectively and production will be more abundant; there will be more for all and more freedom for all when the wage-earner is able, in the large majority of cases, to choose and change his work, and to deal with a private employer who, like himself, is subject to the ordinary pressures of life and, like himself, is dependent upon his personal thrift, ingenuity and good-housekeeping.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Labour, Human. What we propose to do for human labour, for the services which one man has to render to another, which is the only thing the majority of human beings have to sell, is to give it the same facilities and advantages which every other trader and merchant in the world has secured for his less important and less sensitive commodity.
Commons, June 16, 1909.

Labour, Indentured. If we were able by some good fortune to make a settlement in the Transvaal between the two races which would be lasting, which would give the Boers direct partnership in the British Empire so that both races might work and live together and wrangle together in the rough-and-tumble of representative institutions, then I say we should have achieved a work which would linger in the minds of the people of South Africa long after every trace of this hideous Chinese monstrosity has been effaced from human recollection.
Commons, June 8, 1906.

Labour, Justice for. I think it is our duty to use the strength and the resources of the State to arrest the ghastly waste not merely of human happiness but of national health and strength which follows when a working man’s home which has taken him years to get together is broken up and scattered through a long spell of unemployment, or when, through the death, the sickness, or the invalidity of the breadwinner, the frail boat in which the fortunes of the family are embarked founders, and the women and children are left to struggle helplessly on the dark waters of a friendless world.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Labour, Price of. There is no greater delusion than that low wages mean high profits. No labour is so dear as cheap labour, and the labour which costs nothing is the dearest of all.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Labour, Rights of. The Trade Unions are a long-established and essential part of our national life. Like other human institutions they have their faults and their weaknesses. At the present time they have more influence upon the Government of the country, and less control over their own members, than ever before. But we take our stand by these pillars of our British society as it has gradually been developed and envolved itself, of the right of individual labouring men or women to adjust their wages and conditions by collective bargaining, including the right to strike; and the right of everyone, with due notice and consideration for others, to choose or change his occupation if he thinks he can better himself and his family.
Brighton, October 4, 1947.

Labour, Sweated. We have seen, from the investigations of the last twenty years, that there is no power of self-cure within the area of the evil.
Commons, April 28, 1909.

Labour, Useless. This particular episode of the repair and refitting of the Valiant is exactly like using 1,000 skilled men to dig a hole in the ground, and then, when they have dug it, using them again to fill it up. Why, even in the convict prisons, the idea of useless labour has been rightly condemned and abolished.
Commons, March 8, 1948.

Land. The immemorial custom practically of every moderate state, and the conclusions of the greatest thinkers of the world, have always placed the tenure and transfer of blocks of land in a wholly different category from other property. There has always been an obvious distinction between that class of property, which is a vital interest to every human being, and which is limited in extent, and other kinds of property.
Commons, May 3, 1909.

Land Monopoly. It is quite true that the land monopoly is not the only monopoly which exists, but it is by far the greatest of monopolies; it is a perpetual monopoly, and it is the mother of all other forms of monopoly. It is quite true that unearned increments in land are not the only form of unearned or undeserved profit which individuals are able to secure; but it is the principal form of unearned increment, derived from processes, which are not merely not beneficial, but which are positively detrimental to the general public. Land, which is a necessity of human existence, which is the original source of all wealth, which is strictly limited in extent, which is fixed in geographical position—land, I say, differs from all other forms of property in these primary and fundamental conditions.
Edinburgh, July 17, 1909.

Land, Taxation of. And if a rise in stocks and shares confers profits on the fortunate holders far beyond what they expected, or, indeed, deserved, nevertheless that profit has not been reaped by withholding from the community the land which it needs, but, on the contrary, apart from mere gambling, it has been reaped by supplying industry with the capital without which it could not be carried on.
Edinburgh, July 17, 1909.

Landed Property. The immemorial custom of nearly every modern state, the mature conclusions of many of the greatest thinkers, have placed the tenure, transfer and obligations of land in a wholly different category from other classes of property. The mere obvious physical distinction between land, which is a vital necessity of every human being and which at the same time is strictly limited in extent, and other property is in itself sufficient to justify a clear differentiation in its treatment, and in the view taken by the State of the conditions which should govern the tenure of land from that which should regulate traffic in other forms of property.
Commons, May 19, 1909.

Landing Operation. It is quite impossible for those who do not know the facts and figures of the American assembly in Britain, or of our own powerful expeditionary armies now preparing here, who do not know the dispositions of the enemy on the various fronts, who cannot measure his reserves and resources and his power to transfer large forces from one front to another over the vast railway system of Europe, who do not know the state and dimensions of our fleet and landing craft of all kinds—and this must be proportionate to the work they have to do—who do not know how the actual processes of a landing take place, or what are the necessary steps to build it up, or what has to be thought out beforehand in relation to what the enemy can do in days or weeks—it is impossible for those who do not know the facts, which are the study of hundreds of skilful officers day after day and month after month, to pronounce a useful opinion upon this operation.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Language. The recognition of their language is precious to a small people.
Commons, July 31, 1906.

Language, Excited. When men are fighting desperately and agitating strenuously for political change, when their hopes are forlorn and they have every need to rally to their Party, even the most extreme and turbulent forces in their country—when they are in that position, it is not wonderful that they should be led into excited language and into violent demands.
Commons, April 4, 1912.

Language, Strong. I do not think any expression of scorn or severity which I have heard used by our critics has come anywhere near the language which I have been myself accustomed to use, not only orally, but in a stream of written minutes. In fact, I wonder that a great many of my colleagues are on speaking terms with me.
Commons, June 25, 1941.

I have no objection to a proper use of strong language, but a certain amount of art and a certain amount of selective power is needed, if the effect is to be produced.
Commons, December 9, 1925.

Lap, The last. This is just the moment not to slacken. All the races which the calendar holds, or nearly all of them, are won in the last lap; and it is then, when it is most hard, when one is most tired, when the sense of boredom seems to weigh upon one, when even the most glittering events, exciting, thrilling events, are, as it were, smothered by satiation, when headlines in the newspapers, though perfectly true, succeed one another in their growing emphasis, and yet the end seems to recede before us—like climbing a hill when there is another peak beyond—it is at that very moment that we in this island have to give that extra sense of exertion, of boundless, inexhaustible, dynamic energy that we have shown, as the records now made public have emphasized in detail. Tirelessness is what we have to show now.
Commons, November 29, 1944.

Lausanne Conference. Everything which has happened since July last shows how unwise it was to bring the Lausanne Conference to a conclusion, and to trumpet its results all round the globe. If we look back on those July days, when the Prime Minister [Mr. Ramsay MacDonald] was welcomed in triumph on his return, with all the Cabinet and under-secretaries drawn up like a row of Grenadiers of varying sizes at the railway station, we can see how absurd were the claims which were then advanced that Lausanne had “saved Europe,” and that a “new era” had opened for the world. There is quite a lot still to be done in Europe, and for many people it is very much the same old era in the world.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

There is no doubt whatever that harm was done to the prospect of the settlement of the war debts by what happened at Lausanne. I ventured to warn the Government before this happened, in May or June of last year, of the extreme unwisdom of making the Debt Settlement an issue at the American elections. The consequences of Lausanne have been to force all the candidates for Congress and the Senate, on both sides of politics, to give specific pledges and to make definite declarations upon this subject. We all know what happens at elections.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Laval. I am afraid I have rather exhausted the possibilities of the English language.
Commons, September 29, 1942.

Law, Unpopular. As always happens when prohibitions are imposed which do not carry public opinion with them, there is both wholesale evasion and occasional connivance, and the law is brought into disrepute.
Commons, April 26, 1926.

Laws, Economic. On questions of economic law it does not matter at all what the electors think or vote or say. The economic laws proceed.
Commons, July 16, 1929.

Laws, Harsh. Harsh laws are sometimes better than no laws at all.
Commons, February 28, 1906.

Laws, Sanctity of. It seemed an utterly irrational argument to put forward, that because a law was broken, therefore it should be changed.
Commons, May 1, 1903.

Lawson, J. J. The former Secretary of State for War is deservedly popular and respected in all sections of the House. His many good and charming qualities, high patriotism and public spirit, are admired by all. That, however, does not in any way efface the fact that he was not qualified to discharge, or capable of discharging, the extraordinary and complicated tasks with which the War Office is cumbered and pressed in the transition period at the end of a great war.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

Lawyers. I could not help feeling impressed with how easy it must be for a very distinguished lawyer to procure the conviction of an innocent man.
Commons, March 30, 1914.

Leadership. Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup Poll, always feeling one’s pulse and taking one’s temperature. I see it said that leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the British nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.
Commons, September 30, 1941.

Anyone leading a Party must have a brain larger than his own, must have numbers of people through whom he can operate.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

It is no use leading other nations up the garden and then running away when the dog growls.
Commons, June 11, 1937.

If to-day I am very kindly treated by the mass of the people of this country, it is certainly not because I have followed public opinion in recent years. There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or to say what you believe to be right. That is the only way to deserve and to win the confidence of our great people in these days of trouble.
Commons, September 30, 1941.

Do not, whatever be the torrent of abuse which may obstruct the necessary action, think too poorly of the greatness of our fellow countrymen. Let the House do its duty. Let the Government give the lead, and the nation will not fail in the hour of need.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

League of Nations. I hope that the League of Nations is not going to be asked now to do the impossible. Those who believe, as I do sincerely, that the League of Nations is a priceless instrument of international comity, which may play as great a part as the most daring, hopeful founders ever forecast for it, should be especially careful not to put upon the League strains which in its present stage it is utterly incapable of bearing.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

If I am asked, “How far will you go in support of the Covenant of the League of Nations?” I shall say we ought to go the whole way with the whole lot.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

It is said that the League of Nations failed. If so, that is largely because it was abandoned, and later on betrayed: because those who were its best friends were till a very late period infected with a futile pacifism: because the United States, the originating impulse, fell out of the line: because, while France had been bled white and England was supine and bewildered, a monstrous growth of aggression sprang up in Germany, in Italy and Japan.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

The League of Nations did not fail because of its principles or conceptions. It failed because these principles were deserted by those states who had brought it into being. It failed because the governments of those days feared to face the facts, and act while time remained. This disaster must not be repeated.
Zürich University, September 19, 1946.

League of Nations Union. I have sympathy with, and respect for, the well-meaning, loyal-hearted people who make up the League of Nations Union in this country, but what impresses me most about them is their long-suffering and inexhaustible gullibility. Any scheme of any kind for disarmament put forward by any country, so long as it is surrounded by suitable phraseology, is hailed by them, and the speeches are cheered, and those who speak gain the need of their applause.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

I could not help feeling that the proposals which were made would give great gratification to the League of Nations Union, who, poor things, have to content themselves with so little.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

League of Peoples. If the League of Nations has been mishandled and broken, we must rebuild it. If a League of peace-seeking people is set at naught, we must convert it into a League of armed peoples, too faithful to molest others, too strong to be molested themselves.
Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Lebensraum. I had often felt how great was the responsibility devolving upon the rulers of this country when I had travelled through Lancashire, and had seen what a vast number of people were gathered together upon a soil so utterly inadequate to sustain them.
Commons, June 22, 1903.

Lecturing. The hon. and learned Member for the Launceston Division [John Fletcher Moulton] has given us a most lucid and interesting lecture. As one who had not the advantage of an academic career, it filled me with awe and wonder, and must have awakened in the minds of hon. Members who enjoyed that advantage many recollections of their early academic years.
Commons, May 12, 1902.

Lees-Smith, M.P. I should like to pay my tribute to one who has gone from us since I left this country, Mr. Lees-Smith, who, I remember, spoke with so much profound wisdom on this point at a moment when many opinions were in flux about it. His faithful, selfless, and wise conduct of the important work which he discharged in this House was undoubtedly of great assistance to us all, not only to the Government but to us all, in the various stages of the war. His memory as a distinguished Parliamentarian will long find an honoured place in the recollection of those who had the fortune to be his colleagues.
Commons, January 27, 1942.

Legalism, French. In a state like France which has experienced so many convulsions—Monarchy, Convention, Directory, Consulate, Empire, Monarchy, Empire and finally Republic—there has grown up a principle founded on the droit administratif which undoubtedly governs the action of many French officers and officials in times of revolution and change. It is a highly legalistic habit of mind and it arises from a subconscious sense of national self-preservation against the dangers of sheer anarchy.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

Legality in War. There can be no justice if in a mortal struggle the aggressor tramples down every sentiment of humanity, and if those who resist him remain entangled in the tatters of violated legal conventions.
London, March 30, 1940.

Legislation. I do not take the view that every Bill must be rammed through Parliament exactly in the form that the Cabinet of the day thinks fit. I believe in Parliamentary discussion and I hold strongly that the elected representatives of the people, and the House of Lords, in its relation established by the Parliament Act should both share in the shaping of legislation.
Scarborough, October 11, 1952.

Legislation and Charity. I object on principle to doing by legislation what properly belongs to charity.
Commons, July 31, 1901.

Legislation, Influence on. When they considered how vast the labour interest was, how vital, how human, when they considered the gigantic powers which by the consent of both Parties had been given to the working classes, when, on the other hand, they considered the influence in this House of company directors, the learned professions, the service members, the railway, landed and liquor interests, it would surely be admitted that the influence of labour on the course of legislation was even ludicrously small.
Commons, April 22, 1904.

Legislation, Limits of. I objected on principle to doing by legislation what properly belonged to human good feeling and charity.
Commons, July 31, 1902.

Legislation, Sectional. I cannot think of any greater restraint that could possibly be imposed on reckless or sectional legislation than that it should be hung round the neck of its authors, not merely as something attempted and failed in, but as an actual real living issue when they next present themselves to the electorate.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Lend and Lease. By very severe measures we had been able to gather and spend in America about £500,000,000 sterling, but the end of our financial resources was in sight—nay, had actually been reached. All we could do at that time a year ago was to place orders in the United States without being able to see our way through, but on a tide of hope and not without important encouragement.

Then came the majestic policy of the President and Congress of the United States in passing the Lend and Lease Bill, under which in two successive enactments about £3,000,000,000 sterling were dedicated to the cause of world freedom without—mark this, for it is unique—the setting up of any account in money. Never again let us hear the taunt that money is the ruling thought or power in the hearts of the American democracy. The Lend and Lease Bill must be regarded without question as the most unsordid act in the whole of recorded history.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1941.

He [President Roosevelt] devised the extraordinary measure of assistance called Lend-Lease, which will stand forth as the most unselfish and unsordid financial act of any country in all history.
Commons, April 17, 1945.

Leisure. The general march of industrial democracy is not towards inadequate hours of work, but towards sufficient hours of leisure. That is the movement among the working people all over the country. They are not content that their lives should remain mere alternations between bed and the factory; they demand time to look about them, time to see their homes by daylight, to see their children, time to think and read and cultivate their gardens—time, in short, to live.
Commons, July 6, 1908.

Lenin. Lenin was sent into Russia by the Germans in the same way that you might send a phial containing a culture of typhoid or cholera to be poured into the water supply of a great city, and it worked with amazing accuracy.
Commons, November 5, 1919.

No sooner did Lenin arrive than he began beckoning a finger here and a finger there to obscure persons in sheltered retreats in New York, in Glasgow, in Berne and other countries, and he gathered together the leading spirits of a formidable sect, the most formidable sect in the world, of which he was the high priest and chief. With these spirits around him he set to work with demoniacal ability to tear to pieces every institution on which the Russian State and nation depended. Russia was laid low. Russia had to be laid low. She was laid low to the dust.
Commons, November 5, 1919.

Leopold, King. At the last moment, when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold called upon us to come to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and his brave, efficient army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our left flank and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly, without the advice of his ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent a plenipotentiary to the German command, surrendered his army, and exposed our whole flank and means of retreat.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

Liberal, A. In my judgment, a Liberal is a man who ought to stand as a restraining force against an extravagant policy. He is a man who ought to keep cool in the presence of Jingo clamour. He is a man who believes that confidence between nations begets confidence, and that the spirit of peace and goodwill makes the safety it seeks. And, above all, I think a Liberal is a man who should keep a sour look for scaremongers of every kind and of every size, however distinguished, however ridiculous—and sometimes the most distinguished are the most ridiculous—a cold, chilling, sour look for all of them, whether their panic comes from the sea or from the air or from the earth or from the waters under the earth.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Liberalism. Liberalism supplies at once the higher impulse and the practicable path; it appeals to persons by sentiments of generosity and humanity; it proceeds by courses of moderation; by gradual steps, by steady effort from day to day, from year to year. Liberalism enlists hundreds of thousands upon the side of progress and popular democratic reform whom militant Socialism would drive into violent Tory reaction.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Liberalism is a quickening spirit—it is immortal. It will live on through all the days, be they good days or be they evil days. No! I believe it will even burn stronger and brighter and more helpful in evil days than in good—just like your harbour-lights, which shine out across the sea, and which on a calm night gleam with soft refulgence, but through the storm flash a message of life to those who toil on the rough waters.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Liberalism and Peace. The first indispensable condition of democratic progress must be the maintenance of European peace. War is fatal to Liberalism. Liberalism is the world-wide antagonist of war.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Liberalism, Principles of. The Liberal Government of 1906 was built around and upon those great principles of Liberalism which have since passed into the possession of every Party except the Communists, and are still spreading with irresistible appeal throughout the world.
Commons, September 28, 1949.

Liberalism and Socialism. Liberalism has its own history and its own tradition. Socialism has its own formulas and aims. Socialism seeks to pull down wealth; Liberalism seeks to raise up poverty. Socialism would destroy private interests; Liberalism would preserve private interests in the only way in which they can be safely and justly preserved, namely by reconciling them with public right. Socialism would kill enterprise; Liberalism would rescue enterprise from the trammels of privilege and preference. Socialism assails the pre-eminence of the individual; Liberalism seeks, and shall seek more in the future, to build up a minimum standard for the mass. Socialism exalts the rule; Liberalism exalts the man. Socialism attacks capital; Liberalism attacks monopoly.
Kinnaird Hall, May 14, 1908.

Liberalism, Triumphs of. The great triumphs and successes of Liberalism in the nineteenth century came from the fact that they were consistently, over several generations, advocating the striking off of shackles on enterprise, trade and the social life of the country.
Commons, June 7, 1928.

Liberation, Army of. The speed with which the mighty British and American armies in France were built up is almost incredible. In the first 24 hours a quarter of a million men were landed, in the teeth of fortified and violent opposition. By the 20th day a million men were ashore. There are now between two and three million men in France. Certainly the progress in the power of moving troops and landing troops has vastly increased since the early days, when we had to plunge into the war with no previous experience. But the actual number of soldiers was only part of the problem of transportation. These armies were equipped with the most perfect modern weapons and every imaginable contrivance of modern war, and an immense artillery supported all the operations. Enormous masses of armour of the highest quality and character gave them extraordinary offensive power and mobility. Many hundreds of thousands of vehicles sustained their movements, many millions of tons of stores have already been landed—the great bulk of everything over open beaches or through the synthetic harbours which I described when last I spoke to the House.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Liberation of Europe. In the bitter and increasingly exacting conflict which lies before us we are resolved to keep nothing back, and not to be outstripped by any in service to the common cause. Let the great cities of Warsaw, of Prague, of Vienna, banish despair even in the midst of their agony. Their liberation is sure. The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe, and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition, and in freedom, a house of many mansions where there will be room for all.
London, January 20, 1940.

We have one principle about the liberated countries or the repentant satellite countries which we strive for according to the best of our ability and resources. Here is the principle. I will state it in the broadest and most familiar terms: Government of the people, by the people, for the people, set up on a basis of election by the free and universal suffrage, with secrecy of the ballot and no intimidation. That is and has always been the policy of this Government in all countries. That is our only aim, our only interest, and our only care. It is to that goal that we try to make our way across all the difficulties, obstacles, and perils of the long road. Trust the people, make sure they have a fair chance to decide their destiny without being terrorized from either quarter or regimented. There is our policy for Italy, for Yugoslavia, and for Greece. What other interest have we than that? For that we shall strive, and for that alone.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Liberties, Surrender of. Immense surrenders of their hard-won liberties have been voluntarily made by the British people in order in time of war to serve the better the cause of freedom and fair play, to which, keeping nothing back, they have devoted all that they have and all that they are. Parliament stands custodian of these surrendered liberties, and its most sacred duty will be to restore them in their fullness when victory has crowned our exertions and our perseverance.
Commons, November 21, 1940.

Liberty, Struggle for. We know that other hearts in millions and scores of millions beat with ours; that other voices proclaim the cause for which we strive; other strong hands wield the hammers and shape the weapons we need; other clear and gleaming eyes are fixed in hard conviction upon the tyrannies that must and shall be destroyed.
London, March 18, 1941.

Libya, Fighting in. Up to the end of September, the Italian official published casualties for the fighting in Libya amounted to 800 killed, 1,700 wounded and 860 missing; our own casualties for the same period and in the same theatre were 66 killed, 68 wounded and 36 missing—a scale approaching something like 20 to 1. These facts speak for themselves and should be a good augury for the greater battles and engagements which will develop, perhaps in the winter, certainly in the spring.
Commons, November 5, 1940.

Lies. Some one says it’s a lie. Well, I am reminded by that of the remark of the witty Irishman who said: “There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Life. Those whose minds are attracted or compelled to rigid and symmetrical systems of government should remember that logic, like science, must be the servant and not the master of man. Human beings and human societies are not structures that are built or machines that are forged. They are plants that grow and must be tended as such. Life is a test and this world a place of trial. Always the problems, or it may be the same problem, will be presented to every generation in different forms.
Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Boston, March 31, 1949.

Life, Purpose of. What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone? How else can we put ourselves in harmonious relation with the great verities and consolations of the infinite and the eternal? And I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down. We are going on—swinging bravely forward along the grand high road—and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, October 10, 1908.

Light, The. The ordeal to which the English-speaking world and our heroic Russian allies are being exposed will certainly be hard, especially at the outset, and will probably be long, yet when we look around us over the sombre panorama of the world, we have no reason to doubt the justice of our cause or that our strength and will-power will be sufficient to sustain it. We have at least four-fifths of the population of the globe upon our side.

We are responsible for their safety and for their future. In the past we have had a light which flickered, in the present we have a light which flames, and in the future there will be a light which shines over all the land and sea.
Commons, December 2, 1941.

Liquidation of Empire. We mean to hold our own. I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942.

Liquidation of Persons. It is part of the established technique of the “cold war” the Soviets have begun against us all, that, in any country which has fallen into their power, people of character and men of heart and personality outstanding in any walk of life, from the manual worker to the university professor, shall be what is called in their savage jargon “liquidated.”
Llandudno, October 9, 1948.

Liquor. There is what is called the doctrine of the unclean thing. That is a doctrine which has become dominant in regard to liquor legislation in the United States of America. That doctrine is that the State must in no way touch the unclean thing; that it should prohibit it by law, and in no circumstances should derive any advantage from it. That is a very important and a very respectable kind of doctrine, but we have no reason to suppose that it has worked much better than the view which has prevailed up to the present time in this island in regard to liquor, which is, that you should tax it, but that you should regulate this form of luxury consumption and should not hesitate to take profit to the State if in so doing you are also able to diminish the evil.
Commons, March 16, 1928.

Living Wage. It is a serious national evil that any class of His Majesty’s subjects should receive in return for their utmost exertions less than a living wage.
Commons, April 28, 1909.

Lloyd, Lord. Lord Lloyd and I have been friends for many years and close political associates during the last twelve years. We championed several causes together which did not command the applause of large majorities; but it is just in that kind of cause, where one is swimming against the stream, that one learns the worth and quality of a comrade and friend.
Commons, February 6, 1941.

As honorary commodore of an air squadron, he learned to fly a Hurricane aeroplane and obtained a pilot’s certificate when almost 60 years of age, thus proving that it is possible for a man to maintain in very high efficiency eye and hand, even after a lifetime of keen intellectual work.
Commons, February 6, 1941.

Lloyd George Cabinet. It is now the fashion to speak of the Lloyd George War Cabinet as if it gave universal satisfaction and conducted the war with unerring judgment and unbroken success. On the contrary, complaints were loud and clamant. Immense disasters, such as the slaughter of Passchendaele, the disaster at Caporetto in 1917, the destruction of the Fifth Army after March 21st, 1918—all these and others befell that rightly famous Administration. It made numerous mistakes. No one was more surprised than its Members when the end of the war came suddenly in 1918, and there have even been criticisms about the character of the peace which was signed and celebrated in 1919.
Commons, February 24, 1942.

Locarno, Europe after. Compare the state of Europe on the morrow of Locarno with its condition to-day. Fears are greater, rivalries are sharper, military plans are more closely concerted, military organizations are more carefully and efficiently developed, Britain is weaker: and Britain’s hour of weakness is Europe’s hour of danger.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Locust Years. The Government cannot simply make up their minds, or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years—precious, perhaps vital, to the greatness of Britain—for the locusts to eat.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

Logic. There is a great deal more sense and deep reason and sagacity in the lack of logical subtlety than might appear upon the surface.
Commons, May 30, 1911.

Logic as a Guide. We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic.
Commons, December 17, 1942.

London, Administration of. The administration of London in all its branches was confronted with problems hitherto unknown and unmeasured in all the history of the past. Public order, public health, the maintenance of all the essential services, the handling of the millions of people who came in and out of London every day; the shelter—not indeed from the enemy’s bombs, for that was beyond us, but from their blast and splinters—the shelter of millions of men and women, and the removal of the dead and wounded from the shattered buildings; the care of the wounded when hospitals were being ruthlessly bombed, and the provision for the homeless—sometimes amounting to many thousands in a single day, and accumulating to many more after three or four days of successive attacks—all these things, with the welfare and the education amid these scenes of our great numbers of children here—all these presented tasks which, viewed in cold blood beforehand, might well have seemed overwhelming.
County Hall, London, July 14, 1941.

London, Bombing of. No one can doubt that a week or ten days’ intensive bombing attack upon London would be a very serious matter indeed. One could hardly expect that less than 30,000 or 40,000 people would be killed or maimed. The most dangerous form of air attack is the attack by incendiary bombs.
Commons, November 8, 1934.

London can take it. It is the practice and in some cases the duty of many of my colleagues and many Members of the House to visit the scenes of destruction as promptly as possible, and I go myself from time to time. In all my life, I have never been treated with so much kindness as by the people who have suffered most. One would think one had brought some great benefit to them, instead of the blood and tears, the toil and sweat, which is all I have ever promised. On every side, there is the cry, “We can take it,” but with it, there is also the cry, “Give it ’em back.”
Commons, October 8, 1940.

London, Defence of. Take the astounding admission that modern guns available for the defence of London would have been doubled in number but for the bankruptcy of a small firm charged with an essential part. I beg the Prime Minister to face the force of that admission. He is a business man of high competence himself. Is it not shocking that such a thing should have happened?
Commons, November 17, 1938.

London, Destruction of. Statisticians may amuse themselves by calculating that after making allowance for the working of the law of diminishing returns, through the same house being struck twice and three times over, it would take ten years, at the present rate, for half the houses of London to be demolished. After that, of course, progress would be much slower.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

London, Hide of. When after the enemy wearied of his attack upon the capital and turned to other parts of the country, many of us in our hearts felt anxiety lest the weight of attack concentrated in those smaller organisms should prove more effective than when directed on London, which is so vast and strong that she is like a prehistoric monster into whose armoured hide showers of arrows can be shot in vain.
County Hall, London, July 14, 1941.

London, Invincible. We would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

London, Naval Treaty of. Then there was the Naval Treaty of London, which I am glad to think the Conservative Party voted against. It is cramping and fettering our naval development, not merely the scale but the actual form and shape of our naval expenditure, in a manner which is certainly detrimental.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Londoners. I remember one winter evening travelling to a railway station—which still worked—on my way north to visit troops. It was cold and raining. Darkness had almost fallen on the blacked-out streets. I saw everywhere long queues of people, among them hundreds of young girls in their silk stockings and high-heeled shoes, who had worked hard all day and were waiting for bus after bus, which came by already overcrowded, in the hope of reaching their homes for the night. When at that moment the doleful wail of the siren betokened the approach of the German bombers, I confess to you that my heart bled for London and the Londoner.
County Hall, London, July 14, 1941.

Longing of the Masses. I have the feeling that after the second Thirty Years’ War, for that is what it is, through which we have just passed, mankind needs and seeks a period of rest. After all, how little it is that the millions of homes in Europe represented here to-day are asking. What is it that all these wage-earners, skilled artisans, soldiers, and tillers of the soil require, deserve, and may be led to demand? Is it not a fair chance to make a home, to reap the fruits of their toil, to cherish their wives, to bring up their children in a decent manner and to dwell in peace and safety, without fear or bullying or monstrous burdens or exploitations, however this may be imposed upon them? That is their hearts’ desire. That is what we mean to win for them.
The Hague, May 7, 1948.

Longmore, Air Chief Marshal. I must not forget the work which has been done in this battle by Air Chief Marshal Longmore, who at the most critical moment in [Battle of the Lybian Desert] his preparations had to have a very large portion of his force taken away from him for Greece, but who nevertheless persevered, running additional risks, and whose handling of this situation, in co-operation with the army, deserves the highest praise. It is, indeed, a pleasure to me personally, because when I was at the Admiralty in 1912, forming the Royal Naval Air Service, he was one of the first few fliers there, and in those days of very dubious machines he several times used to fly me about. We were personal friends as long ago as that.
Commons, December 19, 1940.

Lords, Function of the House of. It is not the function of the House of Lords to govern the people but to make sure that the people have the right to govern themselves.
Commons, November 16, 1949.

Lords, House of. They will not have to defend an ideal Second Chamber; they will not be able to confine themselves to airy generalities about a bicameral system and its advantages; they will have to defend this Second Chamber as it is—one-sided, hereditary, unpurged, unrepresentative, irresponsible, absentee. They will have to defend it with all its anomalies, all its absurdities, and all its personal bias—with all its achievements that have darkened the pages of the history of England.
Commons, June 29, 1907.

The House of Lords, as it at present exists and acts, is not a national institution, but a Party dodge, an apparatus and instrument at the disposal of one political faction; and it is used in the most unscrupulous manner to injure and humiliate the opposite faction.
Commons, June 29, 1907.

Two great political Parties divide all England between them in their conflicts. Now it is discovered that one of these Parties possesses an unfair weapon—that one of these Parties, after it is deprived of the support and confidence of the country, after it is destitute of a majority in the representative Assembly, when it sits in the shades of Opposition without responsibility, or representative authority, under the frown, so to speak, of the Constitution, nevertheless possesses a weapon, an instrument, a tool, a utensil—call it what you will—with which it can harass, vex, impede, affront, humiliate, and finally destroy the most serious labours of the other. When it is realized that the Party which possesses this prodigious and unfair advantage is in the main the Party of the rich against the poor, of the classes and their dependants against the masses, of the lucky, the wealthy, the happy, and the strong, against the left-out and the shut-out millions of the weak and poor, you will see how serious the constitutional situation had become.
Birmingham, January 13, 1909.

The powers which are now relegated to the House of Lords cannot be exercised in perpetuity by a body which is so unfairly and improperly constituted as they are.
Commons, April 12, 1910.

Lords and Legislation. I proceed to inquire on what principle the House of Lords deals with liberal measures. The right hon. Member for Dover by an imaginative effort assures us that they occupy the position of the Empire. Are they even a sieve, a strainer, to stop legislation if it should reveal an undue or undesirable degree of Radicalism or Socialism?
Commons, June 29, 1907.

Losses at Sea. I must again repeat the warning which I gave to the House in September, that a steady flow of losses must be expected, that occasional disasters will occur, and that any failure upon our part to act up to the level of circumstances would immediately be attended by grave dangers. It is, however, my sure belief that we are getting the better of this menace to our life. We are buffeted by the waves, but the ocean tides flow steady and strong in our favour.
Commons, December 6, 1939.

Lothian, Lord. He was a man of the very highest character, and of far-ranging intellectual scope. All his life his mind played about broad issues of human progress, and, whether at home or abroad, he animated an ardent philanthropy with the keenest and brightest intellectual powers. In India his work is much respected. His work in the last war was already important, as Mr. Lloyd George—whom I am very glad to see here to-day—could no doubt remind us. But all the same, when he was appointed before the war to the Embassy in the United States, the most important of all the functions outside this country that can be discharged by any British subject, there were various opinions upon the wisdom of that choice. Very soon, however, it was seen that the new ambassador was gaining in influence every day, that his stature rose with the greatness of the topics confided to him, and that the contacts which he established, the intimate relations which he developed, with the high personnel of the United States Administration, the friendship to which the President of the United States has himself testified—all the evidence showed the remarkable efficiency and success with which he discharged his important and extremely delicate and difficult mission.

Suddenly, he is taken from us. He passes away. But I cannot help feeling that to die at the height of a man’s career, the highest moment of his effort here in this world, universally honoured and admired, to die while great issues are still commanding the whole of his interest, to be taken from us at a moment when he could already see ultimate success in view—is not the most unenviable of fates. I feel that the House would have wished me to express, in these few words, the sorrow which we feel at his death, and also the very grievous and practical sense that we have of the loss we have suffered at this particular juncture in being deprived of his invaluable service.
Commons, December 19, 1940.

Lowe, Robert. Mr. Lowe seems to have been walking over my footsteps before I had trodden them, because he said, trying to explain what had occurred for the satisfaction of a very strict House in those days: “And so each year will take money from its successor, and this process may go on till the end of time, although how it will be settled when the world comes to an end I am at a loss to know.” It was unconscious anticipatory plagiarism.
Commons, May 19, 1927.

MacArthur’s Generalship. The ingenious use of aircraft to solve the intricate tactical problems, by the transport of reinforcements, supplies, and munitions, including field guns, is a prominent feature of MacArthur’s generalship, and should be carefully studied in detail by all concerned in the technical conduct of the war.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

MacDonald, Ramsay. I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum’s Circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit on the programme which I most desired to see was the one described as “The Boneless Wonder.” My parents judged that that spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited fifty years to see the Boneless Wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.
Commons, January 28, 1931.

The Prime Minister’s interventions in foreign affairs have been—not through any fault or neglect on his part—remarkably unsuccessful. His repeated excursions have not led to any solid, good result. Where anything has been achieved it has nearly always been at British expense and to British disadvantage. On the whole, his four years of control of our foreign relations have brought us nearer to war, and have made us weaker, poorer and more defenceless.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Here I say very little of the Prime Minister’s [Mr. Ramsay MacDonald] oratorical style. We are familiar with it here. We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest number of words into the smallest amount of thought. We have heard him on so many topics, from India to unemployment, providing us, apparently, with an inexhaustible flow of vague, well-sounding exhortations, the precise purpose of which is largely wrapped in mystery, and which, as far as it can be discerned, can be understood differently in different quarters, according to taste.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

The Government are defeated by thirty votes and then the Prime Minister rises in his place, utterly unabashed, the greatest living master of falling without hurting himself, and airily assures us that nothing has happened.
Commons, January 21, 1931.

Machine Tools. We know now that these machine tools which we are about to order should have been ordered then, but were overlooked.

That is the kind of thing that has happened, and my right hon. Friend now exhibits it to the whole world. As we see by the telegrams from different countries, it produced a shock, because while everyone knows that the industry of Britain is vast and flexible, if it has not these particular appliances it cannot manifest itself. A hideous hiatus of eight months must elapse before it can manifest itself, and after that it takes another eight months to make a gun. So that an enormous vista of anxiety lies before us, what I may call this valley of the shadow that we are going to move through for a long time—month after month of deep anxiety, when efforts will be made increasingly every month, every week, when anxiety will grow in the nation, when my right hon. Friend will be exerting himself night and day, I have no doubt. God speed him in it! But, all the same, he will be paying the penalty of these previous neglects.
Commons, May 29, 1936.

Magnetic Mines. A strident effort has been made by German propaganda to persuade the world that we have laid these magnetic mines ourselves in the fairways of our own harbours, in order, apparently, to starve ourselves out. When this inanity expired amid general derision, the alternative claim was made that the sinking of the neutrals by mine was another triumph of German science and seamanship, and should convince all nations that the German mastery of the seas was complete.
Commons, December 6, 1939.

The magnetic mine, and all the other mines with which the narrow waters, the approaches to this island, are strewn, do not present us with any problem which we deem insoluble. It must be remembered that in the last war we suffered very grievous losses from mines, and that at the climax more than six hundred British vessels were engaged solely upon the task of minesweeping. We must remember that. We must always be expecting some bad things from Germany, but I will venture to say that it is with growing confidence that we await the further developments or variants of their attack.
London, January 20, 1940.

The use of the magnetic mine produces an additional complication. There is nothing particularly new or novel about it, although mechanically it is very nicely made. I feel entitled to say that we see our way to mastering this magnetic mine and other variants of the same idea. How this has been achieved is a detective story written in a language of its own. Magnetism is a fairly exact science, and its complications and refinements can all be explored and measured. To be modest, we do not feel at all outdone in science in this country by the Nazis. There are, of course, two stages in the process of dealing with the magnetic mine. The first is finding out what to do, and the second is applying this to practical conditions upon a very large scale. We are now far advanced upon the second stage, and although we must expect, perhaps in the immediate future, further much heavier attacks upon us by this method, we believe we shall find ourselves equipped to deal with them.
Commons, February 27, 1940.

Majorities. What was the use of going to a division? You might walk a majority round and round the Lobbies for a year, and not alter the facts by which we are confronted.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Maladministration, Check on. Control over taxation and the revenues of the state has always been the foundation on which Parliamentary Government has rested, and indeed there is no other foundation upon which it can rest. Once the state acquires sources of revenue independent of Parliament, then the power of Parliament to curb and check maladministration is seriously diminished.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, May 18, 1950.

Malta. For now nearly two years Malta has stood against the enemy. What a thorn it has been in their side! What toll it has taken of their convoys! Can we wonder that a most strenuous effort has been made by Germany and Italy to rid themselves of this fierce aggressive foe. For the last six weeks over 450 German first-line strength in aircraft, and perhaps 200 Italian, have been venting their fury on Malta. An unending intermittent bombardment has fallen upon the harbour and city, and sometimes as many as 300 aircraft have attacked in a single day. The terrific ordeal has been borne with exemplary fortitude by the garrison and people. Very heavy losses have been inflicted upon the enemy’s air strength.
Commons, April 23, 1942.

Malta Air Force. Malta is the first instance of an air force being maintained against odds often of ten to one from a few airfields, all under constant bombardment. . . . It may be that presently the German air forces attacking Malta will have to move eastward to sustain the impending offensive against Southern Russia. If so, we shall have topped the ridge.
Commons, April 23, 1942.

Man, Guide to. The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.
Commons, November 12, 1940.

Man, Life of. The life of man does not depend upon the external conditions to which he is subjected, provided, of course, that they are compatible with the maintenance of his existence.
University, Copenhagen, October 10, 1950.

Man, Nature of. No man can be a collectivist alone or an individualist alone. He must be both an individualist and a collectivist. The nature of man is a dual nature. The character of the organization of human society is dual. Man is at once a unique being and a gregarious animal. For some purposes he must be collectivist, for others he is, and he will for all time remain, an individualist.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Man-Power. Man-power—and when I say that I include of course woman-power—is at a pitch of intensity at the present time in this country which was never reached before, not even in the last war, and certainly not in this. I believe our man-power is not only fully extended, but applied on the whole to the best advantage. I have a feeling that the community in this island is running at a very high level, with a good rhythm, and that if we can only keep our momentum—we cannot increase our pace—that very fact will enable us to outclass our enemies and possibly even our friends.
Commons, October 13, 1943.

Management. Management by whom? Is it to be management by business men under all the inducements of profit and all the penalties of bankruptcy, or is it to be management by politicians interested in their careers or prejudiced by their Party doctrines, but otherwise not specially distinguished—or, I should say, who otherwise have their distinction yet to win—assisted in their task by officials themselves impartial in the sense that it makes no difference to them whether the industry shows a profit or a loss?
Commons, November 16, 1948.

Management, Bureaucratic. Bureaucratic management cannot compare in efficiency with that of well-organized private firms. We are told that the management by officials is disinterested management. That may be true. The bureaucrats suffer no penalties for wrong judgment; so long as they attend their offices punctually and do their work honestly and behave in a polite manner towards their political masters they are sure of their jobs and their pensions. They are completely disinterested in the directness of their judgment. But the ordinary private trader, as you know in your own lives, faces impoverishment or perhaps bankruptcy if he cannot measure things right from day to day, and those who show themselves unable to do this are replaced by more capable men and organizers.
Perth, May 28, 1948.

Mankind, Fortunes of. I have always taken the view that the fortunes of mankind in its tremendous journey are principally decided for good or ill—but mainly for good, for the path is upward—by its greatest men and its greatest episodes.
London, January 9, 1941.

Manoeuvre of War. Machines save life, machine-power is a substitute for man-power, brains will save blood, manoeuvre is a great diluting agent to slaughter and can be made to reduce the quantity of slaughter required to effect any particular object. Generally it is not considered in the simple use of force but in the adroit augmentation and application of force. A great manoeuvre of war, the kind of manoeuvres for which the great generals of the past were rendered famous, bear the same relation to the ordinary application of force as the pulley or lever in its ordinary application of power.
Commons, March 5, 1917.

Market, Black. If you destroy a free market you create a black market.
Commons, February 3, 1949.

Market, Open. The kind of oil we prefer is no longer the kind it suits refiners to make. The open market is becoming an open mockery.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

Marquis, The Wincing. Lord Lansdowne has explained, to the amusement of the nation, that he claimed no right on behalf of the House of Lords to “mince” the Budget. All, he tells us, he has asked for, so far as he is concerned, is the right to “wince” when swallowing it. Well, that is a much more modest claim. It is for the Conservative Party to judge, whether it is a very heroic claim for one of their leaders to make. If they are satisfied with the wincing Marquis, we have no reason to protest.
Norwich, July 16, 1909.

Martial Law. Martial law is no law at all. Martial law is brute force. Of course all martial law is illegal, and an attempt to introduce illegalities into martial law, which is not military law, is like attempting to add salt water to the sea.
Commons, April 2, 1906.

Martyrdom. They could not have martyrdom without the accessories of the faggot and the stake, and if a man made his protest he ought to be prepared to pay the price.
Commons, July 19, 1904.

Massacres. I must say that I had no idea, when the war came to an end, of the horrible massacres which had occurred; the millions and millions that have been slaughtered. That dawned on us gradually after the struggle was over.
Commons, August 1, 1946.

Master, Parliament the. The House is absolutely master. If its confidence is not extended to the Government, if it does not believe that the war is being well managed, if it thinks it can make arrangements which would lead to the war being better managed, it is the duty and the right of the House to express its opinion, as it can do in a proper and a constitutional manner.
Commons, February 17, 1942.

Maxim, Roman. The Romans had a maxim, “Shorten your weapons and lengthen your frontiers.” But our maxim seems to be, “Diminish your weapons and increase your obligations.” Aye, and diminish the weapons of your friends.
Commons, March 14, 1934.

Maximum. What is the maximum? The wit of man, of a man in a fix, could not devise a more vague and misleading phrase.
Commons, November 17, 1938.

Maximum in War. There is no such thing as a maximum. The more heavy guns, the more ammunition, and the more long-range guns you have behind your trench lines, the more you save the lives of our own soldiers and accelerate the conclusion of the war.
Commons, July 24, 1916.

Medals. The object of giving medals, stars, and ribbons is to give pride and pleasure to those who have deserved them. At the same time a distinction is something which everybody does not possess. If all have it, it is of less value. There must, therefore, be heartburnings and disappointments on the border line. A medal glitters, but it also casts a shadow. The task of drawing up regulations for such awards is one which does not admit of a perfect solution. It is not possible to satisfy everybody without running the risk of satisfying nobody. All that is possible is to give the greatest satisfaction to the greatest number and to hurt the feelings of the fewest.
Commons, March 22, 1944.

Meddling. We in these islands, with our heavy burdens and with our wide Imperial responsibilities, ought to be very careful not to meddle improvidently or beyond our station, beyond our proportionate stake, in this tremendous European structure. If we were to derange the existing foundations, based on force though they may be, we might easily bring about the very catastrophe that most of all we desire to avert.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Medicinal Personalities. Science, prodded on by the urge of the age, has presented to us in the last decade a wonderful bevy of new and highly attractive medicinal personalities. We have M and B, penicillin, tetramycin, aureomycin and several others that I will not hazard my professional reputation in mentioning, still less in trying to place in order.
Royal College of Physicians, London, July 10, 1951.

Medicine. I do not profess to be very deeply acquainted with the science of medicine. I am not a surgeon myself. My experiences in medicine have been vivid and violent, and completely absorbing while they were going on. Nevertheless, I cannot claim that they have given me that broad, detached, general experience which, I believe, is the foundation for all correct scientific action.
Royal College of Physicians, London, March 2, 1944.

Mediterranean, Command of the. It is not possible to be simultaneously strong everywhere. Sacrifices must be made and punishment must be taken in some theatres in order that speedy victory may be gained in the decisive theatre. After the victory has been won there are ample resources which will be available to restore the position in more distant theatres. If there is anything left over which is not restored, that could be settled at the peace conference. It should not be long before we were in a position to restore the position in the more distant theatres. Therefore, I submit that the first main effort should be to secure and keep command of the Mediterranean.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

To gain and hold command of the Mediterranean in case of war is a high duty of the fleet. Once that is achieved all European land forces on the shores of North Africa will be decisively affected. Those that have command of the Mediterranean behind them can be reinforced to any extent and supplied to any extent. Those that have no such command will be like cut flowers in a vase.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Megalomania. At the beginning of this war megalomania was the only form of sanity.
Commons, November 15, 1915.

Members of Parliament. In the palmy days of Queen Victoria, great respect was paid to the position of a Member of Parliament. His status and authority were everywhere considered. He was much looked up to. Then came an interlude. As the franchise became more democratic, it grew to be the fashion in certain social circles to speak with contempt about Members of Parliament as a class and as a type. They were represented as mere spouters and chatterboxes, the putters of awkward questions and the raisers of small points of procedure. Kipling wrote his poem:

“Paget, M.P., was a liar, and a fluent liar herewith.”
Commons, February 27, 1941.

Memory, Short. Providence has ordained that human beings should have short memories, and pain and anxiety are soon forgotten. But are we always to oscillate between panic and torpor?
Commons, May 25, 1911.

Men in Offices. You cannot deal with offices in the abstract. You must think of offices in connection with the men who fill them, and I do not think that it is very likely that during my tenure of office I shall ever be called upon to proceed in isolation, without the support of the principal members of the Board of Admiralty.
Commons, March 20, 1912.

Menzies, R. G. Mr. Menzies brings with him the strong assurance of the Australian Commonwealth that they will, with us, go through this long, fierce, dire struggle to the victorious end. It is, indeed, a marvellous fact that Australia and New Zealand, who are separated from us and from Europe, with all its passions and quarrels, by the great ocean spaces, should send their manhood and scatter their wealth upon this world cause. No law, no constitution, no bond or treaty pledges them to spend a shilling or send a man.

We welcome Mr. Menzies here. He has sat with us in Cabinet. He has seen every aspect of our life at home. And he is going back presently by the United States to Australia. Much will have happened by the time he returns there. Australian and New Zealand troops may well be in contact with the enemy to-day. There, to the classic scenes of the ancient lands of Greece, they will bring the valour of the sons of the Southern Cross.
Bristol University, April 12, 1941.

Merchantmen, Armed. I have never doubted that it is a melancholy fact in the present state of European civilization and at this period that we should have to go back to putting weapons of war on peaceful trading vessels.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

Mercy. Long before the Christian revelation, the world had found out by practice that mercy towards a beaten enemy was well worth while, and that it was much easier to gain control over wide areas by taking prisoners than by making everyone fight to the death against you.
Commons, July 1, 1952.

Mercy after Triumph. As we have triumphed, so we may be merciful; as we are strong, so we can afford to be generous.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

Mesopotamia, Mandate. I am quite certain that the loose talk indulged in the newspapers about the speedy evacuation of Mesopotamia earlier in the year was a factor which provoked and promoted the rebellion. Whatever your policy might be, it would certainly be in the highest degree imprudent to let it be thought that this country, having accepted the mandate, having entered into territory of that kind, having incurred, accepted, and shouldered responsibilities towards every class inhabiting it, was in a moment of irritation or weakness going to cast down those responsibilities, to leave its obligations wholly undischarged, and to scuttle from the country regardless of what might occur.
Commons, December 15, 1920.

Microphones. You see these microphones? They have been placed on our tables by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Think of the risk these eminent men are running. We can almost see them in our mind’s eye, gathered together in that very expensive building, with the questionable statues on its front. We can picture Sir John Reith, with the perspiration mantling on his lofty brow, with his hand on the control switch, wondering, as I utter every word, whether it will not be his duty to protect his innocent subscribers from some irreverent thing I might say about Mr. Gandhi, or about the Bolsheviks, or even about our peripatetic Prime Minister.
Royal St. George Society, London, April 24, 1933.

Middle East. In the Middle East you have arid countries. In East Africa you have dripping countries. There is the greatest difficulty to get anything to grow on the one place, and the greatest difficulty to prevent things smothering and choking you by their hurried growth in the other. In the African Colonies you have a docile, tractable population, who only require to be well and wisely treated to develop great economic capacity and utility; whereas the regions of the Middle East are unduly stocked with peppery, pugnacious, proud politicians and theologians, who happen to be at the same time extremely well armed and extremely hard up.
Commons, July 14, 1921.

Might, Armed. If ever a single nation were able to back the strongest fleet with an overwhelming army, the whole world would be in jeopardy, and a catastrophe would swiftly occur.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Mikolajczyk, Stanislaw. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Mikolajczyk, and for his able colleagues who joined us at Moscow, Mr. Romer and Mr. Grabski. I am sure they are more qualified to fill the place of the late General Sikorski than any other of the Polish leaders.
Commons, December 15, 1944.

I have fervent hopes that Mr. Mikolajczyk, the worthy successor of General Sikorski, a man firmly desirous of friendly understanding and settlement with Russia, and his colleagues may shortly resume those important conversations in Moscow which were interrupted some months ago.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Militarism, German. Nazi tyranny and Prussian militarism are the two main elements in German life which must be absolutely destroyed. They must be absolutely rooted out if Europe and the world are to be spared a third and still more frightful conflict.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Millionaires, American. Nor should it be supposed as you would imagine, to read some of the Left-wing newspapers, that all Americans are multi-millionaires of Wall Street. If they were all multi-millionaires that would be no reason for condemning a system which has produced such material results.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, April 21, 1948.

Millions, Helpless. But now all these millions of humble humans are hustled and harried this way and that, first by nationalistic or imperialistic ambitions or appetites, now by ideological doctrines and hatreds, and all their small lives may be shattered and convulsed, millions at a time, and they may be only regimented up to suffering wounds and unrewarded toil. We, their representatives in this world-famous assembly, have a great responsibility, and we cannot always discharge it by treading easy paths and saying smooth things.
Commons, January 23, 1948.

Milk. There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
B.B.C., March 21, 1943.

Milner, Lord. Lord Milner’s position in regard to the native question in South Africa is necessarily a very weak one. Being regarded after the war [the Boer War] as an inveterate enemy of the Dutch, as prime author of all their miseries, he had to fall back for his support upon the British section of the population, and upon that particular section of the population which is called the mine-owning group. In order to placate the mine-owning group, he had somewhat to ignore the interests of the British population. In order to propitiate the British population he had to sacrifice the interests of the Dutch, and in order to compensate the mine-owners, British and Dutch, for these disadvantages he had to sacrifice the interests of the natives.
Commons, February 28, 1906.

Having been for many years, or at all events for many months, the arbiter of the fortunes of men who are “rich beyond the dreams of avarice,” he is to-day poor, and, I will add, honourably poor. After twenty years of exhausting service under the Crown he is to-day a retired civil servant, without pension or gratuity of any kind whatsoever.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

Mind, Subconscious. Human beings, happily for them, do not have to direct all their bodily functions themselves. They do not have to plan in advance how many heartbeats they are to have in the next 24 hours or what relation their temperature or blood pressure should bear to those heartbeats. They do not have to decide, as part of the daily routine, what secretions are to be made by the liver or kidneys. No official quota is set for lymph or bile. Otherwise I fear the President of the Board of Trade [Sir Stafford Cripps] would find he had overdrawn his account very much. Providence has relegated these problems to the unconscious mind and left the commanding sphere to human reason.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Miners. We must not only regard the financial interests of these prosperous companies, but we must remember the human interest of the miner at the bottom of the mine.
Commons, May 5, 1904.

Miners’ Demands. I do not wonder at the miners’ demand. I cannot find it in my heart to feel the slightest surprise, or indignation, or mental disturbance, at it. My capacity for wonder is entirely absorbed, not by the miners’ demand, but by the gentleman in the silk hat and white waistcoat who has the composure and the complacency to deny that demand and dispute it with him.
Commons, July 6, 1908.

Miners’ Rights. Let them [Socialists] dismiss from their minds these malicious tales that a Conservative Government would be hostile to the mining community. I have always affirmed that those who work in these hard and dangerous conditions, far from the light of the sun, have the right to receive exceptional benefits from the nation which they serve.
Wanstead, July 21, 1951.

Miners at War. I am very sorry that we have had to debar so many miners from going to the war in the armed forces. I respect their feelings, but we cannot afford it; we cannot allow it. Besides the need for their services in the pits, there is danger in the pits too, and where there is danger there is honour. “Act well thy part, there all the honour lies,” and that is the motto I want to give out to all those who in an infinite variety of ways are playing an equally worthy part in the consummation of our high purpose.
Westminster Central Hall, London, October 31, 1942.

Miners during the War. The only quarrel I have ever had with the miners was in the war when I had to forbid them from pouring out of the mines to join our armies in the field.
Woodford, July 21, 1951.

Mining Royalties. What about mining royalties? In all this talk about the importance of cheap coal to our industries and to the poor consumer we have had no mention of mining royalties. No. We never mention that.
Commons, July 6, 1908.

Minister, Position of a. The position of a minister is one of considerable difficulty. He often has to defend rather an awkward case. When favourable facts are wanting he has to depend upon the nimbleness of his wits, and when these fail him he has to fall back upon the loyalty of his supporters.
Commons, April 5, 1906.

Ministers, Responsibility of. I take this opportunity of saying that, as far as this island is concerned, the responsibility of ministers to guarantee the safety of the country from day to day and from hour to hour is direct and inalienable. It has always been so, and I am sure they will not differ from their predecessors in accepting that responsibility.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Miscalculations. In this august association [the League of Nations] for collective security we must build up defence forces of all kinds and combine our action with that of friendly powers, so that we may be allowed to live in quiet ourselves and retrieve the woeful miscalculations of which we are at present the dupes, and of which, unless we take warning in time, we may some day be the victims.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

My right hon. Friend [Sir Thomas Inskip] [Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence] used an extraordinary argument. He said that, if we had begun to expand our air force three years ago, or words to that effect, we should be worse off than we are now—we should be cumbered with a mass of inferior machines. This is an altogether new defence for the miscalculation which the Government have admitted in respect of the relative strength of the British and German air forces. In fact, I do not know why, on this basis, the Prime Minister ever needed at all to stand in the most handsome way in a white sheet, because apparently this was not an oversight; it was not an accident: this was some deep design, a truly Machiavellian stroke of policy, which enabled us to pretend that a miscalculation had been made while all the time we were holding back in order to steal a march on other countries by the production of great numbers of machines of the latest type. That is a most remarkable defence.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Mischief-Makers. I appeal to all patriotic men on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to stamp their feet on mischief-makers and sowers of tares wherever they may be found, and let the great machines roll into battle under the best possible conditions for their success.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Miseries, Sharing of. I do not wonder that British youth is in revolt against the morbid doctrine that nothing matters but the equal sharing of miseries: that what used to be called the submerged tenth can only be rescued by bringing the other nine-tenths down to their level; against the folly that it is better that everyone should have half rations rather than that any, by their exertions or ability, should earn a second helping.
London, June 22, 1948.

Misfortune, Penalties for. The penalties for misfortune and failure are terrible to-day: they are wholly disproportionate, even when they are brought on by a man’s own fault, either through the culpability of the individual or neglect of what is necessary to make him try or to make him take care.
Commons, May 25, 1911.

Missionaries. The life of a missionary is one of hazard; he leaves his home and his friends and goes out to dwell among the heathen, living their lives, adopting their customs, sharing their victuals, and hoping that by precept and example he may gradually raise them to a higher outlook of existence and destiny. Certainly, his life must be very exciting, because he is dependent upon the caprice or temper of the natives or their chief.
Commons, July 3, 1929.

Mistakes. I am sure that the mistakes of that time [concerning German Reparations] will not be repeated; we shall make another set of mistakes.
Commons, June 8, 1944.

I would rather make mistakes in propaganda than in action. Events are the final rulers and time is needed for them to make their pronouncements clear.
Scarborough, October 11, 1952.

Mistakes, Avoidable. When we reflect upon the magnitude of modern events compared with the men who have to try to control or cope with them, and upon the frightful consequences of these events on hundreds of millions, the importance of not making avoidable mistakes grows impressively upon the mind.
Commons, September 30, 1941.

Mistakes and Bad Luck. Men may make mistakes, and learn from their mistakes. . . . Men may have bad luck, and their luck may change.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Mistakes, Inevitable. Dictators, as well as democratic and Parliamentary governments, make mistakes sometimes. Indeed, when the whole story is told, I believe it will be found that the dictators, for all their preparations and prolonged scheming, have made greater mistakes than the democracies they have assailed.
London, May 10, 1942.

Mistakes in War. Anyone who supposes that there will not be mistakes in war is very foolish. I draw a distinction between mistakes. There is the mistake which comes through daring, what I call a mistake towards the enemy, in which you must always sustain your commanders, by sea, land or air. There are mistakes from the “safety first” principle, mistakes of turning away from the enemy; and they require a far more acid consideration.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

Mob Law. I do not allow a Party or a body to call themselves democrats because they are stretching farther and farther into the most extreme forms of revolution. I do not accept a Party as necessarily representing democracy because it becomes more violent as it becomes less numerous. One must have some respect for democracy, and not use the word too lightly. The last thing which resembles democracy is mob law, with bands of gangsters, armed with deadly weapons, forcing their way into great cities, seizing the police stations and key points of government, endeavouring to introduce a totalitarian régime.
Commons, December 8, 1944.

Moderation. Disagreement is much more easy to express, and often much more exciting to the reader, than agreement. The highest common factor of public opinion is not a fertile ground for lively epigrams and sharp antithesis. The expression of broad and simple principles likely to command the ascent and not to excite the dissent of vast communities must necessarily be in guarded terms. I should not myself fear even the accusation of platitude in such a statement if it only sought the greatest good of the greatest number.
Commons, July 12, 1954.

Moments, Selected and Average. What has happened illustrates a very important strategic truth which I have several times endeavoured to impress upon the House—I mean the difficulty under which the strongest naval power always lies of being ready to meet at its average moment the attack of the next strongest naval power at its selected moment.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Monarchy, Blessings of. These are the days when in other countries ignorant people are often disposed to imagine that progress consists in converting oneself from a monarchy into a republic. In this country we have known the blessings of limited monarchy. Great traditional and constitutional chains of events have come to make an arrangement, to make a situation, unwritten, which enables our affairs to proceed on what I believe is a superior level of smoothness and democratic progress.
London, May 18, 1944.

Monarchy, Constitutional. If it be true, as has been said, that every country gets the form of government it deserves, we may certainly flatter ourselves. The wisdom of our ancestors has led us to an envied and enviable situation. We have the strongest Parliament in the world. We have the oldest, the most famous, the most honoured, the most secure, and the most serviceable, monarchy in the world. King and Parliament both safely and solidly upon the will of the people expressed by free and fair election on the basis of universal suffrage.
Commons, May 15, 1945.

Monarchy, Power of. The limitation of the power of absolute monarchy was the cause for which, as Liberals used to say, “Hampden died in the field and Sidney on the scaffold.”
Woodford, January 28, 1950.

Money. A government can easily raise money and can always print it, but the labour and materials represented by the money come in a different category. Labour and the savings of the community are the key.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Monopolies. There is a growing feeling, which I entirely share, against allowing those services which are in the nature of monopolies to pass into private hands.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Monopoly, State. I believe that the monopoly by the State of all the means of production, distribution, and exchange would be fatal both to our national well-being and to our personal freedom, as we have long enjoyed them. The cost of State management takes more from the workers than will ever be taken by the profits of private enterprise. It is not the interest of the wage-earners to have to deal with all powerful State employer rather than with the flexibility of private business. When losses are made, under the present system these losses are borne by the individuals who sustained them and took the risk and judged things wrongly, whereas under State management all losses are quartered upon the taxpayers and the community as a whole. The elimination of the profit motive and of self-interest as a practical guide in the myriad transactions of daily life will restrict, paralyse and destroy British ingenuity, thrift, contrivance and good housekeeping at every stage in our life and production, and will reduce all our industries from a profit-making to a loss-making process.
Belle Vue, Manchester, December 6, 1947.

Monroe Doctrine. For at least two generations we were, as the American writer Walter Lippman has reminded us, a guardian, and almost a guarantor, of the Monroe doctrine upon which, as Canning’s eye foresaw, the free development of South America was founded. We and the civilized world owe many blessings to the United States, but we have also in later generations made our contribution to their security and splendour.
London, May 7, 1946.

Montgomery, Field-Marshal. Let me also pay my tribute to this vehement and formidable General Montgomery, a Cromwellian figure, austere, severe, accomplished, tireless, his life given to the study of war, who has attracted to himself in an extraordinary measure the confidence and the devotion of his army.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Field-Marshal Montgomery is one of the greatest living masters of the art of war. Like Stonewall Jackson, he was a professor and teacher of the military science before he became an actor on the world stage. It has been my fortune and great pleasure often to be with him at important moments in the long march from Mersa Matruh to the Rhine. Either on the eve of a great battle, or while the struggle was actually in progress, always I have found the same buoyant, vigorous, efficient personality with every aspect of the vast operation in his mind, and every unit of mighty armies in his grip.
Commons, October 22, 1945.

Moods, British. In a long and varied life I have constantly watched and tried to measure the moods and inspirations of the British people. There is no foe they will not face. There is no hardship they cannot endure. Whether the test be sharp and short or long and wearisome, they can take it. What they do not forgive is false promises and vain boastings.
Brighton, October 4, 1947.

Moon, Crying for the. What is the point in crying out for the moon when you have the sun, when you have the bright orb of day in whose refulgent beams all the lesser luminaries hide their radiance?
Commons, February 16, 1938.

Moral Conviction. This moral conviction alone affords that ever-fresh resilience which renews the strength and energy of people in long, doubtful, and dark days. Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its gales, but in our own hearts this Sunday morning there is peace. Our hands may be active, but our consciences are at rest.
Commons, September 3, 1939.

Moral Force. Moral force is unhappily no substitute for armed force, but it is a very great reinforcement.
Commons, December 21, 1937.

Morgan, General. In April, 1943, General Morgan, of the British army, became head of the British and American Planning Staff, which surveyed the whole project by the decision of the Combined Chief of Staff Committee. They made a plan, which I took with me last year to Quebec, where it was submitted to the President and the Combined British and American Chiefs of Staff. This plan selected the beaches for the attack and presented the outlines of the scheme, together with a mass of detail to support it. It received, in principle, complete agreement. It is rather remarkable that a secret of this character, which had to be entrusted from the beginning, to scores, very soon to hundreds, and ultimately to thousands, of people, never leaked out either in these islands or the wide expanses of the United States.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Morley, Lord. Lord Morley’s reputation in this House is well known. For many a year he was an ornament of our debates, and his learning and intellectual elevation, his brilliancy of phrasing, and the range of his experience, constitute assets and qualifications which the Government value in the highest degree.
Commons, March 25, 1914.

Morrison, Herbert. The right hon. Member for Lewisham, South, is a curious mixture of geniality and venom. The geniality, I may say after a great many years’ experience, is natural to himself. The venom has to be adopted in order to keep on sides with the forces below the gangway.
Commons, May 21, 1952.

Mosquito. I have been told of a method of destroying the larvae of a particular mosquito by means of cows. The mosquito lays its eggs in the protecting grasses at the very edge of the water and stretched out into the water, and in this position it is protected from the depredations of a small fish which otherwise devours it with avidity. But on the introduction of the cow into the area the grass is cropped and nibbled close to the water’s edge and the fish immediately attacks the larvae. I cannot guarantee the exact scientific accuracy of that narration.
Commons, July 14, 1921.

Motives. When we consider our naval strength we are not thinking of our commerce, but of our freedom. We are not thinking of our trade, but our lives.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Moulds, New. I believe this is a time when metals are molten and could easily be cast into new shapes and new moulds.
Commons, May 9, 1916.

Mountbatten, Lord Louis. A Supreme Commander of South-East Asia has been chosen, and his name has been acclaimed by British, American and Chinese opinion. He will act in constant association with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. It is true that Lord Louis Mountbatten is only 43. It is not often under modern conditions and in established military professions that a man gets so great a chance so early. But if an officer having devoted his life to the military art does not know about war at 43, he is not likely to learn much more about it later on. As Chief of Combined Operations, Lord Louis has shown rare powers of organization and resourcefulness. He is what—pedants notwithstanding—I will venture to call “a complete triphibian,” that is to say, a creature equally at home in three elements—earth, air and water—and also well accustomed to fire.
London, August 31, 1943.

Mourning. Only faith in a life after death in a brighter world where dear ones will meet again—only that and the measured tramp of time can give consolation.
Commons, September 8, 1942.

Moyne, Lord. I have known him almost all his life. For over thirty years, mostly in this House, we were intimate friends. Very young indeed did he succeed in getting out to the South African War, where he proved his courage and shed his blood. The bitter Party strife which preceded the last world war made no difference to our relations, or to his relations with many of his opponents. He fought in the first world war with distinguished courage, rising to the command of a battalion and passing through the very worst of the fighting year after year, both on Gallipoli and in France and Flanders.
Commons, November 7, 1944.

Munich. I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and that France has suffered even more than we have. The utmost my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister [Mr. Neville Chamberlain] has been able to secure by his immense exertions, by all the great efforts and mobilization which took place in this country, and by all the anguish and strain through which we have passed in this country, the utmost he has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia in the matters which were in dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude which has befallen Great Britain and France. Do not let us blind ourselves to that. It must now be accepted that all the countries of central and eastern Europe will make the best terms they can with the triumphant Nazi power. The system of alliances in central Europe upon which France has relied for her safety has been swept away, and I can see no means by which it can be reconstituted.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer [Sir John Simon] said it was the first time Herr Hitler had been made to retract—I think that was the word—in any degree. We really must not waste time after all this long debate upon the difference between the positions reached at Berchtesgaden, at Godesberg and at Munich. They can be very simply epitomized, if the House will permit me to vary the metaphor, £1 was demanded at the pistol’s point. When it was given, £2 were demanded at the pistol’s point. Finally, the dictator consented to take £1 17s. 6d. and the rest in promises of goodwill for the future.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Many people, no doubt, honestly believe that they are only giving away the interests of Czechoslovakia, whereas I fear we shall find that we have deeply compromised, and perhaps endangered, the safety and even the independence of Great Britain and France. This is not merely a question of giving up the German colonies, as I am sure we shall be asked to do. Nor is it a question only of losing influence in Europe. It goes far deeper than that. You have to consider the character of the Nazi movement and the rule which it implies.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Munich not the End. Do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Munich, The Truth about. I do not grudge our loyal, brave people, who were ready to do their duty no matter what the cost, who never flinched under the strain of last week—I do not grudge them the natural, spontaneous outburst of joy and relief when they learned that the hard ordeal would no longer be required of them at the moment; but they should know the truth. They should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the western democracies: “Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.”
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Munitions. I heard the other day the following remark: “You would surely not deprive the Secretary of State for War of the responsibility for his own munitions supply?” That is exactly what I would do. Curiously enough, those words sounded like an echo from the past. They were the very words which I heard Lord Kitchener use in the early months of 1915. “I could never give up,” he said, “responsibility for the ammunition of the army.” But he had to. He had to be made to, and unless he had been made to and been willing to give it up—and afterwards he was thankful—his soldiers could never have been supplied with all that they needed. This is one of the lessons which we all had to learn with blood and tears. Have we really got to learn them all over again?
Commons, May 21, 1936.

Munitions, Minister of. We are told that “All is ready for a Minister of Munitions on the outbreak of war.” Lord Zetland tells us that all that happens is that he or some other noble personage has to press a button. I hope that it is not a button like the last gaiter button which was talked of before the war of 1870. He has only to press this button and a Ministry of Munitions will leap into being fully armed like Minerva from the head of the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence. Do not let the House believe that, I beg of it.
Commons, May 25, 1938.

Munitions, Production of. Here in a nutshell is the history of munitions production: first year, very little; second year, not much, but something; third year, almost all you want; fourth year, more than you need.
Commons, March 10, 1936.

In these sombre fields in the first year you have to sow, and in the second year you harrow; the third year is your harvest. In the first year you make your machine tools and designs. In the second year you make your plants and lay them out. You marshal and secure your labour, skilled and unskilled. In the third year come deliveries. No doubt all those processes overlap and you get, over three years, a yield rising very sharply in the latter period; but broadly speaking, the effective result comes only in the third year.
Commons, May 21, 1936.

Murder. The idea that if you murder a man you may subsequently steal his money is a very primitive one.
Commons, June 2, 1908.

Mussolini. Italians, I will tell you the truth. It is all because of one man. One man and one man alone has ranged the Italian people in deadly struggle against the British Empire, and has deprived Italy of the sympathy and intimacy of the United States of America. That he is a great man I do not deny, but that after eighteen years of unbridled power he has led your country to the horrid verge of ruin can be denied by none. It is one man who, against the Crown and Royal Family of Italy, against the Pope and all the authority of the Vatican and of the Roman Catholic Church, against the wishes of the Italian people, who had no lust for this war, has arrayed the trustees and inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the ferocious pagan barbarians.
London, December 23, 1940.

I daresay you have read in the newspapers that, by a special proclamation, the Italian dictator has congratulated the Italian army in Albania on the glorious laurels they had gained by their victory over the Greeks. Here surely is the world’s record in the domain of the ridiculous and the contemptible. This whipped jackal, Mussolini, who to save his own skin has made all Italy a vassal state of Hitler’s empire, comes frisking up at the side of the German tiger with yelpings not only of appetite—that can be understood—but even of triumph. Different things strike different people in different ways. But I am sure there are a great many millions in the British Empire, and in the United States, who will find a new object in life by making sure that when we come to the final reckoning this absurd imposter will be abandoned to public justice and universal scorn.
London, April 27, 1941.

Mussolini, Downfall of. The end of Mussolini’s long and severe reign over the Italian people undoubtedly marks the close of an epoch in the life of Italy. The keystone of the Fascist arch has crumbled, and without attempting to prophesy, it does not seem unlikely that the entire Fascist edifice will fall to the ground in ruins, if it has not already so fallen. The totalitarian system of a single party, armed with secret police, engrossing to itself practically all the offices, even the humblest, under the Government, with magistrates and courts under the control of the executive, with its whole network of domestic spies and neighbourly informants—that system, when applied over a long period of time, leaves the broad masses without any influence upon their country’s destinies and without any independent figures apart from the official classes. That, I think, is a defence for the people of Italy—one defence—although there can be no really valid defence for any country or any people which allows its freedom and inherent rights to pass out of its own hands.
Commons, July 27, 1943.

The successful campaign in Sicily brought about the fall of Mussolini and the heartfelt repudiation by the Italian people of the Fascist creed. Mussolini indeed escaped, to eat the bread of affliction at Hitler’s table, to shoot his son-in-law, and help the Germans wreak vengeance upon the Italian masses whom he had professed to love, and over whom he had ruled for more than twenty years. This fate and judgment, more terrible than death, has overtaken the vainglorious dictator who stabbed France in the back and thought his crime had gained him the empire of the Mediterranean.
London, March 26, 1944.

Myopia. Eight years ago we were told that disarmament had been discussed at Geneva. For two and a half years the actual conference has been proceeding. The leader of the Liberal Opposition [Sir Herbert Samuel] has, therefore, had a good run for his experiment. His hope has been abounding. It has preserved him at every stage from seeing the facts.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Mysteries of the Future. I have no fear of the future. Let us go forward into its mysteries, let us tear aside the veils which hide it from our eyes, and let us move onward with confidence and courage. All the problems of the post-war world, some of which seem so baffling now, will be easier of solution once decisive victory has been gained, and once it is clear that victory won in arms has not been cast away by folly or by violence when the moment comes to lay the broad foundations of the future world order, and it is time to speak great words of peace and truth to all.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, September 29, 1943.

Mystic Link. We fought alone against tyranny for a whole year, not purely from national motives. It is true that our lives depended upon our doing so, but we fought the better because we felt with conviction that it was not only our own cause but a world cause for which the Union Jack was kept flying in 1940 and 1941. The soldier who laid down his life, the mother who wept for her son, and the wife who lost her husband, got inspiration and comfort and felt a sense of being linked with the universal and the eternal by the fact that we fought for what was precious not only for ourselves but for mankind.
Commons, June 27, 1950.

Nagging, Policy of. What ought to be our policy towards Italy? At any rate, we can see what it ought not to be. It ought not to be a policy of nagging. Very serious antagonism existed between Great Britain, doing her part as a member of the League of Nations, and Italy over the conquest of Abyssinia. In that antagonism we have not prevailed. We have been humiliated, but we have not been dishonoured. However we may have been guided, we are not regarded either as knaves or cowards.
Commons, November 5, 1936.

Napoleon. Some have compared Hitler’s conquests with those of Napoleon. It may be that Spain and Russia will shortly furnish new chapters to that theme. It must be remembered, however, that Napoleon’s armies carried with them the fierce, liberating and equalitarian winds of the French Revolution, whereas Hitler’s empire has nothing behind it but racial self-assertion, espionage, pillage, corruption, and the Prussian boot.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

National Unity. But what is the purpose which has brought us all together? It is the conviction that the life of Britain, her glories and message to the world, can only be achieved by national unity, and national unity can only be preserved upon a cause which is larger than the nation itself.
Commons, May 9, 1938.

What does national unity mean? It surely means that reasonable sacrifices of Party opinions, personal opinion, and Party interest, should be made by all in order to contribute to the national security.
Commons, August 2, 1939.

Nationalism. I have heard, as everyone has of late years, a great deal of condemnation of the treaties of peace, of the Treaties of Versailles and of Trianon. I believe that that denunciation has been very much exaggerated, and in its effect harmful. These treaties, at any rate, were founded upon the strongest principle alive in the world to-day, the principle of nationalism, or, as President Wilson called it, self-determination. The principle of self-determination or of nationalism was applied to all the defeated powers over the whole area of middle and eastern Europe. Europe to-day corresponds to its ethnological groupings as it has never corresponded before. You may think that nationalism has been excessively manifested in modern times. That may well be so. It may well be that it has a dangerous side, but we must not fail to recognize that it is the strongest force now at work.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Where nationalism means the lust for pride and power, the craze for supreme domination by weight or force; where it is the senseless urge to be the biggest in the world, it is a danger and a vice. Where it means love of country and readiness to die for country; where it means love of tradition and culture and the gradual building up across the centuries of a social entity dignified by nationhood, then it is the first of virtues.
States-General of the Netherlands, The Hague, May 9, 1946.

Nationalism, Principle of. In applying this principle of nationalism to the defeated states after the war it was inevitable that mistakes and some injustices should occur. There are places where the populations are inextricably intermingled. There are some countries where an island of one race is surrounded by an area inhabited by another. There were all kinds of anomalies, and it would have defied the wit of man to make an absolutely perfect solution.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Nationalities. In dealing with nationalities, nothing is more fatal than a dodge. Wrongs will be forgiven, sufferings and losses will be forgiven or forgotten, battles will be remembered only as they recall the martial virtues of the combatants; but anything like chicane, anything like a trick, will always rankle.
Commons, April 5, 1906.

Nationalization. Nationalization of industry is the doom of trade unionism.
Blackpool, October 14, 1950.

The complete nationalization of all means of production, distribution and exchange would make it impossible for this small island to support a large part of its population.
Huddersfield, October 15, 1951.

We must also be careful that a pretext is not made of war needs to introduce far-reaching social or political changes by a side wind. Take the question of nationalizing the coal mines. Those words do not terrify me at all. I advocated nationalization of the railways after the last war, but I am bound to say that I was a bit affected by the experience of the national control of the railways after the war, which led to the public getting a very bad service, to the shareholders having very unsatisfactory returns, and to one of the most vicious and hazardous strikes with which I have ever been concerned. However, as I say, the principle of nationalization is accepted by all, provided proper compensation is paid. The argument proceeds not on moral grounds but on whether in fact we could make a better business of the whole thing for ourselves, a more fertile business for the nation as a whole, by nationalization than by relying on private enterprise and competition.
Commons, October 13, 1943.

Nations, Guilty. It may well be that those guilty races who trumpeted the glories of war at the beginning will be extolling the virtues of peace before the end. It would certainly seem right, however, that those who fix, on their own terms, the moment for beginning wars should not be the same men who fix, on their own terms, the moment for ending them. These observations are of a general character, but not without their particular application.
Commons, June 8, 1943.

Nations, Peaceful. When peaceful nations like the British and the Americans, very careless in peacetime about their defences, care-free, unsuspecting nations, peoples who have never known defeat—improvident nations I will say, feckless nations, nations who despise the military art and thought war so wicked that it could never happen again—when nations like these are set upon by highly-organized, heavily-armed conspirators, planning and calculating in secret for years on end, exalting war as the highest form of human effort, glorifying slaughter and aggression, prepared and trained to the last point science and discipline can carry them, is it not natural that the peaceful, unprepared, improvident peoples should suffer terribly and that the wicked, scheming aggressors should have their reign of savage exaltation?
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, October 12, 1942.

Nations at War. This nation at war is an army, it must be looked upon as an army; it must be organized like an army; it must be directed like an army; and it ought to be rationed and provided and supplied like an army.
Commons, September 16, 1916.

Natives, Exploitation of. All forms of cruelty to natives are to be reprobated, but there is one form of cruelty which is especially odious; it is when it takes the form of the exploitation of natives for the purpose of gain.
Commons, February 28, 1906.

Nature, Conquest of. Man in this moment of his history has emerged in greater supremacy over the forces of nature than has ever been dreamed of before. He has it in his power to solve quite easily the problems of material existence. He has conquered the wild beasts, and he has even conquered the insects and the microbes. There lies before him, as he wishes, a golden age of peace and progress. All is in his hand. He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy—himself. With vision, faith and courage, it may be within our power to win a crowning victory for all.
Commons, March 28, 1950.

Nature of Man. I believe that, generally speaking, given free institutions on a fair basis, the best side of men’s nature will in the end surely come uppermost. But this doctrine has its limits.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

I read somewhere that when the ancient Athenians, on one occasion, overpowered a tribe in the Peloponnesus which had wrought them great injury by base, treacherous means, and when they had the hostile army herded on a beach naked for slaughter, they forgave them and set them free, and they said: “This was not because they were men; it was done because of the nature of Man.”
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Nature, Unfailing. It is not nature which has failed us. It is not nature which has failed mankind. It is governments, which, misled and steeped in folly or perversity, have rejected and squandered the fruits of nature, endeavouring to prevent the normal working of its processes, even though those fruits are presented by the evermore efficient servitors of an ever-widening science.
Commons, October 28, 1947.

Naval Armaments. The spectacle which the naval armaments of Christendom afford at the present time will no doubt excite the curiosity and the wonder of future generations.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Naval Competition. In the sphere of naval competition everything is relative. The strength of one navy is its strength compared to another.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Construction, Freedom of. For the navy, at any rate, we should regain freedom of design. We should get rid of this London Treaty which has crippled us in building the kind of ships we want, and has stopped the United States from building a great battleship which she probably needed and to which we should have not had the slightest reason to object. . . . We must regain our freedom at the earliest possible moment, and we shall be helped in doing so by the fact that another of the Parties to that Treaty [Japan] is resolved to regain her freedom too.
Commons, February 7, 1934.

Naval Development. The navy is passing through a period not merely of expansion, but of swift and ceaseless development. It is, in fact, a vast scientific business of ever-growing range and complexity, stimulated and governed by inventions and improvements in almost every sphere of applied mechanics, forced without cessation to enter upon new paths of research and of the application of the results of research, and fanned to the highest point of activity by the rapid advance in every direction of rival powers.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Disarmament. It would have been better for us to have said to the United States: “Build whatever you will; your navy is absolutely ruled out of our calculations, except as a potential friend.”
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Naval Engagement, Modern. Indeed, the more we force ourselves to picture the hideous course of a modern naval engagement, the more one is inclined to believe that it will resemble the contest between Mamilius and Herminius at the battle of Lake Regillus, or the still more homely conflict of the Kilkenny cats. That is a very satisfactory reflection for the stronger naval power.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Naval Inventions. The usefulness of a naval invention ceases when it is enjoyed by everyone else.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Obsolescence. Every year the great nations of Christendom not only make obsolete the fleets of their rivals, but they make obsolete their own fleets. They do that without adding in the least either to their actual security or relative strength.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Policy. The foundation of naval policy is finance.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Naval Power. In times of peace we measure the relative naval construction of two navies by percentages, and that is perhaps as good a way as any other. In naval war, and especially in modern naval war, another system of calculation becomes dominant. Battles are not decided by ratios or percentages. They yield definite and absolute results, and the strength of conflicting navies ought to be measured, and is measured, not as in peace by comparison, but by substraction.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Naval Power, German. Let us suppose that some distinguished and powerful person who has played a great part in life dies, and his posts, offices, appointments and possessions are distributed, and then he suddenly comes back from the dead. A great deal of inconvenience would be caused. That is what happened in the resuscitation of German naval power.
Commons, July 11, 1935.

Naval Power, Stereotyped. We must be very careful not to allow our development of naval power to be stereotyped or dominated by what I may, without disrespect, term a popular or uninstructed opinion.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Power, Superior. Steam and telegraph have enormously increased, as compared with sailing days, the thoroughness and efficiency of superior naval power.
Commons, February 15, 1915.

Naval Strategy. There is no more valuable principle of Imperial federation than this principle, which I am bringing forward to-night, of inter-Dominion action. The homely old tale of the bundle of sticks, each of which could be snapped separately, but which bound together were unbreakable, is the last word in the naval strategy of the British Empire.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Strength. Margins of naval strength which are sufficient when the times come to compel a victory, are insufficient to maintain peace.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Naval Supremacy. If we assert our claim, as we intend to do, to the supreme position on the seas, it is also our duty so to conduct ourselves that other nations will feel that that great power and that great responsibility which are a necessity to us shall be used in such a manner as to be a menace to none, and a trust held for all.
Commons, March 20, 1912.

Naval Treaty with Germany. We have, however unintentionally, nullified and stultified the League of Nations condemnation of treaty-breaking in respect of armaments, in which we were ourselves concerned, in which, indeed, we took a leading part. We have, it seems to me, revealed, again quite unintentionally, a very considerable measure of indifference to the interests of other powers, particularly powers in the Baltic, who were encouraged by our example to join with us in the League of Nations in condemning treaty-breaking. In the name of what is called practical realism we have seemed to depart from the principle of collective security in a very notable fashion. [By concluding the Treaty with Germany.]
Commons, July 11, 1935.

Naval Warfare. There is a difference between military and naval anxiety, which the House will appreciate. A division of soldiers cannot be annihilated by a cavalry patrol. But at any moment a great ship, equal in war power, and a war unit, to a division or an army may be destroyed without a single opportunity of its fighting strength being realized, or a man on board having a chance to strike a blow in self-defence.
Commons, November 27, 1914.

Naval Warfare, Future. We are increasingly convinced of the power of the submarine and the decisive part which this weapon, aided perhaps in some respects by the seaplane, may play in the naval warfare of the future.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Navies, Anglo-American. I have always thought that the union of these two great forces [the British and American navies], not for purposes of aggression or narrow selfish interests, but in an honourable cause, constitutes what I may call the sheet-anchor of human freedom and progress.
Corn Exchange, Cambridge, May 19, 1939.

Navy in Action. Wonderful exertions have been made by our Navy and Air Force; by the hundreds of minesweeping vessels which with their marvellous appliances keep our ports clear in spite of all the enemy can do; by the men who build and repair our immense fleets of merchant ships; by the men who load and unload them; and, need I say, by the officers and men of the Merchant Navy who go out in all weathers and in the teeth of all dangers to fight for the life of their native land and for a cause they comprehend and serve.
B.B.C., April 27, 1941.

Navy, Functions of the. The Navy has a dual function. In war it is our means of safety; in peace it sustains the prestige, repute and influence of this small island; and it is a major factor in the cohesion of the British Empire and Commonwealth. The tasks which the Navy has performed in peacetime are hardly less magnificent than those it has achieved in war. From Trafalgar onwards, for more than 100 years Britannia ruled the waves. There was a great measure of peace, the freedom of the seas was maintained, the slave trade was extirpated, the Monroe doctrine of the United States found its sanction in British naval power.
Commons, March 8, 1948.

Navy, The Royal. The Royal Navy, especially after the toning-up which it has received, is unsurpassed in the world and is still the main bulwark of our security; and even at this eleventh hour, if the right measures are taken and if the right spirit prevails in the British nation and the British Empire, we may surround ourselves with other bulwarks equally sure, which will protect us against whatever storms may blow.
Commons, March 19, 1936.

Navy at War. In the Navy the war in the air and the war on sea have become so closely interwoven as to be indistinguishable and inseparable.
Commons, March 16, 1950.

Nazi Power. You must have diplomatic and correct relations, but there can never be friendship between the British democracy and the Nazi power, that power which spurns Christian ethics, which cheers its onward course by a barbarous paganism, which vaunts the spirit of aggression and conquest, which derives strength and perverted pleasure from persecution, and uses, as we have seen, with pitiless brutality the threat of murderous force. That power cannot ever be the trusted friend of the British democracy.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Nazi-ism, Casting down. All over the world men and women, under every sky and climate, of every race, creed and colour, all have the feeling that in the casting-down of this monstrous Nazi engine of tyranny, cruelty, greed and aggression—in the casting of it down shattered in pieces, something will have been achieved by the whole human race which will affect in a decisive manner its future destinies, and which will even in our own time be marked by very sensible improvement in the conditions under which the great masses of the people live.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, September 29, 1943.

Nazi-ism in Europe. We cannot afford to see Nazidom in its present phase of cruelty and intolerance, with all its hatreds and all its gleaming weapons, paramount in Europe.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Neck of England. When I warned them [the French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet: “In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.” Some chicken! Some neck!
Canadian Parliament, Ottawa, December 30, 1941.

Nehru. If in the sacrifice of every British interest and of all the necessary safeguards and means of preserving peace and progress in India you came to terms with Gandhi, Gandhi would at that selfsame moment cease to count any more in the Indian situation. Already Nehru, his young rival in the Indian Congress, is preparing to supersede him the moment that he has squeezed his last drop from the British lemon.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

It was a cardinal mistake to entrust the government of India to the caste Hindu, Mr. Nehru. He has good reason to be the most bitter enemy of any connection between India and the British Commonwealth.
Commons, March 6, 1947.

Nelson Breed. The spirit of all our forces serving on the salt water has never been more strong and high than now. The warrior heroes of the past may look down, as Nelson’s monument looks down upon us now, without any feeling that the island race has lost its daring or that the examples they set in bygone centuries have faded as the generations have succeeded one another. It was not for nothing that Admiral Harewood, as he instantly and at full speed attacked an enemy which might have sunk any one of his ships by a single successful salvo from its far heavier guns, flew Nelson’s immortal signal, of which neither the new occasion, nor the conduct of all ranks and ratings, nor the final result, were found unworthy.
Guildhall, London, February 23, 1940.

Nerves, War of. If, as was suggested in a recent oration, there is to be a contest of nerve, will-power, and endurance in which the whole British and German peoples are to engage, be it sharp or be it long, we shall not shrink from it. We believe that the spirit and temperament bred under institutions of freedom will prove more enduring and resilient than anything that can be got out of the most efficiently enforced mechanical discipline.
Commons, September 5, 1940.

Netherlands, Danger to the. The creation of a line of forts opposite to the French frontier will enable the German troops to be economized on that line, and will enable the main forces to swing round through Belgium and Holland. That is for us a danger of the most serious kind. Suppose we broke with France. Suppose the efforts to divide the last surviving free democracies of the Western world were successful and they were sundered, and suppose that France, isolated, could do no more than defend her own frontier behind Belgium and Holland by prolonging her fortress line, those small countries might very speedily pass under German domination, and the large colonial empires which they possess would no doubt be transferred at the same time. These are matters that ought not to escape our attention.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Netherlands, Fate of the. I shall not attempt to prophesy whether the frenzy of a cornered maniac will drive Herr Hitler into the worst of all his crimes; but this I will say without a doubt, that the fate of Holland and Belgium, like that of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria, will be decided by the victory of the British Empire and the French Republic. If we are conquered, all will be enslaved, and the United States will be left single-handed to guard the rights of man. If we are not destroyed, all these countries will be rescued and restored to life and freedom.
Commons, November 8, 1939.

Neutrality. If we wish to detach ourselves and lead a life of independence from European entanglements, we have to be strong enough to defend our neutrality.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Neutrality, Doctrine of. One of the most extraordinary things that I have ever known in my experience is the way in which German illegalities, atrocities and brutalities, are coming to be accepted as if they were part of the ordinary day-to-day conditions of war. Why, Sir, the neutral Press makes more fuss when I make a speech telling them what is their duty than they have done when hundreds of their ships have been sunk and many thousands of their sailors have been drowned or murdered, for that is the right word, on the open sea. Apparently, according to the present doctrine of neutral states, strongly endorsed by the German Government, Germany is to gain one set of advantages by breaking all the rules and committing foul outrages upon the seas, and then go on and gain another set of advantages through insisting, whenever it suits her, upon the strictest interpretation of the International Code she has torn to pieces. It is not at all odd that His Majesty’s Government are getting rather tired of it. I am getting rather tired of it myself.
Commons, February 27, 1940.

Neutrality, Interpretation of. Only yesterday, while the sailors from a British submarine were carrying ashore on stretchers eight emaciated Dutchmen whom they had rescued from six days’ exposure in an open boat, Dutch aviators in Holland, in the name of strict and impartial neutrality, were shooting down a British aircraft which had lost its way. I do not reproach the Dutch, our valiant allies of bygone centuries; my heart goes out to them in their peril and distress, dwelling as they do in the cage with the tiger. But when we are asked to take as a matter of course interpretations of neutrality which give all the advantages to the aggressor and inflict all the disadvantages upon the defenders of freedom, I recall a saying of the late Lord Balfour: “This is a singularly ill-contrived world, but not so ill-contrived as that.”
London, March 30, 1940.

Neutrals. They [the neutral nations] bow humbly and in fear to German threats of violence, comforting themselves meanwhile with the thought that the allies will win, that Britain and France will strictly observe all the laws and conventions, and that breaches of these laws are only to be expected from the German side. Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear—I fear greatly—the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, ever more loudly, ever more widely. It will spread to the south; it will spread to the north. There is no chance of a speedy end except through united action; and if at any time Britain and France, wearying of the struggle, were to make a shameful peace, nothing would remain of the smaller states of Europe with their shipping and their possessions, but to be divided between the opposite, though similar, barbarisms of Nazidom and Bolshevism.
London, January 20, 1940.

We have the greatest sympathy for these forlorn countries, and we understand their dangers and their point of view; but it would not be right, or in the general interest, that their weakness should feed the aggressor’s strength and fill to overflowing the cup of human woe. There can be no justice if in a mortal struggle the aggressor tramples down every sentiment of humanity, and if those who resist him remain entangled in the tatters of violated legal conventions.
Commons, March 30, 1940.

New Age. The wonderful century which followed the Battle of Waterloo and the downfall of the Napoleonic domination, which secured to this small island so long and so resplendent a reign, has come to an end. We have arrived at a new time. Let us realise it. And with that new time strange methods, huge forces, larger combinations—a Titanic world—have sprung up around us. The foundations of our power are changing. To stand still would be to fall; to fall would be to perish. We must go forward. We will go forward. We will go forward into a way of life more earnestly viewed, more scientifically organized, more consciously national, than any we have known. Thus alone shall we be able to sustain and to renew, through the generations which are to come, the fame and the power of the British race.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

New Britain. A few weeks ago one of our leading intellectuals, a great thinker—and as the father of our new President once said, one of the great difficulties about great thinkers is that they so often think wrong—asked in public whether I was working for the new England or the old. It is an easy question to answer, for you as for myself: We are working for both. The new England, or the new Britain . . . the new Britain and the old Britain have always dwelt side by side in our land, and it is by the union and inter-play of the new impulses and the great traditions both working together that we have managed to solve peacefully, yet finally, problems which have ruined for ever the unity of many a famous state.

It is by this dual process that we have contrived to build up over generations that basis of life with its rights and tolerances, its individual freedom, its collective associations, and above all, its infinite power of self-improvement and national progress, that decent way of life which the broad masses of our people share and for which they now show themselves prepared to fight, and if need be to die.
Caxton Hall, London, March 26, 1942.

Next Best. In other days I used to say that when the ace is out the king is the best card.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Niagara. The gravity of the general situation is in no way diminished by the fact that it has become less exciting than it was two or three weeks ago. When you are drifting down the stream of Niagara, it may easily happen that from time to time you run into a reach of quite smooth water, or that a bend in the river or a change in the wind may make the roar of the falls seem far more distant; but your hazard and your preoccupation are in no way affected thereby.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Nitrates. It is a very strange thing to reflect that but for the invention of Professor Haber the Germans could not have continued the war after their original stock of nitrates were exhausted. The invention of this single man has enabled them, utilizing the interval in which their accumulations were used up, not only to maintain an almost unlimited supply of explosives for all purposes, but to provide amply for the needs of agriculture in chemical manures. It is a remarkable fact, and shows on what obscure and accidental incidents the fortunes possibly of the whole world may turn in these days of scientific discovery.
Commons, April 25, 1918.

No! Alexander the Great remarked that the people of Asia were slaves because they had not learned to pronounce the word “No.” Let that not be the epitaph of the English-speaking peoples or of Parliamentary democracy, or of France, or of the many surviving liberal States of Europe.
London, October 16, 1938.

Normandy, Battle for. It is the wish and also the desire of General Eisenhower that the battle for Normandy should be viewed as a whole and as one single set of operations conducted by an allied force, linked in brotherhood and intermingled in every manner that may seem convenient. But this should certainly not prevent the British House of Commons from expressing its unstinted admiration for the splendid and spectacular victories gained by the United States troops under General Bradley, both at Cherbourg and in the southward march, now become almost a gallop, down the peninsula. The Germans have certainly had remarkable opportunities of revising the mocking and insulting estimate which they put upon the military value of the American army at the time they declared war upon the great Republic.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Normandy, Invasion of. This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.
Commons, June 6, 1944.

A volume would be required to recount the story of the crossing of the Channel and the landing of the Armies of Liberation upon the soil of France. I have only a few minutes, and therefore I must practise the selective art as far as possible.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Norway, Occupation of. I here must say a word about Norway. We have the most profound sympathy with the Norwegian people. We have understood the terrible dilemma in which they have been placed. Their sentiments, like those of every other small country, were with the Allies. They writhed in helpless anger while scores of their ships were wantonly sunk and many hundreds of their sailors cruelly drowned. They realize fully that their future independence and freedom are bound up with the victory of the allies. But the feeling of powerlessness in the ruthless grip of Nazi wrath made them hope against hope until the last moment that at least their soil and their cities would not be polluted by the trampling of German marching columns or their liberties and their livelihood stolen away by foreign tyrants. But this hope has been in vain. Another violent outrage has been perpetrated by Nazi Germany against a small and friendly power, and the Norwegian Government and people are to-day in arms to defend their hearths and homes.
Commons, April 11, 1940.

Now. If ever there was a moment, when, after all our victories and service to the cause of human freedom, every patriotic man and woman ought to be thinking about the country and taking a long view, that moment is NOW.
Town Hall, Leeds, February 4, 1953.

Nuremberg Trials. The Nuremberg trials are over, and the guilty leaders of the Nazi régime have been hanged by the conquerors. We are told that thousands yet remain to be tried, and that vast categories of Germans are classed as potentially guilty because of their association with the Nazi régime. After all, in a country which is handled as Germany was, the ordinary people have very little choice about what to do. I think some consideration should always be given to ordinary people. Everyone is not a Pastor Niemoller or a martyr, and when ordinary people are hurled this way and that, when the cruel hands of tyrants are laid upon them and vile systems of regimentation are imposed and enforced by espionage and other forms of cruelty, there are great numbers of people who will succumb.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

Nuts. Except for our fighting services, we have been driven back to a large extent from the carnivore to the herbivore. That may be quite satisfactory to the dietetic scientists who would like to make us all live on nuts, but undoubtedly it has produced, and is producing, a very definite effect upon the energetic output of the heavy worker.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Objectives. It is much better to set up an objective, even if it be beyond your reach, than it is to give up the struggle at the outset.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Obligation, Supreme. There are two supreme obligations which rest upon a British government. They are of equal importance. One is to strive to prevent a war, and the other is to be ready if war should come.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Obligations, British. We must ask ourselves whether we wish to be dependent on France for our domestic safety. We must ask ourselves whether we can accept the protection of a foreign country for any long period of time without losing that freedom to place our own interpretation upon our Continental obligations which, it seems to me, is absolutely vital to the sound conduct of our affairs. We have these obligations, but we still have the right to judge according to our sense of justice and the circumstances of the time.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Obligations, National. We must do our duty, but we must do it only in conjunction with other nations and in accordance with obligations which others recognize as well. We are not strong enough—I say it advisedly—to be the lawgiver and spokesman of the world.
Commons, July 11, 1935.

Obligations of the State. The country has a right to know, the House has a right to know, and the world has a right to know, what is the view which the official Opposition takes of the contractual and responsible and plighted obligations of the State.
Commons, April 17, 1929.

Oblivion. Dangers which are warded off and difficulties which are overcome before they reach a crisis are utterly unrecognized. Eaten bread is soon forgotten.
Commons, October 29, 1919.

Obsequies. There had been, if one might say so, almost a conspiracy of silence. One might almost have thought that the hon. Gentlemen opposite were mutes celebrating the obsequies, or approaching obsequies, of His Majesty’s Government.
Commons, July 13, 1905.

Obsolescence in Naval Design. It is wrong and wasteful to build a single ship for the Navy before it is wanted. Up to the moment when the contract for a battleship has been definitely signed, the vessel is the heir to all the expanding naval science of the world, but from the day when the design has been finally fixed, she becomes obsolescent, and she has become a wasting security.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Obstacles to Peace. We all desire to see peace and goodwill established among the nations, old scores forgotten, old wounds healed, the peoples of Christendom united to rebuild their portion of the world, to solve the problem of their toiling masses, to give a higher standard of life to the harassed populations. We can all expatiate upon that. The differences which arise are those of method. They arise when our sentiments come into contact with baffling and extremely obstinate concrete obstacles.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Obvious, The. My right hon. Friend the Member for Devonport [Mr. Hore-Belisha] and some others have spoken of the importance in war of full and accurate intelligence of the movements and intentions of the enemy. That is one of those glimpses of the obvious, and of the obsolete, with which his powerful speech abounded.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

Odds Against. Certainly it is true that we are facing numerical odds; but that is no new thing in our history. Very few wars have been won by mere numbers alone. Quality, will-power, geographical advantages, natural and financial resources, the command of the sea, and, above all, a cause which rouses the spontaneous surgings of the human spirit in millions of hearts—these have proved to be the decisive factors in the human story. If it were otherwise, how would the race of men have risen above the apes; how otherwise would they have conquered and extirpated dragons and monsters; how would they have ever evolved the moral theme; how would they have marched across the centuries to broad conceptions of compassion, of freedom, and of right? How would they ever have discerned those beacon lights which summon and guide us across the rough dark waters, and presently will guide us across the flaming lines of battle towards better days which lie beyond?
London, January 20, 1940.

Offer, The only. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
Commons, May 13, 1940.

Officers, British. Although I regard British officers in the field of war, and in dealing with native races, as the best officers in the world, I do not believe that either their training or their habits of thought qualify them to exercise arbitrary authority over civil populations of European race. [In South Africa.]
Commons, February 18, 1901.

Officialdom. Will not the daily toil of the actual producing worker have a heavier burden thrust upon it by the enormous hordes of disinterested and largely uninterested officials than would be the case under private management? And will not these officials be less efficient, more costly, and far more dictatorial than the private employers?
Ayr, May 16, 1947.

Oil as Contraband. It would not make any difference whether the enemy declared oil to be contraband or not. His declaration would remain a dead-letter unless or until he was able to make it effective by force. Unless he were able to stop on the seas oil-ships attracted to this country by high prices, his calling oil contraband would make absolutely no difference to us or to it. The oil would come just the same and it would burn just as well.
Commons, June 17, 1914.

Old Age Pensions. There is no inconsistency or contradiction between a non-contributory system of old age pensions and a contributory system of insurance against unemployment, sickness, invalidity and widowhood. The circumstances and conditions are entirely different. The prospect of attaining extreme old age, of living beyond threescore years and ten, which is the allotted span of human life, seems so doubtful and remote to the ordinary man, when in the full strength of manhood, that it has been found in practice almost impossible to secure from any very great number of people the regular sacrifices which are necessary to guard against old age.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Everyone knows that he has a prospect of getting 5s. a week when he reaches that age. It is not much, unless you have not got it.
Commons, May 25, 1911.

It marks the assertion in our social system of an entirely new principle in regard to poverty, and that principle, once asserted, cannot possibly be confined within its existing limits. Old age pensions will carry us all a very long way. They have opened a door which will not soon or easily be closed. The Members of both Houses of Parliament have been led to the verge of the cruel abyss of poverty, and have been in solemn session assembled to contemplate its depths and its gloom. All alike have come to gaze; none have remained unmoved. There are some distinguished and eminent men, men whose power and experience I cannot impugn, who have started back appalled by what they have seen, and whose only idea is to slam the door on the grim and painful prospect which has been revealed to their eyes.

But that is not the only spirit which has been awakened in our country; there are others, not less powerful, and a greater number, who will never allow that door to be closed; they have got their feet in it, they are resolved that it shall be kept open. Nay, more, they are prepared to descend into the abyss, and grapple with its evils—as sometimes you see after an explosion at a coal mine a rescue party advancing undaunted into the smoke and steam.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, October 10, 1908.

Without a hitch, perfectly smoothly, punctual to the minute, regular as clockwork, nearly 600,000 aged persons are being paid their pensions every week. That is a wonderful and beneficent achievement, a good job well worth some risk and sweat to finish. Nearly eight millions of money are being sent circulating through unusual channels, long frozen by poverty, circulating in the homes of the poor, flowing through the little shops which cater for their needs, cementing again family unions which harsh fate was tearing asunder, uniting the wife to the husband, and the parent to the children.
Birmingham, January 13, 1909.

One Man. The people of Italy were never consulted, the army of Italy was never consulted. No one was consulted. One man, and one man alone, ordered Italian soldiers to ravage their neighbour’s vineyard. Surely the time has come when the Italian monarchy and people, who guard the sacred centre of Christendom, should have a word to say upon these awe-inspiring issues? Surely the Italian army, which has fought so bravely on many occasions in the past, but now evidently has no heart for the job, should take some care of the life and future of Italy?
London, December 23, 1940.

Operations, Military. Military operations must be judged by the success which attends them rather than by the sentiments which inspired them, though these, too, may play their part in the verdict of history and in the survival of races.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

Opinion, Corporate. All human processes expressing corporate opinion are vitiated by imperfections.
Commons, June 14, 1928.

Opinions. They are a class of right hon. Gentlemen—all good men, all honest men—who are ready to make great sacrifices for their opinions, but they have no opinions. They are ready to die for the truth, if they only knew what the truth was.
Commons, August 14, 1903.

Opinions, Change of. The right hon. Gentleman, the First Lord of the Treasury, had never changed his Party; but he had often changed his opinions.
Commons, March 16, 1905.

Opinions, Changing. It is curious that, while in the days of my youth I was much reproached with inconsistency and being changeable, I am now scolded for adhering to the same views I had in early life and even for repeating passages from speeches which I made long before most of you were born. Of course the world moves on and we dwell in a constantly changing climate of opinion. But the broad principles and truths of wise and sane political actions do not necessarily alter with the changing moods of a democratic electorate. Not everything changes. Two and two still make four, and I could give you many other instances which go to prove that all wisdom is not new wisdom.
Belle Vue, Manchester, December 6, 1947.

Opponents. I always try, especially in a new House of Commons, to study the opinions of those to whom I am opposed, their expressions and moods, so far as I can.
Commons, April 24, 1950.

Opponents, Political. The spectacle of a number of middle-aged gentlemen who are my political opponents being in a state of uproar and fury is really quite exhilarating to me.
Commons, May 21, 1952.

Opportunities. With opportunities comes responsibility. Strength is granted to us all when we are needed to serve great causes.
New York, March 15, 1946.

Opportunities, Lost. When I think of the fair hopes of a long peace which still lay before Europe at the beginning of 1933 when Herr Hitler first obtained power, and of all the opportunities of arresting the growth of the Nazi power which have been thrown away, when I think of the immense combinations and resources which have been neglected or squandered, I cannot believe that a parallel exists in the whole course of history. So far as this country is concerned the responsibility must rest with those who have had the undisputed control of our political affairs. They neither prevented Germany from rearming, nor did they rearm ourselves in time. They quarrelled with Italy without saving Ethiopia. They exploited and discredited the vast institution of the League of Nations and they neglected to make alliances and combinations which might have repaired previous errors, and thus they left us in the hour of trial without adequate national defence or effective international security.
Commons, October 5, 1938.

Opportunity for All. The British people are good all through. You can test them as you would put a bucket into the sea, and always find it salt. The genius of our people springs from every class and from every part of the land. You cannot tell where you will not find a wonder. The hero, the fighter, the poet, the master of science, the organizer, the artist, the engineer, the administrator, or the jurist—he may spring into fame. Equal opportunity for all, under free institutions and equal laws—there is the banner for which we will do battle against all rubber-stamp bureaucracies or dictatorships.
London, June 13, 1945.

Opportunity, Golden. How often in the history of nations has the golden opportunity been allowed to slip away! How often have rulers and governments been forced to make in foul weather the very journey which they have refused to make prosperously in fair weather!
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Opportunity, Level of. How proud we ought to be, young and old alike, to live in this tremendous, thrilling, formative epoch in the human story, and how fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave. Let all who are here remember, as the words of the hymn we have just sung suggest, let all of us who are here remember that we are on the stage of history, and that whatever our station may be, and whatever part we have to play, great or small, our conduct is liable to be scrutinized not only by history but by our own descendants.

Let us rise to the full level of our duty and of our opportunity, and let us thank God for the spiritual rewards He has granted for all forms of valiant and faithful service.
Harvard University, September 6, 1943.

Opposition. No one should be deterred in wartime from doing his duty merely by the fact that he will be voting against the Government, and still less because the Party Whips are acting as tellers.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

No one need be mealy-mouthed in debate, and no one should be chicken-hearted in voting. I have voted against governments I have been elected to support, and, looking back, I have sometimes felt very glad that I did so. Everyone in these rough times must do what he thinks is his duty.
Commons, January 27, 1942.

Opposition, Irresponsibility of. I will only venture to congratulate the great Imperial statesmen who sit upon that bench upon the ease and celerity with which they have exchanged the responsibilities of office for the irresponsibilities of opposition.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Ordeal by Battle. And now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach, and face the worst that the tyrant’s might and enmity can do. Bearing ourselves humbly before God, but conscious that we serve an unfolding purpose, we are ready to defend our native land against the invasion by which it is threatened. We are fighting by ourselves alone; but we are not fighting for ourselves alone. Here in this strong City of Refuge which enshrines the title-deeds of human progress and is of deep consequence to Christian civilization; here, girt about by the seas and oceans where the navy reigns; shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen—we await undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come to-night. Perhaps it will come next week. Perhaps it will never come. We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden violent shock, or what is perhaps a harder test, a prolonged vigil. But be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy—we shall ask for none.
Commons, July 14, 1940.

Ordeal of the People. I have seen many painful scenes of havoc, and of the fine buildings and acres of cottage homes blasted into rubble-heaps of ruin. But it is just in those very places where the malice of the savage enemy has done its worst, and where the ordeal of the men, women and children has been most severe, that I found their morale most high and splendid. Indeed, I felt encompassed by an exaltation of spirit in the people which seemed to lift mankind and its troubles above the level of material facts into that joyous serenity we think belongs to a better world than this.
London, April 27, 1941.

Ordeals. I must appeal to the House to show its consideration for ministers, and for a Government in whom it has recorded its confidence almost unanimously. We are really doing our very best. There are no doubt many mistakes and shortcomings. A lot of things are done none too well. Some things that ought to be done have not yet been done. Some things have been done that had better have been left undone. But looking broadly at the whole picture as it is viewed by any impartial eye, the way in which our system of government and society is standing up to its present ordeals, which will certainly increase in severity, constitutes a magnificent achievement, and has justly commanded the wonder and admiration of every friendly nation in the world.
Commons, September 17, 1940.

Ordeals from the Air. It may be that great ordeals are coming to us in this island from the air. We shall do our best to give a good account of ourselves; and we must always remember that the command of the seas will enable us to bring the immense resources of Canada and the New World into play as a decisive ultimate air factor, a factor beyond the reach of what we have to give and take over here.
London, October 1, 1939.

Organization, Lack of. I do not think that there is any great country in the world where there are so many strong forces of virtue and vitality as there are in our own country. But there is scarcely any country in the world where there is so little organization.
Norwich, July 26, 1909.

Organization, Military. There is no organization in the world so complete as the organization by which a military unit is maintained.
Commons, August 16, 1916.

Outlandish Ideas. No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching, but at the same time with a steady, eye.
Commons, May 23, 1940.

“Outwith.” I must thank the hon. Gentleman for making me acquainted with the word “outwith,” with which I had not previously had the pleasure of making acquaintance. For the benefit of English Members I may say that it is translated, “outside the scope of.” I thought it was a misprint at first.
Commons, December 5, 1944.

Overthrow, The Tyrant’s. The civil population of Germany have, however, an easy way to escape from these severities. All they have to do is to leave the cities where the munitions work is being carried on—abandon their work, and go out into the fields, and watch their home fires burning from a distance. In this way they may find time for meditation and repentance; there they may remember the millions of Russian women and children they have driven out to perish in the snows, and the mass executions of peasantry and prisoners of war which in varying scales they are inflicting upon so many of the ancient and famous peoples of Europe. There they may remember that it is the villainous Hitlerite régime which is responsible for dragging Germany through misery and slaughter to ultimate ruin, and learn that the tyrant’s overthrow is the first step to world liberation.
London, May 10, 1942.

Pacifists. When I hear extreme pacifists denouncing this act of the League of Nations I am left wondering what foundations these gentlemen offer to countries for abandoning national armaments.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

I do not suppose there has ever been such a pacifist-minded Government. There is the Prime Minister [Ramsay MacDonald] who in the war proved in the most extreme manner and with very great courage his convictions and the sacrifices he would make for what he believed was the cause of pacifism. The Lord President of the Council [Stanley Baldwin] is chiefly associated in the public mind with the repetition of the prayer, “Give peace in our time.” One would have supposed that when Ministers like these come forward and say that they feel it their duty to ask for some small increase in the means they have been guaranteeing the public safety, it would weigh with the Opposition and would be considered as a proof of the reality of the danger from which they seek to protect us.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Pact, Four Power. The Pact or Agreement so incontinently accepted [Mussolini’s proposals of the Four Power Pact], has to be amended, has to be modified to fit the views of the small nations in the League. It has to be modified again to meet special claims. It has to be modified again to meet the requirements of France, and it very soon reaches the point where it loses the adherence of Germany. It is no good saying it is merely “much ado about nothing.” That is not so. Harm has been done, disturbance has been created, suspicion has been spread, and English influence has lost a measure of its virtue and added a measure to its responsibility.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Pain. By a blessed dispensation, human beings forget physical pain much more quickly than they do their joyous emotions and experiences. A merciful Providence passes the sponge of oblivion across much that is suffered and enables us to cherish the great moments of life and honour which come to us in our march through life.
Empress Hall, London, October 21, 1949.

Palestine. The right hon. and learned Gentleman, the President of the Board of Trade [Sir Stafford Cripps] spoke of the past twenty-five years as being the most unkind or unhappy Palestine has known. I imagine that it would hardly be possible to state the opposite of the truth more compendiously.
Commons, August 1, 1946.

Palestine, Immigration. The idea that the Jewish problem could be solved or even helped by a vast dumping of the Jews of Europe into Palestine is really too silly to consume our time in the House this afternoon.
Commons, August 1, 1946.

Palimpsest. It was one of those rigmaroles and grimaces produced by the modern bureaucracy into whose hands we have fallen—a kind of vague palimpsest of jargon and officialese with no breadth, no theme, and, above all, no facts.
Commons, March 31, 1947.

Panacea. I do not believe in looking about for some panacea or cure-all on which we should stake our credit and fortunes trying to sell it like a patent medicine to all and sundry. It is easy to win applause by talking in an airy way about great new departures in policy, especially if all detailed proposals are avoided.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Panic. It is very much better sometimes to have a panic feeling beforehand, and then be quite calm when things happen, than to be extremely calm beforehand and to get into a panic when things happen.
Commons, May 22, 1935.

Parity in the Air. It is absolutely certain that we have lost air parity already both in the number of machines and in their quality. It is certain that at the end of this year we shall be far worse off relatively than we are now. Our home defence force will be for a long period ahead a rapidly diminishing fraction of the German air force.
Commons, May 2, 1935.

We have been most solemnly promised parity. We have not got parity. Would the right hon. Gentleman rise in his place and say he could contend that we have parity at the present time with this Power which is in striking distance of our shores in first-line strength? I say we have not got the parity which we were promised. We have not nearly got it, we have not nearly approached it. Nor shall we get it during the whole of 1937, and I doubt whether we shall have it, or anything approaching it, during 1938. I feel bound to make these statements.
Commons, January 27, 1937.

Parley. While one party in a dispute is prepared to go to extremes and it is firmly believed that under no circumstances will the other party even take the necessary action to defend its right and to discharge its duties—there is no possibility of any effective parley between them.
Commons, April 28, 1914.

Parliament, Code of. The vitality and the authority of the House of Commons, and its hold upon an electorate based upon universal suffrage, depend to no small extent upon its episodes and great moments, even upon its scenes and rows, which, as everyone will agree, are better conducted at close quarters. Destroy that hold which Parliament has upon the public mind and has preserved through all these changing, turbulent times, and the living organism of the House of Commons would be greatly impaired. You may have a machine, but the House of Commons is much more than a machine; it has earned and captured and held through long generations the imagination and respect of the British nation. It is not free from shortcomings; they mark all human institutions. Nevertheless, I submit to what is probably not an unfriendly audience on that subject that our House has proved itself capable of adapting itself to every change which the swift pace of modern life has brought upon us. It has a collective personality which enjoys the regard of the public, and which imposes itself upon the conduct, not only of individual Members, but of Parties. It has a code of its own which everyone knows, and it has means of its own of enforcing those manners and habits which have grown up and have been found to be an essential part of our Parliamentary life.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

Parliament and Defence. It may sound rather a vain thing for a Member of Parliament to say, but it seems to me that this House is a recognized addition to the defences of Great Britain, that we are safer when the House is sitting, and that the power and will of this House count very much, and, properly commanded, will reinforce the power of His Majesty’s Government.
Commons, August 2, 1939.

Parliament, Essence of. I am very glad that the closing session of this long ten years’ Parliament should show all due respect for the traditional and ceremonial occasions which ignorant, unthinking people, who have not meditated upon these matters or studied the true movement of events and of forces in the human breast, might easily regard as meaningless punctilio. Here in the speech from the Throne and in the Debate on the Address may be seen all the workings of the British Constitution, or all the principal workings. The Sovereign, advised by his Ministers, delivers the Gracious Speech. The House then proceeds to express their thanks, but have a perfect right to move Amendments saying that they regret that this or that has been put into or left out of the Gracious Speech, and if they carry such an Amendment, the Government of the day is defeated on a major point of confidence, and it is not easy to conceive a situation in which they could continue to retain their office.
Commons, November 29, 1944.

Parliament, Function of. It must be remembered that the function of Parliament is not only to pass good laws, but to stop bad laws.
Commons, April 4, 1944.

Parliament, Futility of. The congestion of Parliament is a disease, but the futility of Parliament is a mortal disease.
Commons, February 16, 1911.

Parliament and Government. The duty of the House of Commons is to sustain the Government or to change the Government. If it cannot change it, it should sustain it. There is no working middle course in wartime.
Commons, July 2, 1942.

Parliament, Long. This present House of Commons, which has so long exceeded its normal constitutional life and will shortly be asking for a renewal of the lease—a matter which does not rest entirely in our hands alone—has no right, except with a very general measure of agreement, to step outside the one function by which its continued existence is justified, namely the prosecution of the war. It is only the continuance of the war and the extraordinary conditions which it imposes and forces upon us all that justifies us in remaining together as a Parliament. I certainly could not take the responsibility of making far-reaching controversial changes which I am not convinced are directly needed for the war effort, without a Parliament refreshed by contact with the electorate.
Commons, October 13, 1943.

Parliament, Members of. Members of Parliament are representatives, and not delegates.
Commons, February 22, 1911.

Parliament, Object of. The object of Parliament is to substitute arguments for fisticuffs.
Commons, June 6, 1951.

Parliament, Opening of. The time honoured ceremonial and procedure in which Crown and Parliament have played their part to-day carry with them to anxious minds the balm of confidence and serenity. When our beloved Sovereign and the Queen come from their battered palace to a building which is not without evidence of the strokes of war, when the Sovereign comes to open Parliament in person and calls his faithful Commons to the discharge of their duties, at every step, in every measure, in every formality, and in every resolution that we pass, we touch customs and traditions which go back far beyond the great Parliamentary conflicts of the seventeenth century; we feel the inspiration of old days, we feel the splendour of our political and moral inheritance.
Commons, November 21, 1940.

Parliament, Power of. Parliament can compel people to obey or to submit, but it cannot compel them to agree.
Commons, September 27, 1926.

Parliament, Sovereignty of. It is quite true that nothing can bind a Parliament. Every Parliament is entirely free to behave like a gentleman or like a cad; every Parliament is entirely free to behave honestly or like a crook. Such are the sovereign rights of this august assembly.
Commons, February 16, 1952.

Parliament, Strength of. In bygone days the House of Commons not only struggled for political power but it did conduct a very great part of the business and activities of the country. Hon. Members led troops and squadrons of the Fleet and performed all kinds of functions of government at the same time as they conducted their work here. Some of the things that they did would not entirely commend themselves to our present higher standards of decorum but, none the less, that this House should be a House of active, living personalities, engaged to the hilt in the national struggle, each according to the full strength that he has to give, each according to the aptitudes he possesses, is, I think, one of the sources of the strength of the Parliamentary institution, and will carry forward into the future the traditions that are our heritage and the precedents that have come down to us from the past.
Commons, November 21, 1952.

Parliament, Unyielding. I derive confidence that the will-power of the British nation, expressing itself through a stern, steadfast, unyielding House of Commons, once again will perform its liberating function and humbly exercise and execute a high purpose among men; and I say this with the more confidence because we are no longer a small island lost in the northern mists, but around us gather in proud array all the free nations of the British Empire, and this time from across the Atlantic Ocean the mighty Republic of the United States proclaims itself on our side, or at our side, or, at any rate, near to our side.
Commons, May 7, 1941.

Parliament at War. During the last two hundred and fifty years the British Parliament has fought several great and long European wars with unwearied zeal and tenacity, and carried them all to a successful conclusion. In this war they are fighting not only for themselves, but for Parliamentary institutions wherever they have been set up all over the globe.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Parnell Affair. The moral which I draw from the Parnell affair—a moral which, I think, may be drawn also from the conflict of the House of Commons with Mr. Bradlaugh in 1880—is that it is never worth while for a great Party to pursue a private person, and least of all when that private person happens also to be a political opponent.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

Parricide. The statutes of ancient Rome contained no provision for the punishment of parricide, but when the first offender appeared it was found that satisfactory arrangements could be made to deal with him.
Commons, February 15, 1915.

Parties. Parties are associations of men, gathered to pursue common objects and principles and to defend common interests.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Parties, English. There are two great characteristics about the Party institutions of this country, the equipoise between them, and their almost incredible durability.
Commons, June 29, 1907.

Parties, Political. What are Parties? Parties are associations of men, gathered together to pursue common objects and principles and to defend common interests. . . . If it is unable to achieve any of the objects for which its members have come into association, that Party must perish and must dissolve.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Partisans, Tito’s. In the autumn of 1941, Marshal Tito’s Partisans began a wild and furious war for existence against the Germans. They wrested weapons from the Germans’ hands, they grew rapidly in numbers; no reprisals, however bloody, whether upon hostages or the villages, deterred them. For them, it was death or freedom. Soon they began to inflict heavy injury upon the Germans and became masters of wide regions. Led with great skill, organized on the guerilla principle, they were at once elusive and deadly. They were here, they were there, they were everywhere. Large scale offensives have been launched against them by the Germans, but in every case the Partisans, even when surrounded, have escaped, after inflicting great losses and toil upon the enemy.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Party Advantage. If a volume were compiled on Parliamentary tactics, I would certainly suggest that the Prime Minister should write a chapter on how to turn a charge against personal honour to Party advantage.
June 18, 1904.

Party Government. Party government is an outstanding feature of our political systems of all branches of the English-speaking race all over the world. I know of no equal force which assures the stability of democratic institutions. I know of no other method by which the enfranchized millions can be continuously attracted to practical things. I know of no other method by which small intrigues, small combinations, and petty personal rivalries can be prevented from swaying unevenly the course of public affairs.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Party Programmes. The programmes of Parties are formed gradually over a long period of time. Every new subject added to the programme of that Party, or of this, brings with it its friends and sends into the ranks of the opposing Party its foes. Gradually and slowly, over years and generations, the compositions, character and strength of Parties are made up.
Commons, May 2, 1911.

Party System. I suppose we are admirers of the Party system of government; but I do not think that we should any of us carry our admiration of that system so far as to say that the nation is unfit to enjoy the privilege of managing its own affairs unless it can find someone to quarrel with and plenty of things to quarrel about.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

Party System, Expansion of. Great changes in a community are very often unperceived; the focus of reality moves from one institution in the State to another, and almost imperceptibly. Sometimes the forms of institutions remain almost the same in all ceremonial aspects, and yet there will be one institution which under pretentious forms is only the husk of reality, and another which under a humble name is in fact the operative pivot of the social system. Constitutional writers have much to say about the estates of the realm, and a great deal to say about their relation to each other, and to the Sovereign. All that is found to be treated upon at length. But they say very little about the Party system. And, after all, the Party system is the dominant fact in our experience. Nothing is more striking in the last twenty-five years than the growth and expansion of Party organization, and the way in which millions of people and their votes have been woven into its scope.
Commons, June 29, 1907.

Party System, Two. Much might be said for and against the two-Party system. But no one can doubt that it adds to the stability and cohesion of the State. The alternation of Parties in power, like the rotation of crops, has beneficial results. Each of the two Parties has services to render in the development of the national life; and the succession of new and different points of view is a real benefit to the country.
Commons, June 29, 1907.

Past, The. We are not in a position to say to-night, “The past is the past.” We cannot say, “The past is the past,” without surrendering the future.
Commons, March 14, 1938.

Patience, Christian. There is, I gather, in some quarters the feeling that the way to win the war is to knock the Government about, keep them up to the collar, and harry them from every side; and I find that hard to bear with Christian patience.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Patriotism. Patriotic men and women, especially those who understand the high causes in human fortunes which are now at stake, must not only rise above fear; they must also rise above inconvenience and, perhaps most difficult of all, above boredom.
London, October 1, 1939.

Pax Britannica. Over a long period of years the peace and order of the British Empire was, in fact, maintained by about seventy-five battalions abroad and seventy-five at home, with the due proportion of the other arms. Is it not a wonder, and is it not an admirable fact, that the Imperial authority should have been maintained over these vast expanses comprising more than one-fifth, I believe, of the entire population of the world by less than a quarter of a million of white soldiers? To find a parallel you have to go back to the greatest period of the Roman Empire, to the age of the Antonines; to find a parallel for so great and so wide a peace being sustained upon so slender an armed force you have to go back to the Antonines, and even then the parallel is greatly in favour of the British example.
Commons, February 23, 1920.

Once again, India and her vast population have reposed serenely among the tumults and hurricanes of the world behind the Imperial shield. The fact should sometimes be noted that under British rule in the last eighty years incomparably fewer people have perished by steel or firearms in India than in any similar area or community on the globe.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

P.A.Y.E. The extension of the income tax to the wage-earners was a very remarkable step. That it should have gained the assent of this House, elected on universal suffrage, is also a remarkable fact, showing how extremely closely the wage-earning masses of the country and those who represent them feel associated with the vital issues now being fought out in the field.
Commons, September 22, 1943.

Peace, Armed. I say quite frankly, though I may shock the House, that I would rather see another ten or twenty years of one-sided armed peace than see a war between equally well-matched powers or combinations of powers—and that may be the choice.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Peace, Carthaginian. What, then, has become of the Carthaginian peace of which we used to hear so much? That has gone. Some of it may have been written down in the Versailles Treaty, but its clauses have never been put into operation. There has been no Carthaginian peace. Neither has there been any bleeding of Germany white by the conquerors. The exact opposite has taken place. The loans which Britain and the United States particularly, and also other countries, have poured into the lap of Germany since the firing stopped, far exceed the sum of reparations which she had paid; indeed, they have been nearly double. If the plight of Germany is hard—and the plight of every country is hard at the present time—it is not because there has been any drain of her life’s blood or of valuable commodities from Germany to the victors. It is Germany that has received an infusion of blood from the nations with whom she went to war and by whom she was decisively defeated.
Commons, July 11, 1932.

Peace, Exertions for. We are an old nation. It is nearly a thousand years since we were conquered. We have built up our state and way of life slowly and gradually, across the centuries. Therefore we can afford to make exertions for peace which would not be easy in a race less sure of itself and of its duty.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Peace, Mainstay of. I have been trying to seek out for myself what would be the best way of preventing war, and it has seemed to me that the League of Nations should be the great instrument upon which all those resolves to maintain peace should centre, and that we should all make our contribution to the League of Nations.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

Peace, Preservation of. Putting the preservation of peace in the first place, what is the next great object that we must have in view? It is to secure our national freedom of choice to remain outside a European war, if one should break out. That I put as the more direct and more practical issue, subordinate to, but not less important than, the preservation of peace.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Peace, Price of. Patience and perseverance must never be grudged when the peace of the world is at stake.
Commons, February 25, 1954.

Peace, Pyramid of. I have always been attracted by this idea which Signor Mussolini has made so prominent. I have spoken for years of a pyramid of peace, which might be triangular or quadrangular—three or four great powers shaking hands together and endeavouring to procure a rectification of some of the evils arising from the treaties made in the passion of war, which if left unredressed will bring upon us consequences we cannot name. The Prime Minister [Mr. Ramsay MacDonald] is, I think, a new convert to this idea. I have not had time to examine all his past utterances, but I had the impression that he had always condemned anything in the nature of a four-power or a three-power agreement and had considered that that was, as it were, inconsistent with the general authority of the League of Nations, on which so many powers are represented. However, let that pass. Whether he was converted by the eloquence, or by the strong personality of Signor Mussolini, or whether he had it in his mind before he went to Rome, are mysteries which are naturally hidden from us.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Pearl Fisheries, Ceylon. It might be that certain people had special aptitudes for finding out the possibilities in connection with precious stones or gold, and whose aptitudes led them almost by a subtle instinct to move to a point where profit could most surely be made.
Commons, August 2, 1906.

Pearl Harbour. The immediate deterrent which the United States exercised upon Japan—apart of course from the measureless resources of the American Union—was the dominant American battle fleet in the Pacific, which, with the naval forces we could spare, confronted Japanese aggression with the shield of superior sea-power. But, my friends, by an act of sudden violent surprise, long-calculated, balanced and prepared, and delivered under the crafty cloak of negotiation, the shield of sea-power which protected the fair lands and islands of the Pacific Ocean was for the time being, and only for the time being, dashed to the ground. In the gap thus opened rushed the invading armies of Japan. We were exposed to the assault of a warrior race of nearly eighty millions, with a large outfit of modern weapons, whose war lords had been planning and scheming for this day, and looking forward to it perhaps for twenty years—while all the time our good people on both sides of the Atlantic were prating about perpetual peace, and cutting down each other’s navies in order to set a good example.
London, February 15, 1942.

Pensions. I have always understood that the theory upon which a pension is granted is that it has been earned, and is to be regarded as deferred pay.
Commons, April 9, 1913.

People, Rule of the. Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried, in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time; but there is the broad feeling in our country that the people should rule, continuously rule, and that public opinion, expressed by all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and control the actions of ministers who are their servants and not their masters.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

It is not Parliament that should rule; it is the people who should rule through Parliament.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

Peril, The Flying. The flying peril is not a peril from which one can fly. It is necessary to face it where we stand. We cannot possibly retreat. We cannot move London. We cannot move the vast population which is dependent on the estuary of the Thames. We cannot move the naval bases which are established along our southern coasts with the great hereditary naval populations living around them.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Perils. Where every step is fraught with grave consequences and with real peril to the cause, deliberate and measured action is not merely prudent, but decent.
Commons, February 22, 1910.

When the perils are distant, it is right to dwell upon defects and deficiencies, so that they may be made good in time; but when they come much nearer, it is perhaps natural, and also prudent and healthy, to dwell, in public at any rate, upon resources rather than upon defects, and to take a fair stock of our strength no less than of the hazards of our position.
Commons, March 4, 1937.

Perils of the Sea. A vessel which has no weapon of any kind to fire is afraid of a vessel which has perhaps only a rifle if it is faster.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

Perils of War. My hope is, therefore, that these perils will pass. If they pass, the road will be open to many good solutions for the mutual benefit of all. The road will also be open to a large expansion in the daily life of the great masses of the people of every race. We might indeed see a movement forward which would raise the human race to new levels of security and well-being, such as have not been attained in any former age. But whatever may happen, foreign countries should know—and the Government is right to let them know—that Great Britain and the British Empire must not be deemed incapable of playing their part and doing their duty as they have done on other great occasions which have not yet been forgotten by history.
Theydon Bois, August 27, 1938.

Perseverance. No doubt at the beginning we shall have to suffer, because of having too long wished to lead a peaceful life. Our reluctance to fight was mocked at as cowardice. Our desire to see an unarmed world was proclaimed as the proof of our decay. Now we have begun. Now we are going on. Now, with the help of God, and with the conviction that we are the defenders of civilization and freedom, we are going to persevere to the end.
London, October 1, 1939.

Perseverance as Vice. Perseverance is usually described as a great virtue, but it has two aspects. Perseverance with an eye on the future, perseverance towards a definite objective, is a great virtue; perseverance with an eye on the past is an equally serious vice.
Commons, March 5, 1917.

Persia. It is a very melancholy thing to contemplate the possibility of an ancient capital of a monarchy like that of Persia being engulfed in the tides of barbarism, and a culture which, though primitive in many respects, is nevertheless ancient, being swamped and beaten down under the heel of a Bolshevik invasion, but there must be some limit to the responsibilities of Britain.
Commons, December 15, 1920.

Personality, Super. I have not been told who is to be this superman who, without holding the office of Prime Minister, is to exercise an overriding control and initiative over the three departments of supply and the three ministers of supply. Where is the super-personality who, as one of the members of the War Cabinet, will dominate the vast entrenched, established, embattled organization of the Admiralty to whose successful exertions we owe our lives? Where is the War Cabinet Minister who is going to teach the present Minister of Aircraft Production how to make aircraft quicker and better than they are being made now? Who is the War Cabinet Minister who is going to interfere with Lord Beaverbrook’s control and discharge of the functions of Minister of Supply duly and constitutionally conferred upon him? When you have decided on the man, let me know his name, because I should be very glad to serve under him, provided that I were satisfied that he possessed all the Napoleonic and Christian qualities attributed to him.
Commons, July 29, 1941.

Personnel, Naval. It would ill become this House to vote year after year unexplained millions for the grim machinery of modern naval war, and then to grudge the officers and men of the fleet—without whose devotion these prodigious engines would only be worthless metal—the rewards which are their due, and which are necessary for their comfort and their contentment.
Commons, July 22, 1912.

Pestilence, Moral. So far as it remains in the power of this island people to influence the course of events, we must strive over a period of years to redeem and to reincorporate the German and the Japanese peoples in a world system of free and civilized democracy. The idea of keeping scores of millions of people hanging about in a sub-human state between earth and hell, until they are worn down to a slave condition or embrace Communism, or die off from hunger, will only, if it is pursued, breed at least a moral pestilence and probably an actual war.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Pétain, Marshal. Many Frenchmen who admire General de Gaulle and envy him in his role, nevertheless regard him as a man who has rebelled against the authority of the French State, which in their prostration they conceive to be vested in the person of the antique defeatist who to them is the illustrious and venerable Marshal Pétain, the hero of Verdun and the sole hope of France.
Commons, December 10, 1942.

Phillips, Admiral Sir Tom. He was well known to us at Whitehall, and his long service at the Admiralty in a central position as Vice-Chief of the Navy Staff made him many friends, who mourn his loss. Personally, I regarded him as one of the ablest brains in the naval service, and I feel honoured to have established personal friendship with him. . . . It is a very heavy loss that we have suffered.
Commons, December 11, 1941.

Phlegm. Here we are gathered in academic robes to go through a ceremonial and repeat formulas associated with the giving of university degrees. Many of those here to-day have been all night at their post, and all have been under the fire of the enemy in heavy and protracted bombardment. That you should gather in this way is a mark of fortitude and phlegm, of a courage and detachment from material affairs, worthy of all that we have learned to believe of ancient Rome or of modern Greece.
Bristol University, April 12, 1941.

Physicians, College of. This college, on whose past you, Lord Moran, have descanted, on whose past you have opened some windows which cast a view upon its former glories, was, I am assured, founded by a man of wide experience of human nature—and of both sexes—King Henry VIII, in 1518. It is claimed that he thus created medicine as a profession and cast a stern Tudor frown upon quackery of all kinds.
Royal College of Physicians, London, March 2, 1944.

Pillage. We are a rich and easy prey. No country is so vulnerable, and no country would better repay pillage than our own. With our enormous Metropolis here, the greatest target in the world, a kind of tremendous, fat, valuable cow tied up to attract the beast of prey, we are in a position in which we have never been before, and in which no other country in the world is at the present time.
Commons, July 30, 1934.

Pinnacle of Power. The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future. If you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Piracy. It is true that the Deutschland escaped the clutches of our cruisers by the skin of her teeth, but the Spee still sticks up in the harbour of Montevideo as a grisly monument and as a measure of the fate in store for any Nazi warship which dabbles in piracy on the broad waters.
London, January 20, 1940.

Planning. It is the habit of architects and builders to be more sanguine when putting forward their plans than is subsequently found to be justified by the actual facts.
Commons, October 28, 1943.

There is nothing new in planning. Every government, ancient or modern, must look ahead and plan. Did not Joseph advise Pharaoh to build granaries and fill them for the lean years when the Nile waters failed?
Empress Hall, London, October 14, 1949.

You may try to destroy wealth, and find that all you have done is to increase poverty.
Commons, March 12, 1947.

Planning for Peace. Just as in time of peace plans for war and measures of defence ought to be in readiness for any sudden emergency, so in time of war we must make sure that confusion and chaos do not follow the victories of the armies or stultify an unexpectedly early surrender by the enemy. I regard it as a definite part of the duty and responsibility of this National Government to have its plans perfected in a vast and practical scheme to make sure that in the years immediately following the war food, work and homes are found for all. No airy visions, no Party doctrines, no Party prejudices, no political appetites, no vested interests, must stand in the way of the simple duty of providing beforehand for food, work, and homes. These plans must be prepared now during the war, and they must come into action just as general mobilization is declared when war breaks out. They must come into action as soon as the victory is won.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1943.

Planning, State. I do not believe in the capacity of the State to plan and enforce an active high grade economic productivity upon its members or subjects. No matter how numerous are the committees they set up, or the ever-growing hordes of officials they employ, or the severity of the punishments they inflict or threaten, they cannot approach the high level of internal economic production which, under free enterprise, personal initiative, competitive selection, the profit motive corrected by failure, and the infinite processes of good housekeeping and personal ingenuity, constitutes the life of a free society.
Commons, October 28, 1947.

Platform and Press. Boldly and earnestly occupied, the platform will always beat the Press.
Birmingham, January 13, 1909.

Platitudes, No Time for. This is no time for windy platitudes and glittering advertisements. The Conservative Party had far better go down telling the truth and acting in accordance with the verities of our position than gain a span of shabbily-bought office by easy and fickle froth and chatter.
Central Hall, Westminster, March 15, 1945.

Plenty, Age of. At this moment in history the broad, toiling masses in every country have for the first time the opportunity of a fuller and less burdened life. Science is at hand to spread a more bountiful table than has ever been offered to the millions and to the tens of millions. Shorter hours of labour, greater assurances against individual misfortune, a wider if a simpler culture, a more consciously realized sense of social justice, an easier and a more equal society—these are the treasures which, after all these generations and centuries of impotence and confusion, are now within the reach of mankind.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

If the dangers of war and tyranny are removed, there is no doubt that science and co-operation can bring in the next few years, certainly in the next few decades, to the world, newly taught in the sharpening school of war, an expansion of material well-being beyond anything that has yet occurred in human experience. Now, at this sad and breathless moment, we are plunged in the hunger and distress which are the aftermath of our stupendous struggle; but this will pass and may pass quickly, and there is no reason except human folly or sub-human crime which should deny to all the nations the inauguration and enjoyment of an age of plenty.
Westminster College, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Plimsoll. No man could have offended more against the rules of the House than Mr. Plimsoll, for he used violent language, was disorderly in debate, preferred a serious charge against another hon. Member which was found afterwards to be baseless, shook his fist in the face of Mr. Disraeli, and left the House stating that he would not withdraw one single word of what he had said. . . . Mr. Plimsoll was given a week to consider his position, and on returning he declined to withdraw the substance of what he said, but he made amends for his disorderly conduct, which showed that a respectful apology was not incompatible even with the most strenuous protest. But although Mr. Plimsoll’s apology was of a qualified nature, the House was disposed to be generous, and he was allowed to resume his seat, and the mark of his work was set upon every ship that went to sea.
Commons, February 11, 1902.

Poise, British. Having, at the end of my life, acquired some influence on affairs, I wish to make it clear that I would not needlessly prolong this war by a single day; and my hope is that if and when British people are called by victory to share in the august responsibilities of shaping the future, we shall show the same poise and temper as we did in the hour of our mortal peril.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Poison Gas. There is also the question of gas. Nothing could be more repugnant to our feelings than the use of poison gas, but there is no logic at all behind the argument that it is quite proper in war to lay a man low with high explosive shell, fragments of which inflict poisonous and festering wounds, and altogether immoral to give him a burn with corrosive gas or make him cough and sneeze or otherwise suffer through his respiratory organs. There is no logical distinction between the two.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Poland. The Prime Minister [Ramsay MacDonald] last year, in a speech at Geneva, used a very striking phrase when he described Europe as a house inhabited by ghosts. That is to misinterpret the situation. Europe is a house inhabited by fierce, strong, living entities. Poland is not a ghost: Poland is a reincarnation. I think it is a wonderful thing that Polish unity should have re-emerged from long hideous eclipse and bondage, when the Poles were divided between three empires and made to fight one another in all the wars that took place. I rejoice that Poland has been reconstituted. I cannot think of any event arising out of the Great War which can be considered to be a more thoroughly righteous result of the struggle than the reunion of this people, who have preserved their national soul through all the years of oppression and division, and whose reconstitution of their nationhood is one of the most striking facts in European history. Do not let us be led, because there are many aspects of Polish policy that we do not like or agree with, into dwelling upon the small points of disagreement, and forget what a very great work has been achieved, a work of liberation and of justice, in the reconstitution of Poland. I trust she will live long to enjoy the freedom of the lands which belong to her, a freedom which was gained by the sword of the victorious allies.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

I have always hailed the liberation of Poland from its tripartite bondage as one of the most inspiring consequences of the World War.
Commons, January 13, 1934.

Poland, Domination of. Poland is denied all free expression of her national will. Her worst appetites of expansion are encouraged. At the same time, she is held in strict control by a Soviet-dominated government who do not dare have a free election under the observation of representatives of the three or four great powers. The fate of Poland seems to be an unending tragedy, and we, who went to war, all ill-prepared, on her behalf, watch with sorrow the strange outcome of our endeavours. I deeply regret that none of the Polish troops—and I must say this—who fought with us on a score of battlefields, who poured out their blood in the common cause, are to be allowed to march in the Victory Parade. They will be in our thoughts on that day. We shall never forget their bravery and martial skill, associated with our own glories at Tobruk, at Cassino, and at Arnhem.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Poland, Eastern Frontier of. I am absolutely convinced that it is in the profound future interest of the Polish nation that they should reach agreement with the Soviet Government about their disputed frontiers in the east before the march of the Russian armies through the main part of Poland takes place. This is the great gift they have to make to Russia, a settlement now at this time which gives the firm tide of mutual agreement to what might otherwise be disputed at the Peace Conference. I must, however, say, because I am most anxious the House should understand the whole position, speaking on behalf of His Majesty’s Government in a way which I believe would probably be held binding by our successors, that at the Conference we shall adhere to the lines which I am now unfolding to the House, and shall not hesitate to proclaim that the Russians are justly treated, and rightly treated, in being granted the claim they make to the eastern frontier along the Curzon Line as described.
Commons, December 15, 1944.

Poland, Fate of. What a frightful fate has overtaken Poland! Here was a community of nearly thirty-five millions of people, with all the organization of a modern government, and all the traditions of an ancient state, which in a few weeks was dashed out of civilized existence to become an incoherent multitude of tortured and starving men, women and children, ground beneath the heel of two rival forms of withering and blasting tyranny. The other day in a well-known British harbour I inspected the crew of a Polish destroyer. I have rarely seen a finer body of men. I was stirred by their discipline and bearing. Yet how tragic was their plight! Their ship was afloat, but their country had foundered. But as I looked around upon all the great ships of war which lay at their anchors, and at all the preparations which were being made on every side to carry this war forward at all costs as long as may be necessary, I comforted myself with the thought that, when these Polish sailors have finished their work with the British navy, we will take particular care that they once more have a home to go to.
London, March 30, 1940.

Poland, Frontiers of. It is not in the power of any British government to bring home solutions which would be regarded as perfect by the great majority of Members of this House, wherever they may sit. I must put on record my own opinion that the provisional western frontier agreed upon for Poland, running from Stettin on the Baltic, along the Oder and its tributary, the western Neisse, comprising as it does one quarter of the arable land of all Germany, is not a good augury for the future map of Europe. We always had in the Coalition Government a desire that Poland should receive ample compensation in the west for the territory ceded to Russia east of the Curzon Line. But here I think a mistake has been made, in which the Provisional Government of Poland have been an ardent partner, by going far beyond what necessity or equity required.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Poland, Future of. I took occasion to raise personally with Marshal Stalin the question of the future of Poland. I pointed out that it was in fulfilment of our guarantee to Poland that Great Britain declared war upon Nazi Germany; that we had never weakened in our resolve, even in the period when we were all alone; and that the fate of the Polish nation holds a prime place in the thoughts and policies of His Majesty’s Government and of the British Parliament. It was with great pleasure that I heard from Marshal Stalin that he, too, was resolved upon the creation and maintenance of a strong integral independent Poland as one of the leading powers in Europe. He has several times repeated these declarations in public, and I am convinced that they represent the settled policy of the Soviet Union.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

We have never weakened in any way in our resolve that Poland shall be restored and stand erect as a sovereign, independent nation, free to model her social institutions or any other institutions in any way her people chose, provided, I must say, that these are not on Fascist lines, and provided that Poland stands loyally as a barrier and friend of Russia against German aggression from the west.
Commons, December 15, 1944.

Poland, German Atrocities in. All over Europe, races and states whose culture and history made them a part of the general life of Christendom in centuries when the Prussians were no better than a barbarous tribe, and the German Empire no more than an agglomeration of pumpernickel principalities, are now prostrate under the dark, cruel yoke of Hitler and his Nazi gang. Every week his firing parties are busy in a dozen lands, Monday he shoots Dutchmen; Tuesday, Norwegians; Wednesday, French and Belgians stand against the wall; Thursday it is the Czechs who must suffer. And now there are the Serbs and the Greeks to fill his repulsive bill of executions. But always, all the days, there are the Poles. The atrocities committed by Hitler upon the Poles, the ravaging of their country, the scattering of their homes, the affronts to their religion, the enslavement of their man-power, exceed in severity and in scale the villainies perpetuated by Hitler in any other conquered land.
London, May 3, 1941.

Poland, Guarantee to. I take a serious view of the position in which we find ourselves. It is similar to what happened last year, but with the important difference that this year no means of retreat are open to us. We had no Treaty obligations to Czechoslovakia. We had never guaranteed their security. But now we have given an absolute guarantee to Poland that, if she is the object of unprovoked aggression, we in company with our French allies will be forced to declare war upon Germany. There is the brute fact which stares us in the face.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Poland, Home for. It is our persevering and constant aim that the Polish people, after their sufferings and vicissitudes, shall find in Europe an abiding home and resting-place, which though it may not entirely coincide or correspond with the pre-war frontiers of Poland, will, nevertheless, be adequate for the needs of the Polish nation and not inferior in character and quality, taking the picture as a whole, to what they previously possessed.
Commons, October 27, 1944.

Poland, Independence of. Most solemn declarations have been made by Marshal Stalin and the Soviet Union that the sovereign independence of Poland is to be maintained, and this decision is now joined in both by Great Britain and the United States. Here, also, the world organization will in due course assume a measure of responsibility. The Poles will have their future in their own hands, with the single limitation that they must honestly follow, in harmony with their allies, a policy friendly to Russia. That is surely reasonable.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Poland, Liberation of. The Russian armies now stand before the gates of Warsaw. They bring the liberation of Poland in their hands. They offer freedom, sovereignty, and independence to the Poles. They ask that there should be a Poland friendly to Russia. This seems to me very reasonable, considering the injuries which Russia has suffered through the Germans marching across Poland to attack her.
Commons, August 2, 1944.

Poland, Oppression of. Everything that is happening to the Czechs pales in comparison with the atrocities which as I speak here this afternoon are being perpetrated upon the Poles. In German-occupied Poland the most hideous form of terrorism prevails. In this there are two distinct phases. In the first the Germans tried to cow the population by shooting individuals picked at random from the towns. At one place where they had decided to shoot thirty-five people they collected thirty-four, and then, finding themselves one short, went into a chemist’s shop and seized the first person they saw to make up the tally. But later on they became more discriminating—they made careful search for the natural leaders of Polish life: the nobles, the landowners, the priests, as well as prominent workmen and peasants. It is estimated that upward of fifteen thousand intellectual leaders have been shot. These horrible mass executions are a frequent occurrence. At one place three hundred were lined up against the wall; at another a group of drunken German officers are said to have shot seventy hostages in prison; at another a hundred and thirty-six Polish students, some of whom were only twelve or thirteen years old, were butchered. Torture has been used. Press gangs seize men and women in the streets and drive them off in droves to forced labour in Germany. Famine stalks not only amid the ruins of Warsaw, but far and wide throughout that ancient country which a few months ago was the home of a people of over thirty-five millions, with a history extending back far beyond anything that Germany can boast.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Poland, Problem of. For more than a year past, and since the tide of war has turned so strongly against Germany, the Polish problem has been divided into two main issues—the frontiers of Poland and the freedom of Poland.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Poland, Rise of. This war against the mechanized barbarians, who, slave-hearted themselves, are fitted only to carry their curse to others—this war will be long and hard. But the end is sure; the end will reward all toil, all disappointments, all suffering in those who faithfully serve the cause of European and world freedom. A day will dawn, perhaps sooner than we have now a right to hope, when the insane attempt to found a Prussian domination on racial hatred, on the armoured vehicle, on the secret police, on the alien overseer, and on still more filthy quislings, will pass like a monstrous dream. And in that morning of hope and freedom, not only the embattled and at last well-armed democracies, but all that is noble and fearless in the New World as well as in the Old, will salute the rise of Poland to be a nation once again.
London, May 3, 1941.

Poland and Russia. Our effort to bring about a renewal of relations between the Polish Government in London and Russia has not succeeded. We deeply regret that fact, and we must take care to say nothing that would make any agreement more difficult in the future. I must repeat that the essential part of any arrangement is regulation of the Polish eastern frontiers, and that, in return for any withdrawal made by Poland in that quarter, she should receive other territories at the expense of Germany, which will give her an ample seaboard and a good, adequate, and reasonable homeland in which the Polish nation may safely dwell. Nothing can surpass the bravery of our Polish allies in Italy and elsewhere daily on the sea and in the air, and in the heroic resistance of the Underground Movement to the Germans. I have seen here men who came a few days ago out of Poland, who told me about it, and who are in relation with, and under orders of, the present Polish Government in London. They are most anxious that this Underground Movement should not clash with the advancing Russian army, but should help it, and orders have been sent by the Polish Government in London that the Underground Movement should help the Russian armies in as many ways as possible. There are many ways in which guerillas can be successful, and we must trust that statesmanship will yet find some way through.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Poland, Satellite. We must be very careful to distinguish in our minds between the present Polish Government and the heart of the Polish nation, to whose sorrows and sufferings there seems never to be an end.
Commons, October 23, 1946.

Poland, Soul of. Poland has been again overrun by two of the great powers which held her in bondage for 150 years, but were unable to quench the spirit of the Polish nation. The heroic defence of Warsaw shows that the soul of Poland is indestructible, and that she will rise again like a rock, which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave, but which remains a rock.
London, October 1, 1939.

Poland, Traditions of. We in this country who are conscious that our strength is built on the broad masses of the British nation appreciate and admire the Polish nation for its noble attitude since the outbreak of the war. Mainly for geographical reasons, personal contacts between our two peoples have been restricted in the past; and fighting as we are at opposite ends of Europe against our common foe, this war has not yet provided an opportunity for personal contacts on any large scale between you and my own countrymen.

The fortunes of war have, however, brought to these shores your President, your Government and many thousands of brave Polish soldiers, airmen, sailors, and merchant seamen. Their bearing has won them universal admiration in this country, and cast further lustre, if that were possible, upon the proud heroic traditions of Poland.
London, May 3, 1941.

Poles, Citizenship for. His Majesty’s Government will never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops who have served so valiantly, and to all those who have fought under our command. I earnestly hope it may be possible to offer citizenship and freedom of the British Empire, if they so desire. I am not able to make a declaration on that subject to-day, because all matters affecting citizenship require to be discussed between this country and the Dominions, and that takes time. But so far as we are concerned we should think it an honour to have such faithful and valiant warriors dwelling among us as if they were men of our own blood.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Poles, Persecution of. Every week his [Hitler’s] firing parties are busy in a dozen lands. Monday he shoots Dutchmen; Tuesday, Norwegians; Wednesday, French or Belgians stand against the wall; Thursday it is the Czechs who must suffer; and now there are the Serbs and the Greeks to fill his repulsive bill of executions. But always, all the days, there are the Poles.
London, May 3, 1941.

Poles, Virtues of. There are few virtues that the Poles do not possess—and there are few mistakes they have ever avoided.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Policy, Churchill’s. I have been a persistent critic of the present Government, both in their foreign policy and in their measures for defence. My warnings and censures for the last six years are on record, and to-day no one is asking me to take one word back. If I support the Government to-day, it is not because I have changed my views. It is because the Government have in principle and even in detail adopted the policy I have urged. I only hope they have not adopted it too late to prevent war.
City Carlton Club, London, June 28, 1939.

Policy, Foreign. The peace of Europe rests to-day upon the French army. That army at the present time is the finest in Europe, but with every month that passes its strength is being outmatched by the ceaseless development of the new formations into which the vastly superior manhood of Germany is being cast. Almost any foreign policy is better than duality or continual chops and changes. It is strange that the British people, who have such a reputation for stability in other matters, should have been in the last few years pursuing a foreign policy so baffling by its shift and twists that foreign countries have been unable to keep step with us, while the little nations who are indirectly affected by our changes are thrown into the utmost bewilderment and confusion.
Commons, February 22, 1938.

Policy, Foundation of British. The foundation of British policy must be an ever-closer association with the United States. I have never asked at any time for an alliance. I want something much more than that. We must seek something less precise and far more potent. The whole English-speaking world must move forward together in fraternal association along the lines of destiny. This will be the greatest hope of peace among nations and of the freedom and dignity of ordinary men and women over the largest portion of the globe.
Blenheim Palace, August 4, 1947.

Policy, Objectives of. What are the twin supreme objectives of public policy at the present time? I can give them in a single sentence. Security of the home of the wage-earner against exceptional misfortune and encouragement of enterprise through a relief of the burdens resting upon industry.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Policy, Supreme Object of. Our first supreme object is not to go to war. To that end we must do our best to prevent others from going to war. But we must be very careful that, in so doing, we do not increase the risk to ourselves of being involved in a war if, unfortunately, our well-meant efforts fail to prevent a quarrel between other powers.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Policy, Too Spirited. I remember when I was very young, before I came into this House, a denunciation by Dr. Spence Watson of what he called “the filthy Tory rag of a spirited foreign policy.” In those days the feelings of the forerunners of those who sit opposite were directed against jingo policies of bombast and Palmerstonian vigour. But you may have another kind of spirited foreign policy in which, without duly considering the circumstances in which others are placed, you endeavour to press upon them disarmament or to weaken their security, perhaps with a view to gaining a measure of approbation from good people here who are not aware of the dangerous state of affairs in Europe. There you could have a peace which may be too spirited.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Polish Corridor. Many people would like to see, or would have liked to see a little while ago—I was one of them—the question of the Polish Corridor adjusted. For my part, I should certainly have considered that to be one of the greatest practical objectives of European peace-seeking diplomacy. There again, however, we must think of the rights of Poland. The Polish Corridor is inhabited almost entirely by Poles, and it was Polish territory before the Partition of 1772. This is a matter which in quiet times, with increasing goodwill, Europe should have set itself—and might well some day set itself—to solve.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Polish Home Army. I am sure I am expressing the feelings of the House, as well as those of His Majesty’s Government, in paying tribute to the heroic stand of the Polish Home Army and of the Polish civilian population of Warsaw. Their resistance to overwhelming odds, under inconceivable conditions of hardship, came to an end on October 3rd, after a fight which lasted 63 days. Despite all the efforts of the Soviet army, the strong German positions on the Vistula could not be taken, and relief could not come in time. British, American, Polish and Soviet airmen did what they could to succour the Poles at Warsaw, but although this sustained the Polish resistance beyond what could have seemed possible, it could not turn the tide. In the battle for Warsaw, terrible damage has been inflicted upon that noble city, and its heroic population has undergone sufferings and privations unsurpassed even among the miseries of this war.
Commons, October 5, 1944.

Politics. Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
National Liberal Club, London, October 9, 1909.

Politics, Understanding. It is hard enough to understand the politics of one’s own country; it is almost impossible to understand those of foreign countries.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Politics and War. It is the same in politics as it is in war. When one crest has been left, it is necessary to go to the next. To halt half-way in the valley between is to court swift and certain destruction.
Commons, April 5, 1906.

Pomp and Power. On the whole it is wise in human affairs, and in the government of men, to separate pomp from power.
Ottawa, January 14, 1952.

Population, Transfer of. The transference of several millions of people would have to be effected from the east to the west or north, as well as the expulsion of the Germans—because that is what is proposed: the total expulsion of the Germans—from the areas to be acquired by Poland in the west and the north. For expulsion is the method which, so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble, as has been the case in Alsace-Lorraine. A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by the prospect of the disentanglement of populations, nor even by these large transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions than they were ever before.
Commons, December 15, 1944.

Population, Trend of. There is no branch of human knowledge in which we can pierce the mysteries of the future so clearly as in the trend of population. Here you have prophecies which rest on certainty; here the searchlight of statistics ranges with accuracy for thirty or forty years ahead. The destiny of our country, which after all has rendered notable services to mankind in peace and latterly in war, depends upon an ever-flowing fountain of healthy children, born into what we trust will be a broader society and a less distracted world. Science, now so largely perverted to destruction, must raise its glittering shield not only over the children but over the mothers, not only over the family, but over the home.
Royal College of Physicians, London, March 2, 1944.

Power, Balance of. There is no greater danger than equal forces. If you wish to bring about war, you bring about such an equipoise that both sides think they have a chance of winning. If you want to stop war, you gather such an aggregation of force on the side of peace that the aggressor, whoever he may be, will not dare to challenge.
Commons, July 13, 1934.

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that when nations are strong they are not always just, and when they wish to be just they are often no longer strong. I desire to see the collective forces of the world invested with overwhelming power. If you are going to depend on a slight margin, one way or the other, you will have war. But if you get five or ten to one on one side, all bound rigorously by the covenant and the conventions which they own, then you may have an opportunity of a settlement which will heal the wounds of the world. Let us have this blessed union of power and justice: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him.” Let us free the world from the reproach of a catastrophe carrying with it calamity and tribulation beyond the tongue of man to tell.
Commons, March 26, 1936.

Great wars come when both sides believe they are more or less equal, when each thinks it has a good chance of victory.
New York, October 14, 1947.

From what I have seen of our Russian friends and allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Power, Division of. The wisdom of our ancestors for more than 300 years has sought the division of power in the Constitution: Crown, Lords and Commons have been checks and restraints upon one another.
Huddersfield, October 15, 1951.

Both here and across the ocean, over the generations and the centuries, the idea of the division of powers has lain deep at the root of our development. We do not want to live in a system dominated either by one man or one theme. Like nature, we follow in theme the paths of variety and change and our faith that in the mercy of God things will get better and better if we all try our best.
Coronation Luncheon, Westminster Hall, May 27, 1953.

Power, Limits of. Parliament can compel people to obey or to submit, but it cannot compel them to agree.
Commons, September 27, 1926.

Power, Lust for. No government has ever combined so passionate a lust for power with such incurable impotence in its exercise.
Commons, November 11, 1947.

Power and Mercy. The finest combination in the world is power and mercy. The worst combination in the world is weakness and strife.
Commons, March 3, 1919.

Power, Misuse of. With that marvellous gift which he has of bringing troublesome issues down to earth and reducing them to the calm level of ordinary life, the President declared, in his recent Message to Congress, that power politics were “the misuse of power.” I am sure I can say, on behalf of all Parties in the House, that we are absolutely in agreement with the President.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Power, Overbalance of. As I look upon the future of our country in the changing scene of human destiny I feel the existence of three great circles among the free nations and democracies. I almost wish I had a blackboard. I would make a picture for you. I don’t suppose it would get hung in the Royal Academy, but it would illustrate the point I am anxious for you to hold in your minds. The first circle for us is naturally the British Commonwealth and Empire, with all that that comprises. Then there is also the English-speaking world in which we, Canada, and the other British Dominions and the United States play so important a part. And finally there is United Europe. These three majestic circles are co-existent and if they are linked together there is no force or combination which could overthrow them or even challenge them.
Llandudno, October 9, 1948.

Power Politics. I have anxiously asked the question, “What are power politics?” I know some of our friends across the water so well that I am sure I can always speak frankly without causing offence. Is having a navy twice as big as any other navy in the world power politics? Is having the largest air force in the world with bases in every part of the world power politics? Is having all the gold in the world power politics? If so, we are certainly not guilty of these offences, I am sorry to say. They are luxuries that have passed away from us.
Commons, January 18, 1945.

Power and Responsibility. Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.
Commons, February 28, 1952.

Powers, Great and Small. We may deplore, if we choose, the fact that there is a difference between great and small, between the strong and the weak in the world, but there undoubtedly is such a difference, and it would be foolish to upset good arrangements which are proceeding on a broad front for the sake of trying to obtain immediately what is a hopeless ideal.
Commons, March 15, 1945.

Precedents. The intervention which I make is without precedent, and the reason for that intervention is also without precedent, and the fact that the reason for my intervention is without precedent is the reason why I must ask for a precedent for my intervention.
Commons, November, 1941.

Precipices. You have to run risks. There are no certainties in war. There is a precipice on either side of you—a precipice of caution and a precipice of over-daring.
Commons, September 21, 1942.

Predictions. Most of all shall I refrain from making any prediction upon the future. It is a month ago that I remarked upon the long silence of Herr Hitler, a remark which apparently provoked him to make a speech in which he told the German people that Moscow would fall in a few days. That shows, as everyone I am sure will agree, how much wiser he would have been to go on keeping his mouth shut.
Commons, November 12, 1941.

Preference, Colonial. There was no doubt that, economically, in so far as we were to give the Colonies a preference in our markets, we should be taking the money out of our own pockets.
Commons, June 9, 1902.

Preference, Ideological. This is no time for ideological preferences for one side or the other, and certainly we, His Majesty’s Government, have not indulged ourselves in this way at all. Thus, in Italy we are working for the present through the Government of the King and Badoglio; in Yugoslavia we give our aid to Marshal Tito; in Greece, in spite of the fact that a British officer was murdered by the guerilla organization called E.L.A.S., we are doing our best to bring about a reconciliation, or at least a working agreement, between the opposing forces.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Prejudice in Politics. We cannot have our relations with our nearest neighbour destroyed and impaired by the prejudice and ill-feeling, personal ill-feeling, of a single individual, however eminent he may be, nor has anyone a right to twist or distort the foreign policy of a Party or of a country merely because in the course of his political activities he has been led into taking up an utterly untenable and indefensible position.
Commons, April 17, 1929.

Preparations, Germany’s. Broadly speaking, since the arrival of Herr Hitler in power three years ago the Germans have spent about £1,500,000 sterling upon warlike preparations directly or indirectly. The money has been raised by internal borrowing, and the revenues of Germany are already mortgaged two or three, or possibly four, years ahead. These figures are stupendous. Nothing like them has ever been seen in time of peace.
Commons, March 10, 1936.

Preparedness. Mark you, in time of peace, in peace politics, in ordinary matters of domestic affairs and class struggles, things blow over, but in these great matters of defence, and still more in the field of actual hostilities, the clouds do not roll by. If the necessary measures are not taken, they turn into thunderbolts and fall on your heads.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

You ought now—I said this two years ago, but it is still true to-day—to have every factory in the country planned out, not only on paper, but with the necessary jigs, gauges and appliances handy, hung up on the spot, so that they could turn over at once in time of war to some form of war production.
Commons, May 25, 1938.

The more you are prepared and the better you are known to be prepared, the greater is the chance of staving off war and of saving Europe from the catastrophe which menaces it.
Commons, May 25, 1938.

Presence of Mind. I acted with great promptitude. In the nick of time, just as Mr. Snowden was rising with overwhelming fury, I got up (and withdrew the tax on kerosene). Was I humiliated? Was I accused of running away? No! Everyone said: “How clever! How quick! How right!” Pardon me referring to it. It was one of my best days.
Commons, June 21, 1937.

Press, The. We sneer at the Press, but they give an extremely true picture of a great deal that is going on, a very much fuller and more detailed picture than we are able to receive from ministers of the Crown.
Commons, April 13, 1939.

Press Association. The Press Association plays an important part in our national life by presenting from minute to minute the news about all kinds of things happening all over the world.
London, June 11, 1952.

Prestige. In small matters prestige counts. In small matters taunts are very provoking and jeers wound, but in larger matters, in great matters affecting the whole life and prosperity of the country, it would be shameful if ministers who were charged with responsibility allowed their judgments to be influenced by fear of the taunts to which they might be subjected.
Commons, August 6, 1925.

Price Mechanism. To begin to restrict consumption, which it may be necessary to do, merely through the agency of price, through the agency of unregulated, fortuitous rises of price, is the most cruel and the most unfair manner of dealing with a great national and economic problem. In time of war particularly you should have regard for the broad claims of social justice.
Commons, August 22, 1916.

Prime Ministers, Dignity of. The dignity of a Prime Minister, like a lady’s virtue, was not susceptible of partial diminution.
Commons, July 24, 1905.

Primrose League, The. The Primrose League was founded to keep green the memory of a great and wise nineteenth-century statesman, and to uphold the national ideals and principles that he enunciated. Those principles have an abiding validity. They have stood the test of time and of experiences unimaginable in those tranquil Victorian times. The speeches and writings of Disraeli are a mine of political sagacity. He loved his country with a romantic passion. He had a profound faith in the greatness of the English character, and a burning desire to bring about an improvement in the condition of the people.
London, December 31, 1944.

Principalities, German. I hope we shall continue to use our influence and resources, such as they are, to make the German people or the states and principalities of Germany able to govern themselves and earn good livelihood as soon as possible. I am hoping that the states of Germany—Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, Hanover and others—may regain much of their old individuality and rights. I am sure that it is along that road that both France and Britain will find it easiest to advance, and it is along that road that reconciliation and healing will, in the first instance, be most easily found across the former lines of battle. Individuality should be restored and revived before any degree of structural unity can be achieved.
Commons, December 10, 1948.

Priority. I have always been very much struck by the advantage enjoyed by people who lived at an earlier period of the world than one’s own. They had the first opportunity of saying the right thing. Over and over again it had happened to me to think of something which I thought was worth saying, only to find that it had been already exploited, and very often spoiled, before I had an opportunity of saying it.
Commons, May 19, 1927.

Priority among Virtues. Compassion, charity and generosity are noble virtues, but the Government should be just before they are generous.
Commons, March 12, 1947.

Principles, First. In critical and baffling situations it is always best to recur to first principles and simple action.
London, March 17, 1951.

Principles, Right. It is vain to imagine that the mere perception or declaration of right principles, whether in one country or in many countries, will be of any value unless they are supported by those qualities of civic virtue and manly courage—aye, and by those instruments and agencies of force and science which in the last resort must be the defence of right and reason.
University of Bristol, July 2, 1938.

Prisoners of War. What is a prisoner of war? He is a man who has tried to kill you and, having failed to kill you, asks you not to kill him. Long before the Christian revelation, the world had found out by practice that mercy towards a beaten enemy was well worth while and that it was much easier to gain control over wide areas by taking prisoners than by making everyone fight to the death against you.
Commons, July 1, 1952.

Private Property. We are often assured by sagacious persons that the civilization of modern states is largely based upon respect for the rights of private property. If that be true, it is also true that such respect cannot be secured, and ought not, indeed, to be expected, unless property is associated in the minds of the great mass of the people with ideas of justice and of reason.
Edinburgh, July 17, 1909.

Private Property, Security of. The best way to make private property secure and respected is to bring the processes by which it is gained into harmony with the general interests of the public. When and where property is associated with the idea of reward for services rendered, with the idea of recompense for high gifts and special aptitudes displayed or for faithful labour done, then property will be honoured. When it is associated with processes which are beneficial, or which at the worst are not actually injurious, to the commonwealth, then property will be unmolested; but when it is associated with ideas of wrong and of unfairness, with processes of restriction and monopoly, and other forms of injury to the community, then I think that you will find that property will be assailed and will be endangered.
Edinburgh, July 17, 1909.

Prize, The Last. If I remain in public life at this juncture it is because, rightly or wrongly, but sincerely, I believe that I may be able to make an important contribution to the prevention of a third world war and to bringing nearer that lasting peace settlement which the masses of the people of every race and in every land fervently desire. I pray indeed that I may have this opportunity. It is the last prize I seek to win. I have been blessed with so much good fortune throughout my long life, and I am treated with so much kindness by my fellow countrymen far outside the ranks of Party, and indeed also in the United States and in Europe, that all the daydreams of my youth have been surpassed.
Plymouth, October 23, 1951.

If I stay on for the time being, bearing the burden of my age, it is not because of love for power or office. I have had an ample feast of both. If I stay it is because I have the feeling that I may, through things that have happened, have an influence on what I care about above all else—the building of a sure and lasting peace.
Margate, October 10, 1953.

Procedure, Technique of. All the nations at Geneva have developed a very elaborate technique in dealing with disarmament proposals which do not suit their needs or which they think are dangerous or inconvenient. They have learned very well to talk the language which is agreeable to the League of Nations Union. They think they do it very well there. They have had a lot of practice at it. They never refuse at first sight any proposal, however injurious, visionary or foolish they may think it. On the contrary, they make praiseworthy speeches. They interchange agreeable compliments—“How interesting!” “How hopeful!” “What a meeting of our point of view is embodied in this!” “It is the first time we have really had a helping hand in this difficult situation.” “What noble sentiments have inspired this theme for which we are indebted to the genius of England!” And then, having read it a second time, to use our Parliamentary forms, amid prolonged enthusiasm, they adjourn to the banqueting hall and leave it to be killed in committee by a lot of minor objections to detail, or by putting forward counter-proposals which only make confusion worse confounded.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Process, Natural. It is sometimes wise to allow natural processes to work, and crimes and follies to be paid in coin from their own mint.
Commons, February 22, 1938.

Procrastination. I have always heard that procrastination was the thief of time, but in this case procrastination seemed to me to have been particularly profitable.
Commons, August 2, 1906.

Procrastination, Era of. The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

Prodding. I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod. My difficulties rather lie in finding the patience and self-restraint to wait through many anxious weeks for the results to be achieved.
Commons, November 11, 1942.

Programme, Churchill’s. I stand by my original programme—blood, toil, tears and sweat . . . to which I added five months later many shortcomings, mistakes and disappointments!
Commons, January 27, 1942.

Progress. Alone among the nations of the world we have found the means to combine empire and liberty. Alone among the peoples we have reconciled democracy and tradition; for long generations, nay, over several centuries, no mortal clash or religious or political gulf has opened in our midst. Alone we have found the way to carry forward the glories of the past through all the storms, domestic and foreign, that have surged about, and thus to bring the labours of our forebears as a splendid inheritance for modern progressive democracy to enjoy.
Caxton Hall, London, October 9, 1940.

Our generation has seen great changes. We have parted company with the horse; we have an internal combustion engine instead and I wonder whether we have gained by the change.
University of London, November 18, 1948.

I cannot doubt we have the strength to carry a good cause forward, and to break down the barriers which stand between the wage-earning masses of every land and the free and more abundant daily life which science is ready to afford.
Commons, October 1, 1939.

Progress, Light of. A state of society where men may not speak their minds, where children denounce their parents to the police, where a business man or small shopkeeper ruins his competitor by telling tales about his private opinions: such a state of society cannot long endure if brought into contact with the healthy outside world. The light of civilized progress with its tolerances and co-operation, with its dignities and joys, has often in the past been blotted out. But I hold the belief that we have now at last got far enough ahead of barbarism to control it, and to avert it, if only we realize what is afoot and make up our minds in time. We shall do it in the end.
Broadcast to America, October 16, 1938.

Progress and Reaction. Progress and reaction are no doubt relative terms. What one man calls progress another will call reaction. If you have been rapidly descending the road to ruin and you suddenly check yourself, stop, turn back and retrace your steps, that is reaction, and no doubt your former guide will have every reason to reproach you with inconsistency.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Progress, Social. I have always been a bit shy of defining war aims, but if these great communities, now struggling not only for their own lives but for the freedom and progress of the world, emerge victorious, there will be an electric atmosphere in the world which may render possible an advance towards a greater and broader social unity and justice than could otherwise have been achieved in peacetime in a score of years. We are no theorists or doctrinaires. Trade unionists are practical men aiming at practical results. I might say that our aim will be to build a society in which there will be wealth and culture, but where wealth shall not prey on commonwealth nor culture degenerate into class and pride.
Speech at a luncheon in London, March 27, 1941.

Prohibition. I do not think we are likely to learn much from the liquor legislation of the United States.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Promise and Performance. One may aim at a reduction, as one may aim at a target, but one does not promise to hit it.
Commons, April 11, 1927.

Promises. I am resolved not to give or to make all kinds of promises and tell all kinds of fairy tales to you who have trusted me and gone with me so far, and marched through the valley of the shadow, till we have reached the upland regions on which we now stand with firmly planted feet.
London, March 21, 1943.

Promises, No Need of. Nothing would be easier for me than to make any number of promises and to get the immediate response of cheap cheers and glowing leading articles. I am not in any need to go about making promises in order to win political support or to be allowed to continue in office.
Commons, February 11, 1943.

Propaganda, German. There is an extraordinary volume of German propaganda in this country, of mis-statements made on the highest authority—which everyone knows could be easily disproved—but which obtain currency, and which, because they are not contradicted, are accepted as part of the regular facts on which the public rely. Ministers and Members who are in agreement with the policy of the Government must exert themselves to explain these matters to an anxious, but loyal and courageous, public.
Commons, March 26, 1936.

Property, Private. The best way to make private property secure and respected is to bring the processes by which it is gained into harmony with the general interests of the public.
Edinburgh, July 17, 1909.

Personally I think that private property has a right to be defended. Our civilization is built up on private property, and can only be defended by private property.
Commons, August 11, 1947.

Property, Security of. The vital processes of civilization require, and the combined interests of millions guarantee, the security of property. A society in which property was insecure would speedily degenerate into barbarism; a society in which property was absolutely secure, irrespective of all conceptions of justice in regard to the manner of its acquisition, would degenerate, not into barbarism, but death.
Abernethy, July 7, 1909.

Prophecy. The whole tribe of highly intellectual left-wing scribblers assure us that the Socialist Administration will rule for 20 years.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Prophets, Qualification of. A hopeful disposition is not the sole qualification to be a prophet.
Commons, April 30, 1927.

Proportion, Sense of. The curious fact that the House prefers to give two days to the television White Paper and only one day to foreign affairs may be noted by future historians as an example of a changing sense of proportion in modern thought.
Commons, December 17, 1953.

Proportional Representation. It is quite true that I expressed a view many years ago, which I have seen no reason to dismiss from the region of theoretical principle, in favour of proportional representation in great cities. I have not expressed any views in favour of proportional representation as a whole, on account of the proved ill effects it has had on so many Parliaments.
Commons, February 17, 1953.

Prospect, 1942. We have reached a period in the war when it would be premature to say that we have topped the ridge, but now we see the ridge ahead. We see that perseverance, unflinching, dogged, inexhaustible, tireless, valiant, will surely carry us and our allies, the great nations of the world, and the unfortunate nations who have been subjugated and enslaved, on to one of the most deep-founded movements of humanity, which have ever taken place in our history. We see that they will come to the top of the ridge, and then they will have a chance not only of beating down and subduing those evil forces which have withstood us so long, which have twice let ruin and havoc loose on the world, but they will have that further and grander prospect that beyond the smoke of battle and the confusion of the fight we shall have the chance to settle our countries and the whole world together, moving forward together on the high road. That is the prospect that lies before us if we do not fail. And we shall not fail.
Town Hall, Leeds, May 16, 1942.

Prosperity, Control of. It is not in our power to control the prosperity of the country any more than it is in our power to control the weather.
Commons, July 2, 1926.

Prosperity, National. The idea that a nation can tax itself into prosperity is one of the crudest delusions which has ever fuddled the human mind.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, April 21, 1948.

Prostration of Germany. In the forefront of any survey of the world stands Germany, a vanquished nation. “Stands,” I said—no, prostrate, shattered. Seventy or eighty millions of men and women of an ancient, capable and terribly efficient race are in a ruined famished condition in the heart of Europe.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

Protection. I humbly submit to hon. Gentlemen opposite that the essence of protection is protection.
Commons, May 12, 1902.

Protectionism. Events had gone a long way towards showing that the reasons which had already induced some hon. Members to separate themselves altogether from the Party opposite, and to take the course of moving over to the other side of the House, a course accompanied by every odious circumstance and abuse, were not light or passing reasons, and that the influences which two years ago threatened to convert the Conservative Party to protection were still dominant on that side.
Commons, June 6, 1905. The real essential fallacy of the protectionist proposal is the idea that taxation is a good thing in itself, that it should be imposed for the fun of the thing, and then, having done it for amusement, we should go round afterwards and look for attractive methods of expenditure in order to give support to the project.
Commons, July 15, 1907.

Public Funds. The great principle which this House ought to guard and cherish is that, when the tax collector comes to the private citizen and takes from him of his wealth for the service of the public, the whole of that money taken shall go for the purposes for which it is intended, and that no private interests, however powerfully they may be organized and however eloquently advocated, shall thrust their dirty fingers into the pie and take the profit for themselves.
Commons, June 2, 1908.

Public Men. I owe advancement entirely to the House of Commons, whose servant I am. In my country, as in yours, public men are proud to be the servants of the State and would be ashamed to be its masters. On any day, if they thought the people wanted it, the House of Commons could by a simple vote remove me from my office. But I am not worrying about it at all.
U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., December 26, 1941.

Public Speaking during War. It has been aptly remarked that ministers, and indeed all other public men, when they make speeches at the present time, have always to bear in mind three audiences, one our own fellow countrymen, secondly, our friends abroad, and thirdly, the enemy. This naturally makes the task of public speaking very difficult.
Commons, November 12, 1941.

Publicity. The right hon. Gentleman’s [A. J. Balfour’s] leadership of the House had been much praised in the newspapers whose editors he had ennobled and promoted.
Commons, August 2, 1904.

Punctuation. Personally I am in full agreement with the noble Lord [Lord Hugh Cecil] on this point, and I am glad that we have found a common ground to stand on, though it be only the breadth of a comma.
Commons, July 7, 1910.

Punic Wars. Look back upon the last five years—since, that is to say, Germany began to rearm in earnest and openly to seek revenge. If we study the history of Rome and Carthage, we can understand what happened and why. It is not difficult to form an intelligent view about the three Punic Wars; but if mortal catastrophe should overtake the British nation and the British Empire, historians a thousand years hence will still be baffled by the mystery of our affairs. They will never understand how it was that a victorious nation, with everything in hand, suffered themselves to be brought low, and to cast away all that they had gained by measureless sacrifice and absolute victory—gone with the wind.
Commons, March 24, 1938.

Pugnacity. There are all sorts of matters which are extremely important upon which we might expend a great deal of energy and pugnacity, but at present we must do our best to keep our pugnacity for export purposes.
Commons, October 6, 1944.

Purblindness. Although the fate of Poland stares them in the face, there are thoughtless dilletanti or purblind wordlings who sometimes ask us: “What is it that Britain and France are fighting for?” To this I answer: “If we left off fighting you would soon find out.”
London, March 30, 1940.

Purpose, Irrevocable. We have but one aim and one single, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi régime. From this nothing will turn us—nothing. We will never parley, we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until with God’s help we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe.
London, June 22, 1941.

Purposes, Deep. The deep purposes of great nations are not, I am afraid, governed by the ebb and flow of political discussions or by temporary agreements which are made.
Commons, July 11, 1935.

Purse, Control of the. The control of the purse, which is the life and the history and the origin of the power of the House of Commons, must at all costs be preserved intact by us.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Purse, Power of the. The control of finance by the representative Assembly is the keystone of all that constitutional fabric upon which and within which all of us here have dwelt safely and peacefully throughout our lives. It is by the application of the power of the purse, and by the application of the power of the purse almost alone, that we have moved forward, slowly and prosaically, no doubt, during the last two hundred years, but without any violent overturn such as has rent the life and history of almost every other considerable country, from a kind of medieval oligarchy to a vast modern democratic state based on the suffrages of six million or seven million electors, loyal to the Crown, and clothed with all the stately forms of the venerable English monarchy. Finance has been the keystone. Take finance away from the House of Commons, take the complete control of financial business away from the representative Assembly, and our whole system of government, be it good, bad, or indifferent, will crumble to pieces like a house of cards.
National Liberal Club, London, October 9, 1909.

Pursuit in War. It is nearly always right to pursue a beaten foe with all one’s strength, and even to run serious risks in doing so; of course, there comes a time when the pursuers outstrip the utmost limits of their own supplies, and where the enemy, falling back on his own depôts, is able once again to form a front.
Commons, November 9, 1944.

Puzzle. During the last three months an element of baffling dualism has complicated every problem of policy and administration. We had to plan for peace and war at the same time. Immense armies were being demobilized; another powerful army was being prepared and dispatched to the other side of the globe. All the personal stresses among millions of men eager to return to civil life, and hundreds of thousands of men who would have to be sent to new and severe campaigns in the Far East, presented themselves with growing tension. This dualism affected also every aspect of our economic and financial life. How to set people free to use their activities in reviving the life of Britain, and at the same time to meet the stern demands of the war against Japan, constituted one of the most perplexing and distressing puzzles that in a long lifetime of experience I have ever faced.
Commons, August 16, 1945.

Quagmire. There are some general propositions now in vogue which deserve scrutiny. Let me state them in terms of precision: “All oppression from the left is progress. All resistance from the right is reactionary. All forward steps are good, and all backward steps are bad. When you are getting into a horrible quagmire, the only remedy is to plunge in deeper and deeper.”
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Quarrels, Fundamental. I foresee with sorrow but without fear that in the next few years we shall come to fundamental quarrels in this country. It seems impossible to escape the fact that events are moving and will move towards the issue—“The People versus the Socialists.” On the one hand will be the spirit of our people, organized and unorganized, the ancient, glorious British people, who carried our name so high and our arms so far in this formidable world. On the other side will be the Socialist doctrinaires with all their pervasive propaganda, with all their bitter class hatred, with all their love of tyrannizing, with all their Party machinery, with all their hordes of officials and bureaucracy. There lies the impending shock, and we must be ready to meet it as a true People’s Party, gathering together all that is vital and healthy in our island life and caring for nothing except the glory, strength, and freedom of Britain.
Friends House, London, November 28, 1945.

Quarrels, Great. The resignation of the late Foreign Secretary may well be a milestone in history. Great quarrels, it has been remarked, arise from small occasions, but seldom from small causes. That there was a complete divergence between the former Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister is too plainly apparent. The former Foreign Secretary adhered to the old policy which we have all followed for so long. The Prime Minister and his colleagues have entered upon another and a new policy.
Commons, February 22, 1938.

Quebec. Here at the gateway of Canada, in mighty lands which have never known the totalitarian tyrannies of Hitler and Mussolini, the spirit of freedom has found a safe and abiding home. Here that spirit is no wandering phantom. It is enshrined in Parliamentary institutions based on universal suffrage and evolved through the centuries by the English-speaking peoples. It is inspired by the Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence. It is guarded by resolute and vigilant millions, never so strong or so well armed as to-day.
London, August 31, 1943.

Queen, The—can do no wrong. In our island, by trial and error, and by perseverance across the centuries, we have found out a very good plan. Here it is: The Queen can do no wrong. Bad advisers can be changed as often as the people like to use their rights for that purpose. A great battle is lost: Parliament turns out the Government. A great battle is won—crowds cheer the Queen.
Coronation Luncheon, Westminster Hall, May 27, 1953.

Queen Mary. During six reigns, far longer, that is, than most people can remember, she has moved among us with the poise and dignity which, as age drew on, made her a figure of almost legendary distinction. . . . When she was born, Napoleon III ruled in France and Palmerston had only recently ceased to be Prime Minster of this country. Railways were comparatively new; electric light and the internal combustion engine were unknown. She knew Gladstone and Disraeli; her grandfather was the son of George III. Yet she lived into this atomic age, through two fearful wars which cast almost all the thrones of Europe to the ground, and rent but also transformed the world. The chasm which scientific invention and social change have wrought between 1867 and 1953 is so wide that it requires not only courage but mental resilience for those whose youth lay in calmer and more slowly moving times in order that they may adjust themselves to the giant outlines and harsh structure of the twentieth century.
London, March 25, 1953.

Quest of Truth. Our universities have for generations been the training-ground of statesmen. They are zealous guardians of spiritual values. They encourage the quest of truth for truth’s sake. They provide a stimulus to thought and opportunity for disputation, and an access to the knowledge which is essential to them. Out of these things, wedded to experience, is born a capacity for leadership in thought and action.
London, March 31, 1943.

Questions, Above Party. I have noticed that whenever a distinguished politician declares that a particular question is above Party, what he really means is that everybody, without distinction of Party, shall vote for him.
Commons, March 8, 1905.

Queuetopia. The Socialist dream is no longer Utopia but Queuetopia. And if they have the power this part of their dream will certainly come true.
Woodford, January 28, 1950.

Quicksands in Politics. In some great crisis in this country, when the ship of State had to be steered through shoals and quicksands, it was usual in English public life to assume that ministers of the Crown were pecuniarily disinterested.
Commons, April 5, 1905.

Quidnunc. Last night the hon. Member for Bilston [Mr. Nally] drew an affecting picture of my personal position; the noble stag was dying, the curs were at his throat; his own friends behind him were hogs; and the hon. Member spoke of the pathos and tragedy of the scene. Let me reassure him that so far as my personal feelings are concerned, I only remain in politics because I think it my duty to try to prevent the great position we won in the war being cast away by folly, and worse than folly, on the morrow of our victory.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Quiet Life. It has been said that “Happy is the nation that has no history,” and I think it may also be said that happy is the department whose debates are dull in the pages of the Official Report.
Commons, May 19, 1927.

Quis Custodet. The division of ruling power has always been for more than 500 years the aim of the British people. The division of power is the keynote of our Parliamentary system and of the constitutions we have spread all over the world. The idea of checks and counter-checks; the resistance to the theory that one man, or group of men, can by sweeping gestures and decisions reduce all the rest of us to subservience; these have always been the war cries of the British nation, and the division of power has always been one of the war cries of the British people.
Blackpool, October 14, 1950.

Quislings. I remain convinced that the highest honour will be accorded to those who never flinched or wavered in the hour of disaster, and that lasting condemnation, and, I trust, salutary punishment will be meted out to all prominent persons who have not merely bowed to the force of circumstances, but who, for the sake of personal ambition or profit, have tried to promote the victory of the common foe.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Quixote, Modern Don. I associate myself with my right hon. Friend in welcoming the Prime Minister [Ramsay MacDonald] from his visit to Rome. We have got our modern Don Quixote home again, with Sancho Panza [Sir John Simon] at his tail, bearing with them these somewhat dubious trophies which they have collected amid the nervous titterings of Europe. Let us hope that now the right hon. Gentleman is safely back among us he will, first of all, take a good rest, of which I have no doubt he stands in need.
Commons, March 23, 1933.

Race, Purity of. This Bill [the Aliens’ Bill] had been represented very largely on national grounds as designed to preserve the purity of the British race. The hon. Member for Limehouse and others desired to make sure that there should be no infiltration of foreign sewage to defile the purity of the Anglo-Saxon blood!
Commons, July 11, 1905.

Racing. I believe that the contrast between British race courses and French race courses, at the present time, is a contrast between eighteenth century barbarism and rowdyism and the new civilization that we hope the twentieth century will offer for very large numbers of people.
Commons, March 16, 1928.

Radar. During the war we imparted many secrets to the Russians especially in connection with radar, but we were not conscious of any adequate reciprocity. Even in the heat of the war both countries acted under considerable reserve.
Commons, November 7, 1945.

Rampart of the Sea. Above all, we must not be led by the Lord President [Stanley Baldwin] into this helpless, hopeless mood. Our island is surrounded by the sea. It always has been, and, although the House may not realize it, the sea was in early times a great disadvantage because the invader could come across the sea and no one knew where he would land; very often he did not know himself.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Rand, Population of the. The Rand population is not, as some people imagine, a foreign population. The great majority of it is British, and a very large portion of it consists of as good, honest, hardworking men as are to be found in any constituency in this country. But there are also on the Rand a considerable proportion of Dutch.
Commons, July 31, 1906.

Range. The British Empire has been built up by running risks. If we had never moved an inch beyond the range of our heavy artillery, our empire would probably have been limited by that same scope.
Commons, March 21, 1922.

Rating, System of. Our system of local rating, dating from the sixteenth century, is wholly inapplicable to modern industrial production.
Commons, April 24, 1928.

Rationing. In wartime rationing is the alternative to famine. In peace it may well become the alternative to abundance.
Devonport, February 9, 1950.

Reactionary. In Russia a man is called a reactionary if he objects to having his property stolen and his wife and children murdered.
Commons, November 5, 1919.

Reading of books. I never admire the habit which some people follow, of always skipping the pages of a book and looking on to see how it ends. The authors must be permitted to tell their tale in their own way, and to unfold the story chapter by chapter.
Cairo, February 3, 1942.

Realities. One would imagine, sitting in this House to-day, that the dangers were in process of abating. I believe that the exact contrary is the truth—that they are steadily advancing upon us, and that no one can be certain that a time may not be reached, or when it will be reached, when events may have passed altogether out of control. We must look at the facts. Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.
Commons, May 31, 1935.

Reality, Sense of. Our desire to promote peace must not lead us to press our views beyond a point where those views are no longer compatible with the actual facts of the situation.
Commons, April 13, 1933.

Rear-Guard. There is no operation in war more dangerous or more important than the conduct of a rear-guard action and the extrication of a rear-guard from difficult and broken country.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

In the long war which humanity wages with the elements of nature the main body of the army has won its victory. It has moved out into the open plain, into a pleasant camping ground by the water springs and in the sunshine, amid fair cities and fertile fields. But the rear-guard is entangled in the defiles, the rear-guard is still struggling in mountainous country, attacked and assailed on every side by the onslaughts of a pitiless enemy. The rear-guard is encumbered with wounded, obstructed by all the broken vehicles that have fallen back from the main line of the march, with all the stragglers and weaklings that have fallen by the way and can struggle forward no farther. It is to the rear-guard of the army that attention should be directed. There is the place for the bravest soldiers and the most trusted generals. It is there that all the resources of military science and its heaviest artillery should be employed to extricate the rear-guard—not to bring the main army back from good positions which it occupies, not to throw away the victory which it has won over the brute forces of nature—but to bring the rear-guard in, to bring them into the level plain, so that they too may dwell in a land of peace and plenty.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Rearmament. I am strongly of opinion that we require to strengthen our armaments in the air and upon the seas in order to make sure that we are still judges of our own fortunes, our own destinies, and our own action.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Rearmament, German. The German munition factories are working practically under war conditions, and war material is flowing out from them, and has been for the last twelve months, in an ever broadening flow. Much of this is undoubtedly in violation of the treaties which were signed. Germany is rearming on land; she is rearming also to some extent at sea; but what concerns us most of all is the rearmament of Germany in the air.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Mr. Lansbury said just now that he and the Socialist Party would never consent to the rearming of Germany. But is he quite sure that the Germans will come and ask him for his consent before they rearm? Does he not think they might omit that formality and go ahead without even taking a card vote of the T.U.C.?
Commons, November 7, 1933.

Reasons. I am giving my hon. Friend reasons, and if reasons have good sense and are based on facts, if they are woven together in proper texture of argument, there is no reason why, unless they are upset, they should not be accepted.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Rebels, Armed. Men who take up arms against the State must expect at any moment to be fired upon. Men who take up arms unlawfully cannot expect that the troops will wait until they are quite ready to begin the conflict, or until they have actually begun fighting. Armed men are in a category absolutely different from unarmed men. An unarmed crowd stands in a totally different position from an armed crowd.
Commons, July 8, 1920.

Recess. My anxieties are not at all diminished by anything I have heard to-day. On the contrary, I feel that they are deepened and aggravated. Everyone is going away on holiday, and when we come back we shall all be looking forward to the Coronation, but do not forget that all the time those remorseless hammers of which General Goering spoke are descending night and day in Germany, and that the most warlike and, in many ways, the most efficient people in Europe are becoming welded into a tremendous fighting machine equipped with the fearful agencies of modern science.
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Recess, Parliamentary. In the high and far-off times when I first entered this building, there was usually a six months’ or five months’ recess, between the grouse on the 12th August and the latter part of January or the beginning of February, when the House reassembled. I do not consider those days were without their wisdom. Do not—and this has a bearing on some of the remarks which have recently been made—ever suppose that you can strengthen Parliament by wearying it, and by keeping it in almost continuous session. If you want to reduce the power of Parliament, let it sit every day in the year, one-fifth part filled, and then you will find it will be the laughing-stock of the nation, instead of being, as it continues to be, in spite of all the strains of modern life, the citadel as well as the cradle of Parliamentary institutions throughout the world; almost the only successful instance of a legislative body with plenary powers, elected on universal suffrage, which is capable of discharging, with restraint and with resolution, all the functions of peace and of war.
Commons, November 29, 1944.

Recoaling. The operation of recoaling is, as everyone acquainted with the navy knows, lengthy and laborious. It necessitates the exertions of the whole of the crew, with the result that the men are physically exhausted by the effort, and the ship is for a time rendered unfit to fight.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

Recognition. Recognizing a person is not necessarily an act of approval. I will not be personal, or give instances. One has to recognize lots of things and people in this world of sin and woe that one does not like.
Commons, November 17, 1949.

Recovery. Under the capitalist system of free enterprise, we had bred in Great Britain nearly 47 millions of people, half of whose food came from beyond the seas but whose progress was constant and whose standard of living before the war was already the highest in Europe. It has only been possible for our 47 millions to live in Great Britain by the utmost exercise of all these qualities of individual initiative and enterprise which have been in former times the outstanding distinction of the British character. I say without hesitation that there will be no recovery from our present misfortunes until the politicians whose crazy theories and personal incompetence have brought us down, have been driven from power by the vote of the nation. Then indeed there would be a bound forward in British credit and repute in every land. Then, indeed, we should set our feet again upon the high road which, though it is hard and stony and uphill all the way, leads out of the quagmires in which we are now floundering and sinking. There, in a new Parliament, lies the only way to make England herself again, the heart of the British Empire and a home for all her peoples.
Luton Hoo, June 26, 1948.

Recrimination. The use of recriminating about the past is to enforce effective action at the present. It is no use recriminating about the past simply for the purpose of censuring and punishing neglect and culpability, though that, indeed, may at times become the duty of Parliament. But there is great necessity for recriminating about the actions of the past and the neglects of the past when one is not satisfied that all is being done at the present time. That is the justification for it.
Commons, May 29, 1936.

Of this I am sure, that if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
Commons, June 18, 1940.

Recuperation. I believe in a sure and steady improvement in trade. It is not possible, in this scientific age, for Great Britain, for Europe, for the world, to remain at peace for any long series of years without the process of recuperation being continuous.
Commons, April 28, 1925.

Re-elections. It was a very important provision that Members, on appointment to high office, should submit themselves to re-election; it was a very important provision because it prevented a government different from that which the electors had in mind at the time of the election from taking and holding office for a time, and filling up all its posts, without the country having a chance to challenge the matter, with different persons, of perhaps quite different policies from those the electorate had been led to contemplate, and from those that the country might wish. A government so formed, even without a majority in the House—such a government might take executive action which would have irrevocable consequences either in the direction of war or peace. It was a safeguard of immense consequence, but the House parted with it. It has been totally discarded by the House in my lifetime.
Commons, February 27, 1952.

Referendum. We believe that the system of a referendum is a vicious system in itself, that it is bad as the basis of the system of government in any country, but especially unsuited for this country. The mass of the people under the referendum are forced to take a decisive part in a continuous process of law-making.
Commons, February 22, 1911.

Reformers. I do not at all quarrel with him [Keir Hardie] for having expressed impatience, because reformers should always be impatient. If they don’t provide the driving power from day to day and month to month, the coach will move forward more slowly.
Commons, February 17, 1909.

Regimentation. The right hon. Gentleman must dismiss from his mind the idea that it is within the power or thought of any human being at the present time, in the present organization of society and with the present nature of man, to regulate in detail the entire movement and process by which our 48,000,000 people can earn their daily bread.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

I warn you solemnly, if you submit yourselves to the totalitarian compulsion and regimentation of our national life and labour, there lies before you an almost measureless prospect of misery and tribulation of which a lower standard of living will be the first result, hunger the second, and a dispersal or death of a large proportion of our population the third.
Blenheim Palace, August 16, 1947.

Reign of Law. The future towards which we are marching, across bloody fields and frightful manifestations of destruction, must surely be based upon the broad and simple virtues and upon the nobility of mankind. It must be based upon a reign of law which upholds the principles of justice and fair play, and protects the weak against the strong if the weak have justice on their side. There must be an end to predatory exploitation and nationalistic ambitions.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Reiteration. One must never be afraid or ashamed of ramming home a point. It is reiteration which is important. One must never be shy of pressing home the great points of public controversy which make their appeal to the common sense and conscience of the nation.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, April 30, 1948.

Reiteration, Communist. The Russian Bolsheviks have discovered that truth does not matter so long as there is reiteration. They have no difficulty whatever in countering a fact by a lie which, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes accepted by the people.
Brighton, October 4, 1947.

Religion. Religion has been the rock in the life and character of the British people upon which they have built their hopes and cast their cares. This fundamental element must never be taken from our schools, and I rejoice to learn of the enormous progress that is being made among all religious bodies in freeing themselves from sectarian jealousies and feuds, while preserving fervently the tenets of their own faith.
London, March 21, 1943.

Religion, Freedom of. To refuse to a religious community a wider latitude in spiritual matters is a very objectionable step for any modern Legislature to take.
Commons, June 14, 1928.

Renewal, National. The wonderful process by which the forces of successive British governments have gathered together and rallied round our institutions, and fundamental principles of the State, new classes and new forces to their support—that marvellous process is the envy and admiration of every foreign country in the world.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Reparations, German. Germany has paid since the war an indemnity of about one thousand million sterling, but she has borrowed in the same time about two thousand millions sterling with which to pay that indemnity and to equip her factories.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Reparations in kind. Let me give one striking instance which came to my notice when I was crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We and America took under the Peace Treaty three great liners from Germany. The Germans surrendered them at a valuation and then borrowed the money to build two very much better ones. They immediately captured the Blue Riband of the Atlantic, and they have it still. Now the loans with which the Germans built these ships are subject to a moratorium, while we are unable to go on with our new Cunarder because of our financial crisis. That is typical of what I mean when I say that Germany has not nearly so much reason to complain as some people suppose.
Commons, July 11, 1932.

Reprisals. The question of reprisals is being discussed in some quarters as if it were a moral issue. What are reprisals? What we are doing now is to batter continuously, with forces which steadily increase in power, each one of those points in Germany which we believe will do the Germans most injury and will most speedily lessen their power to strike at us. Is that a reprisal? It seems to me very like one.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Reproof. I must find the narrow line between reproof of complacency at home and encouragement of the enemy abroad.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Rescue. As I see it, we must so arrange that, when any district is smitten by bombs which are flung about at utter random, strong, mobile forces will descend on the scene in power and mercy to conquer the flames, as they have done, to rescue sufferers, provide them with food and shelter, to whisk them away to places of rest and refuge, and to place in their hands leaflets which anyone can understand to reassure them that they have not lost all, because all will share their material loss, and in sharing it, sweep it away.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Rescue of Europe. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Commons, June 4, 1940.

Resistance. We have climbed from the pit of peril onto a fairly broad plateau. We can see before us the difficult and dangerous onward path which we must tread. But we can also feel the parallel movement or convergence of the two mighty nations I have mentioned, Russia and the United States. We feel around us the upsurge of all the enslaved countries of Europe. We see how they defy Hitler’s firing parties. Far away in the east we see the faithful, patient, inexhaustible spirit of the Chinese race, who are also battling for home and freedom. We are marching in company with the vast majority of mankind, all trending, bearing, forging, steadily forward towards a final goal which, though distant, can already be plainly seen.
Commons, September 30, 1941.

Resistance as Element of Victory. Again and again, it has been proved that fierce and stubborn resistance, even against heavy odds and under exceptional conditions of local disadvantage, is an essential element in victory.
Commons, June 10, 1941.

Resistance, Line of least. When a great principle was sought to be destroyed or impaired, it was dangerous for the House of Commons to be asked deliberately to adopt the line of least resistance as the path on which society was to travel.
Commons, May 1, 1903.

Almost any honourable policy would be better in times like these, and safer, than a succession of attempts, however well-meant, to find the line of least resistance and to avoid saying things which might offend this or that well-meaning section of British public opinion. Let us beware, henceforth, of being mealy-mouthed in these matters which affect our lives and our future.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

It always looks so easy to solve problems by taking the line of least resistance. Again and again in my life I have seen this course lead to the most unexpected result, and what looks like being the easy road turns out to be the hardest and most cruel.
Commons, May 24, 1946.

Resolve. To-day, in inaugurating a new Session of Parliament, we proclaim the depth and sincerity of our resolve to keep vital and active, even in the midst of our struggle for life, even under the fire of the enemy, those Parliamentary institutions which have served us so well, which the wisdom and civic virtues of our forebears shaped and founded, which have proved themselves the most flexible instruments for securing ordered, unceasing change and progress, which, while they throw open the portals of the future, carry forward also the traditions and glories of the past, and which, at this solemn moment in world history, are at once the proudest assertion of British freedom and the expression of an unconquerable national will.
Commons, November 21, 1940.

Resolves. In the twenty-second month of the war against Nazi-ism we meet here in this old palace of St. James’s, itself not unscarred by the fire of the enemy, in order to proclaim the high purposes and resolves of the lawful constitutional governments of Europe whose countries have been overrun; and we meet here also to cheer the hopes of free men and free peoples throughout the world. Here before us on the table lie the title-deeds of ten nations or states whose soil has been invaded and polluted, and whose men, women, and children lie prostrate and writhing under the Hitler yoke. But here also, duly authorized by the Parliament and democracy of Britain, are gathered the servants of the ancient British Monarchy and the accredited representatives of the British Dominions beyond the seas, of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, of the Empire of India, of Burma, and of our Colonies in every quarter of the globe. They have drawn their swords in this cause. They will never let them fall till life is gone or victory is won. Here we meet, while from across the Atlantic Ocean the hammers and lathes of the United States signal in a rising hum their message of encouragement and their promise of swift and ever-growing aid.
St. James’s Palace, London, June 12, 1941.

Respect. We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.
London, October 21, 1940.

Responsibility. I must avow a confidence in the educative value of responsibility.
Commons, April 12, 1922.

There is a great deal of difference between being responsible for giving an order on which the loss of several valuable ships might swiftly follow, and merely expressing an opinion, however well-informed, however sincere, however courageous, without such responsibility.
Commons, May 8, 1940.

Responsibility, Government. The responsibility of His Majesty’s Government is grave indeed, and there is this which makes it all the graver: it is a responsibility which they have no difficulty in discharging if they choose. We are told they have to wait for public opinion, that they must bring that along and must be able to assure the good people here that everything is being done with the most pacific intentions—they must make a case. But nothing like that can stand between them and their responsibility to the Crown and Parliament for the safety and security of the country.
Commons, February 7, 1934.

The earnestness and vigour with which Parliament is supporting the Crown in waging this very grievous war, and the unstinted money contribution which the House of Commons has made for that purpose, imposes the highest obligation upon the armed forces, and upon the Parliamentary ministers entrusted with their superintendence and direction.
Commons, February 27, 1940.

Responsibility, Individual. I cannot believe that many of them do not share the anxieties which are pressing upon the thinking majority of their fellow countrymen. I appeal, therefore, to these gentlemen, but I do not appeal in suppliant terms; indeed, if at all, it is in minority and comminatory terms. I say they have a grave responsibility for our present plight. The history of England is still to be written and unfolded. History will disentangle individual responsibility and will lay the blame on the shoulders where blame should be, but hon. Gentlemen above the Gangway—pledged, loyal, faithful supporters on all occasions of His Majesty’s Government—must not imagine that they can throw their burden wholly on the ministers of the Crown.
Commons, November 17, 1938.

Responsibility, Sense of. When Herr Goebbels’s Nazi propaganda blares and blethers upon the ether that Britain and France have lost the capacity to make war if it is forced upon them, we do not get angry because we know it is not true. We know that our sufferings will be very hard and we are determined not to be guilty of bringing about a crash the consequences of which no man can measure. We know also that we could only throw ourselves into such a struggle if our consciences were clear. In this free, old, independent island we are not living in the Middle Ages. We see great hopes for the future of all the world. We see the opportunity of lifting, through the aid of science, all the men in all the lands to a far higher level of well-being and culture than was ever possible before. It is an opportunity which has never come to mankind before, and which may not come to them again, if it is cast away, till generations and perhaps centuries have passed. We are determined that there shall not rest upon us the guilt and the shame of standing between the toiling masses of the world and the ever-brightening prospects which are at last within their reach. It is this sense of responsibility before the high monuments of history which has governed our policy and conduct, and no taunts or insults will move us from this determination.
Commons, June 28, 1939.

Restrictions. The whole enterprise, contrivance, and genius of the British nation is being increasingly paralysed by the wartime restrictions from which all other free nations have shaken themselves clear, but these are still imposed upon our people here in the name of a mistaken political philosophy and a largely obsolete mode of thought.
London, January 21, 1950.

Retaliation. He [Mr. Stanley Baldwin] said, with very great truth, that the only defence is offence. That is the soundest of all military maxims. But, as can be seen from the context of the phrase, my right hon. Friend had been led to believe that the only method of offence by which you could defend your own civil population from being murdered was to murder some of the civil population on the other side. But that is nonsense. The true defence would be entirely different.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

It is admitted at the present time that the only effective means of defence against air attack is retaliation and counter-attack; and, from the point of view of counter-attack, the Germans seem to have a great advantage over us. Although they declare that their force is purely defensive, it has a much larger percentage of long-distance bombing machines than any other force—far larger than we have ourselves.
Commons, March 19, 1935.

Retirement. It would be easy for me to retire gracefully in an odour of civic freedom.
Brighton, September 7, 1946.

Retribution. The great liner is sinking in a calm sea. One bulkhead after another gives way; one compartment after another is bilged, the list increases; she is sinking, but the captain and the officers and the crew are all in the saloon dancing to the jazz band. But wait till the passengers find out what is their position!
Commons, January 26, 1931.

The air power was the weapon which both the marauding States selected as their main tool of conquest. This was the sphere in which they were to triumph. This was the method by which the nations were to be subjugated to their rule. I shall not moralize further than to say that there is a strange, stern justice in the long swing of events.
Commons, February 22, 1944.

Retribution, Fear of. The most dangerous form of air attack is the attack by incendiary bombs. Such an attack was planned by the Germans for the summer of 1918, I think for the time of the harvest moon. The argument in favour of such an attack was that if in any great city there are, we will say, fifty fire-brigades, and you start simultaneously one hundred fires and the wind is high, an almost incalculable conflagration may result. The reason why the Germans did not carry out that attack in 1918 must be stated. It was not at all, as Lord Mottistone suggested in another place, that our air defence had become so excellent that we were protected against it. It was because the advance of the allied armies, with the British army in the van, already confronted the Imperial Government of Germany with the prospect of impending defeat, and they did not wish to incur the fury of retribution which would follow from such a dreadful act of power and terror as would have been involved in such a raid.
Commons, November 28, 1934.

Revenge. Revenge is, of all satisfactions, the most costly and long drawn out; retributive persecution is, of all policies, the most pernicious.
Commons, October 28, 1948.

Revenue, Farmers of. If it is a system of taxation that we are invited to contemplate when we look at shipping freights, I say you could not possibly have a greater evil or a worse system of taxation than to use one great interest as if they were the farmers of the revenue and let them collect the revenue, with a large percentage of profits for themselves from the taxation of food and the necessaries of life.
Commons, August 22, 1916.

Rewards, Just. We shall not allow the advance of society and economic well-being of the nation to be regulated and curtailed by the pace of the weakest brethren among us. Proper incentives must be offered and full freedom given to the strong to use their strength in the commonweal. Initiative, enterprise, thrift, domestic foresight, contrivance, good housekeeping, and natural ability must reap their just reward. On any other plan the population of this island will sink by disastrous and agonizing stages to a far lower standard of life and to two-thirds of its present numbers.
Blenheim Palace, August 4, 1947.

Rhine, Frontier on the. I thought that the Prime Minister’s remark which he made some years ago about our frontier being the Rhine was liable at the time to be misunderstood; but if he meant that it was a mortal danger to Britain to have the Low Countries in the fortified grip of the strongest military power upon the Continent, and now, in these days, to have all the German aviation bases established there, he was only repeating the lesson taught in four centuries of history.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Rhineland, Reoccupation of. We have managed to secure the disadvantages of all the courses without the advantages of any. We have pressed France into a course of action which did not go far enough to help the Abyssinians, but went far enough to sever her from Italy, with the result that the occasion was given to Herr Hitler to tear up treaties and reoccupy the Rhineland.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Rich, The. It is very easy for rich people to preach the virtues of self-reliance to the poor. It is also very foolish, because, as a matter of fact, the wealthy, so far from being self-reliant, are dependent on the constant attention of scores, and sometimes even hundreds, of persons who are employed in waiting upon them and ministering to their wants.
Norwich, July 26, 1909.

Rich Men. Rich men, although valuable to the revenue, are not vital to a healthy state of society, but a society in which rich men are got rid of from motives of jealousy is not a healthy state.
Commons, April 24, 1950.

Rifle. Nothing is more vital to the self-respect of a soldier than to have his rifle and bayonet, by which he can defend his life and honour.
Commons, December 1, 1948.

Rifle Strength. Every measure which you can take to increase the proportion of rifle strength to rations strength will be a direct addition to your war power, and will be just as direct an addition to your war power as if you ordered new classes of recruits to join the Colours. Nay, more, it will be a net addition and not a gross addition to your war power.
Commons, May 23, 1916.

Rifles. Then there was the story of the short rifle. There was a marvellous scheme by which the rifles of the British army were to be cut down in order that a rifle of equal length might be used suitable for both cavalry and infantry. He should have thought that a rifle of equal bore was a matter of infinite importance, but nobody in his senses would have troubled about having a rifle of equal length both for cavalry and infantry.
Commons, July 13, 1905.

Right, Mandated. I do not admit as democratic constitutional doctrine that anything that is stuck into a Party manifesto thereupon becomes a mandated right if the electors vote for the Party who draw up the manifesto.
Commons, February 7, 1951.

Right, Victory of. We cannot tell what the course of that struggle will be, into what regions it will carry us, how long it will last, or who will fall by the way. But we are sure that in the end right will win, that freedom will not be trampled down, that a truer progress will open, and a broader justice will reign. And we are determined to play our part worthily, faithfully, and to the end.
Manchester, January 27, 1940.

Right and Wrong. Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right than to be responsible and wrong.
London, August 26, 1950.

Rights, Human. I lay down this principle in this democratic Parliament, that no man should be imported into a country as a labourer unless you also accept him as a human being.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

Rights of Man. This is not a question of fighting for Danzig or fighting for Poland. We are fighting to save the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny and in defence of all that is most sacred to man. This is no war of domination or imperial aggrandizement or material gain; no war to shut any country out of its sunlight and means of progress. It is a war, viewed in its inherent quality, to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of the individual, and it is a war to establish and revive the stature of man.
Commons, September 3, 1939.

Riots. A few soldiers, a mere handful of soldiers who look quite insignificant, can easily, if they use their weapons, quell a serious riot, but it takes a very large number of soldiers and policemen to control and stop a riot, if it has broken out, without resorting to extreme measures.
Commons, August 22, 1911.

Risk, No Parity of. The consequences of defeat at sea are so much greater to us than they could be to Germany or France. There is no similarity between our naval needs and those of the two countries I have mentioned. There is no parity of risk. Our position is highly artificial. We are fed from the sea; we are an unarmed people; we possess a very small army; we are the only power in Europe which does not possess a large army. We cannot menace the independence or the vital interest of any great Continental state; we cannot invade any Continental state. We do not wish to do so, but even if we had the wish we have not got the power.
Commons, March 18, 1912.

Roads. If I had proposed to take £12,000,000 from the navy, all the Liberal Party would have been bound to rise up and say: “Hosanna! Let us, if you will, have a second- or third-class navy, but, whatever happens, we must have first-class roads!”
Commons, April 4, 1927.

Roberts, Dismissal of Lord. For two years the Government lived upon Lord Roberts. Every scheme, no matter how fantastic or doubtful, was commended to that House by the simple expedient of the Secretary of State’s observing: “I may add that in all this His Majesty’s Government have the support and concurrence of Lord Roberts.” But there came a day when Lord Roberts had been made responsible for too many schemes, when he had been made the scapegoat of too many failures and misfortunes; and when he arrived at his office one morning he found a piece of blue paper on his table, which had been thoughtfully placed there by the right hon. Gentleman, directing him not to trouble to come back to the office on any following morning.
Commons, February 23, 1905.

Rocket, The. The rocket contains approximately the same quantity of high explosive as the flying bomb. However, it is designed to penetrate rather deeper before exploding. This results in somewhat heavier damage in the immediate vicinity of the crater, but rather less extensive blast effect around. The rocket flies through the stratosphere, going up to sixty or seventy miles, and outstrips sound. Because of its high speed, no reliable or sufficient public warning can, in present circumstances, be given.
Commons, November 10, 1944.

Roosevelt, President. THAT great man whom destiny has marked for this climax of human fortune.
Ottawa, December 30, 1941.

I conceived an admiration for him as a statesman, a man of affairs, and a war leader. I felt the utmost confidence in his upright, inspiring character and outlook, and a personal regard—affection I must say—for him beyond my power to express to-day. His love of his own country, his respect for its constitution, his power of gauging the tides and currents of its mobile public opinion, were always evident; but added to these were the beatings of that generous heart which was always stirred to anger and to action by spectacles of aggression and oppression by the strong against the weak. It is, indeed, a loss, a bitter loss to humanity that those heartbeats are stilled for ever.
Commons, April 17, 1945.

At Yalta I noticed that the President was ailing. His captivating smile, his gay and charming manner, had not deserted him, but his face had a transparency, an air of purification, and often there was a faraway look in his eyes. When I took my leave of him in Alexandria harbour I must confess that I had an indefinable sense of fear that his health and his strength were on the ebb.
Commons, April 17, 1945.

President Roosevelt’s physical affliction lay heavily upon him. It was a marvel that he bore up against it through all the many years of tumult and storm. Not one man in ten millions, stricken and crippled as he was, would have attempted to plunge into a life of physical and mental exertion and of hard, ceaseless political controversy. Not one in ten millions would have tried, not one in a generation would have succeeded, not only in entering this sphere, not only in acting vehemently in it, but in becoming indisputable master of the scene. In this extraordinary effort of the spirit over the flesh, of will-power over physical infirmity, he was inspired and sustained by that noble woman, his devoted wife, whose high ideals marched with his own, and to whom the deep and respectful sympathy of the House of Commons flows out to-day in all fullness.
Commons, April 17, 1945.

I conceived an admiration for President Roosevelt as a statesman, a man of affairs and a war leader. I felt the utmost confidence in his upright and inspiring character and outlook and these ripened in my breast a personal regard and affection for him which will dwell with me as long as I live. His love of his own country, his respect for its constitution, his power of gauging the tides and currents of its free, mobile, public opinion were manifest. But added to these were the beatings of that generous heart which was always stirred to anger and to action by spectacles of aggression and oppression by the strong against the weak. His physical affliction lay heavily upon him. It was a marvel that he bore up against it through all the years of Party controversy in his own country and through the years of world storms.
Commons, November 12, 1946.

When we come to speak of Franklin Roosevelt, however, we enter the sphere of British history and of world history, far above the ebb and flow of Party politics on either side of the Atlantic. And I shall not hesitate to affirm, and indeed to repeat, that he was the greatest American friend that Britain ever found, and the foremost champion of freedom and justice who has ever stretched strong hands across the oceans to rescue Europe and Asia from tyranny or destruction.
London, April 12, 1948.

The ancients spoke of personages who were happy in the occasion of their death. Certainly President Roosevelt died in full career and undisputed control at the moment when certain victory was in view. He did not live to endure the quarrels of allies, hitherto united by common perils; nor to endure the exhaustion of the spiritual forces which, during a life-and-death struggle for a noble cause, had lifted men and whole nations far above their normal level.
London, April 12, 1948.

Royal Commissions. I admire that touching faith in the virtue and efficacy of Royal Commissions, which the right hon. Gentleman [Joseph Chamberlain] has been able to preserve through his many years of Parliamentary life.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

Russia. Here we have a state whose subjects are so happy that they have to be forbidden to quit its bounds under the direst penalties; whose diplomatists and agents sent on foreign missions have often to leave their wives and children at home as hostages to ensure their eventual return.

These weak small states, this long thin line, this cordon sanitaire as it was called in France, was four or five months ago a subject of the deepest anxiety to all who were concerned with the general problems of European policy, because when you see how weak they were, how short of food, how short of money, how deprived of permanent and well-established institutions or disciplined armies, or organized finances, it seemed almost impossible that, subverted as they were themselves to no inconsiderable extent by the general progress of Bolshevism going on just over their borders, they should withstand any fierce, general, organized attack coming from Russia.
Commons, July 29, 1919.

Russia has made herself an Ishmael among the nations, but she is one of the most titanic factors in the economy and in the diplomacy of the world. Russia, with her enormous, rapidly increasing armaments, with her tremendous development of poison gas, aeroplanes, tanks and every kind of forbidden fruit; Russia with her limitless man-power and her corrosive hatreds, weighs heavily upon a whole line of countries, some small, others considerable, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, all situated adjacent to Russian territory. These countries have newly gained their independence. Their independence and nationhood are sacred to them, and we must never forget that most of them have been carved, in whole or in part, out of the old Russian Empire, the Russian Empire of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. In some cases these countries are also in deep anxiety about Germany.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
London, October 1, 1939.

Russia and Germany. Russia has pursued a cold policy of self-interest. We could have wished that the Russian armies should be standing on their present line as the friends and allies of Poland instead of as invaders. But that the Russian armies should stand on this line was clearly necessary for the safety of Russia against the Nazi menace. At any rate, the line is there, and an eastern front has been created which Nazi Germany does not dare assail. When Herr von Ribbentrop was summoned to Moscow last week, it was to learn the fact, and to accept the fact, that the Nazi designs upon the Baltic States and upon the Ukraine must come to a dead stop.
London, October 1, 1939.

Russia, Good Faith of. The impression I brought back from the Crimea, and from all my other contacts, is that Marshal Stalin and the Soviet leaders wish to live in honourable friendship and equality with the western democracies. I feel also that their word is their bond. I know of no government which stands to its obligations even in its own despite more solidly than the Russian Soviet Government. I decline absolutely to embark here on a discussion about Russian good faith. It is quite evident that these matters touch the whole future of the world. Sombre indeed would be the fortunes of mankind if some awful schism arose between the western democracies and the Russian Soviet Union, if the future world organization were rent asunder, and if new cataclysms of inconceivable violence destroyed all that is left of the treasures and liberties of mankind.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Russia, Invasion of. At four o’clock this morning Hitler attacked and invaded Russia. All his usual formalities of perfidy were observed with scrupulous technique. A non-aggression treaty had been solemnly signed and was in force between the two countries. No complaint had been made by Germany of its non-fulfilment. Under its cloak of false confidence, the German armies drew up in immense strength along a line which stretches from the White Sea to the Black Sea; and their air fleets and armoured divisions slowly and methodically took their stations. Then, suddenly, without declaration of war, without even an ultimatum, German bombs rained down from the air upon the Russian cities, the German troops violated the frontiers; and an hour later the German ambassador, who till the night before was lavishing his assurances of friendship, almost of alliance, upon the Russians, called upon the Russian Foreign Minister to tell him that a state of war existed between Germany and Russia.
London, June 22, 1941.

The Nazi régime is indistinguishable from the worst features of Communism. It is devoid of all theme and principle except appetite and racial domination. It excels all forms of human wickedness in the efficiency of its cruelty and ferocious aggression. No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-five years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. The past with its crimes, its follies and its tragedies, flashes away. I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes where mothers and wives pray—ah yes, for there are times when all pray—for the safety of their loved ones, the return of the breadwinner, of their champion, of their protector. I see the ten thousand villages of Russia, where the means of existence was wrung so hardly from the soil, but where there are still primordial human joys, where maidens laugh and children play. I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine, with its clanking, heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crafty expert agents fresh from the cowing and tying-down of a dozen countries. I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts. I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, delighted to find what they believe is an easier and a safer prey.
London, June 22, 1941.

Russia and her Neighbours. We must also remember that the great mass of Russia, with its enormous armies and with its schools of ardent students of chemical warfare, its poison gas, its tanks, and all its appliances, looms up all along the eastern frontier of Europe, and that the whole row of small states, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland—not a small state, but for this purpose in the line—and Rumania, are under the continued preoccupation of this gigantic, and to them in many ways unfriendly, Russian power. It may well be that there is no danger, but I expect that if we lived there, we should feel rather uncomfortable about it. These grave political dangers must be faced and recognized.
Commons, May 13, 1932.

Russia, Recovery of. No government ever formed among men has been capable of surviving injuries so grave and cruel as those inflicted by Hitler upon Russia. But under the leadership of Marshal Stalin, and thanks to the stand by the British peoples when they were all alone, and to abundant British and American ammunition and supplies of all kinds, Russia has not only survived and recovered from these frightful injuries, but has inflicted, as no other force in the world could have inflicted, mortal damage on the German army machine.
London, August 31, 1943.

Russia, Sympathy for. Any idea of Britain’s pursuing an anti-Russian policy, or making elaborate combinations to the detriment of Russia, is utterly opposed to British thought and conscience. Nothing but a long period of very marked injuries and antagonisms, which we all hope may be averted, could develop any such mood again in this land.
Commons, November 7, 1945.

Russia, Western Frontier of. I cannot conceive that it is not possible to make a good solution whereby Russia gets the security which she is entitled to have, and which I have resolved that we will do our utmost to secure for her, on her western frontier, and, at the same time, the Polish nation have restored to them that national sovereignty and independence for which, across centuries of oppression and struggle, they have never ceased to strive.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Sabotage. Can you doubt that times are grave when the word “sabotage” is used in accusation of one of the greatest powers of the world, both by Mr. Marshall in the United States and by the Foreign Secretary in this House? Such language in any previous period would have been incompatible with the maintenance of any form of diplomatic relations between the countries affected.
Commons, January 23, 1948.

Sacrifice, Equality of. I am much in favour of national service being on a basis of absolute equality. There used to be a period when it was possible to hire substitutes—it was so in the American Civil War—but these practices have long passed away. There is nothing contrary to the principles of democracy. On the contrary, it emphasizes the principle of equality of sacrifice, and by mingling all classes together, in common duty and honourable service, it is a favourable agent for diminishing class differences which exist in a free and varied society. It has been defended and practised by all the most advanced democratic countries in Europe since the French Revolution. Reliance for the defence of the soil on national armies rather than on long-service professionals, or mercenaries as they were called, was, in the nineteenth century at any rate, a strong barrier against reaction in a rapidly changing and, upon the whole, advancing and progressing world.
Commons, March 31, 1947.

Safeguards. Broad, simple, liberal safeguards and conceptions which are the breath of our nostrils in this country, and which sustain the rights and freedoms of the individual against all forms of tyranny, no matter what liveries they wear or what slogans they mouth . . .
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Safety of Britain. I take this opportunity of saying that, as far as this island is concerned, the responsibility of ministers to guarantee the safety of the country from day to day and from hour to hour is direct and inalienable. It has always been so, and I am sure they will not differ from their predecessors in accepting that responsibility.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Safety, Factor of. I have formed the opinion that not one of the nations concerned in the Disarmament Conferences except Great Britain has been prepared willingly to alter to its own disadvantage its ration of armed strength. I agree that there have been diminutions of armaments, but they have largely been produced, as they always will be produced, by the pressure of economic and political facts in a time when there is peace; and I do not think that any of these nations have intended to do anything which would destroy the status quo; and certainly they are not willing to impair their factor of safety. I prefer the expression “factor of safety” to another expression which has been used—insurance. Insurance is not a good word, because it does nothing to ward off danger, and it only compensates, or attempts to compensate, after the evil or misfortune has occurred. “Factor of safety” is the expression which I prefer, and I do not think that any nation has been willing to impair that factor.
Commons, November 23, 1932.

Safety First. There is no less likely way of winning a war than to adhere pedantically to the maxim “safety first.”
Commons, April 10, 1941.

Sailors. I think it is a safe rule to treat the sailors of every country as equally brave and skilful.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Sailors, Welfare of. The ultimate strategy of the British navy consists in basing contented men upon prosperous and healthy homes from which the children, generation after generation, can return to the ships which their fathers have taught them to honour.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

Saint George. I have to speak to you about St. George and the Dragon. I have been wondering what would happen if that legend were repeated under modern conditions.

St. George would arrive in Cappadocia, accompanied not by a horse, but by a secretariat. He would be armed not with a lance, but with several flexible formulas. He would, of course, be welcomed by the local branch of the League of Nations Union. He would propose a conference with the dragon—a Round Table Conference, no doubt—that would be more convenient for the dragon’s tail. He would make a trade agreement with the dragon. He would lend the dragon a lot of money of the Cappadocian taxpayers. The maiden’s release would be referred to Geneva, the dragon reserving all his rights meanwhile. Finally, St. George would be photographed with the dragon (inset—the maiden).
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

Salt of the Earth. The British people are good all through. You can test them as you would put a bucket into the sea and always find it salt.
London, June 13, 1945.

Salvation. To work from weakness and fear is ruin. To work from wisdom and power may be salvation.
Saltram Park, Plymouth, July 15, 1950.

Salvation of England. Nothing can save England if she will not save herself. If we lose faith in ourselves, in our capacity to guide and govern, if we lose our will to live, then indeed our story is told.
Royal Society of St. George, London, April 24, 1933.

Sanction, Ultimate. I venture to think that it is not very easy to discover ultimate sanction for any human or temporal arrangement.
Commons, March 5, 1909.

Sanctions against Italy. Here are fifty sovereign states solemnly sitting down together to devise and concert hostile economic action against a great power, prohibiting the export of arms to Italy, encouraging such exports to Italy’s enemy, taking concerted measures to destroy Italian credit and financial strength in every quarter of the globe, laying an embargo on many kinds of exports to Italy, and even attempting a complete boycott of Italian imports into each country. When we are told that there are leakages and loopholes, that difficulties will arise and disputes will break out between the boycotters, and so forth, that may all be true, but these are, to anyone who views things in their true proportion, only the exceptions which are proving a most impressive rule. Such a system of pains and penalties has never been proclaimed against a single state, as far as I am aware, in the whole history of the world. If we could get away a little further from the scene and take a more general view than is possible to us living through events from day to day, I am sure we should see that we are already in the presence of a memorable event.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

We have moved on and we are not going to move back. The League of Nations has passed from shadow into substance, from theory into practice, from rhetoric into reality. We see a structure always majestic, but hitherto shadowy, which is now being clothed with life and power, and endowed with coherent thought and concerted action. We begin to feel the beatings of a pulse which may, we hope and we pray, one day—and the sooner for our efforts—restore a greater measure of health and strength to the whole world. We can see these difficulties and dangers for ourselves, but if we confront them with a steady eye, I believe the House and the country will reach the conclusion that the case for perseverance holds the field.
Commons, October 24, 1935.

Now, Sir, I say it was a very grievous thing to lead these fifty nations up the blind alley of fatuity and frustration. It was a grievous thing also to encourage, however indirectly, a primitive population to a desperate resistance and then, in the event, to leave them to their fate. We cannot undo the past, but we are bound to pass it in review in order to draw from it such lessons as may be applicable to the future, and surely the conclusion from this story is that we should not intervene in these matters unless we are in earnest and prepared to carry our intervention to all necessary lengths.
Commons, April 6, 1936.

Sanctions, Non-military. No doubt as a whole His Majesty’s Government were very slow in accepting the unwelcome fact of German rearmament. They still clung to the policy of one-sided disarmament. It was one of those experiments, we are told, which had to be, to use a vulgarism, “tried out,” just as the experiments of non-military sanctions against Italy had to be tried out. Both experiments have now been tried out, and Ministers are accustomed to plume themselves upon the very clear results of those experiments. They are held to prove conclusively that the policies subjected to the experiments were all wrong, utterly foolish, and should never be used again, and the very same men who were foremost in urging those experiments are now foremost in proclaiming and denouncing the fallacies upon which they are based. They have bought their knowledge, they have bought it dear, they have bought it at our expense, but at any rate let us be duly thankful that they now at last possess it.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

Satellites, German. One by one, in rapid succession, the satellite states have writhed or torn themselves free from the Nazi tyranny, and, as is usual in such cases, the process has not been one from alliance with Germany to neutrality, but from alliance with Germany to war. This has taken place in Rumania and Bulgaria. Already there is fighting between the Finns and the Germans. The Germans, in accordance with their usual practice and character, are leaving a trail of burnt and blackened villages behind them, even in the land of their unhappy Finnish dupes.
Commons, September 28, 1944.

Satiation, National. We have got all we want in territory, but our claim to be left in undisputed enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, largely acquired by war and largely maintained by force, is one which often seems less reasonable to others than to us.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Saturation Bombing. Now, this word “saturation” comes to have particular significance in the general field of the air war. If a certain degree of saturation can be reached, and we can be sure that this will only be won after a hard-fought and bitter struggle with the enemy air defences, reactions of a very far-reaching character will be produced. We shall, in fact, have created conditions in which, with very small loss to ourselves, the accurate methodical destruction by night and by day of every building of military significance in the widest sense will become possible.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Savings. If you strike at savings you at once propagate the idea of “let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die.” That is at once the inspiration and the mortal disease by which the Socialist philosophy is affected.
Commons, May 19, 1927.

Scandinavia, Invasion of. I consider that Hitler’s action in invading Scandinavia is as great a strategic and political error as that which was committed by Napoleon in 1807, when he invaded Spain. Hitler has violated the independence and soil of virile peoples dwelling in very large and expansive countries capable of maintaining, with British and French aid, prolonged resistance to his soldiers and his Gestapo. He has almost doubled the efficiency of the allied blockade. He has made a whole series of commitments upon the Norwegian coast for which he will now have to fight, if necessary, during the whole summer, against powers possessing vastly superior naval forces and able to transport them to the scenes of action more easily than he can.
Commons, April 11, 1940.

Scapegoat. If the Government are firm, you say, “How stubborn!” If they are conciliatory, you say, “How weak!” If they act, you say, “How precipitate!” If they wait, you say, “How dilatory!” They refuse to prolong the subsidy and you say, “You have plunged the nation into a general strike.” All this is very simple, and of course, as long as the state of affairs continues where one of the great industries in the country is laid under an interdict and one after another of the industries dependent upon it wither, shrivel, and perish, you can always point for proof to the fact that the course adopted by the Government has not resulted in a successful issue.
Commons, July 2, 1926.

Schadenfreude. It is a strange and un-Christian habit of mind which makes it easier to endure misfortunes because one sees that others are having them inflicted on them too.
Liverpool, October 2, 1951.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. I have read this document [Admiralty Report on the German battleships] to the House because I am anxious that Members should realize that our affairs are not conducted entirely by simpletons and dunderheads.
Commons, April 23, 1942.

Schism. Sombre indeed would be the fortunes of mankind if some awful schism arose between the western democracies and the Russian Soviet Union, if the future world organization were rent asunder, and if new cataclysms of inconceivable violence destroyed all that is left of the treasures and liberties of mankind.
Commons, February 27, 1945.

Schism of Socialism. Why should the Government choose this moment of all others in our history, or their life, to proclaim great new departures in political theory, and why should they try to stir far-reaching changes in every mode of thought and every walk in life? Why should they raise this great schism of militant Socialism in the land, and divide us with what must involve increasing bitterness and lack of mutual comprehension with every further step they take? Can we afford an internal struggle of such a character, at such a time? Could there be a worse occasion for deep-seated organic changes in the life of Britain, now when she is exhausted and over-burdened in a fearful degree?
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Science, Demand on. I have seldom seen a precise demand made upon science by the military which has not been met.
Commons, March 16, 1950.

Science, March of. It is arguable whether the human race have been gainers by the march of science beyond the steam engine. Electricity opens a field of infinite conveniences to ever greater numbers, but they may well have to pay dearly for them. But anyhow in my thought I stop short of the internal combustion engine which has made the world so much smaller. Still more must we fear the consequences of entrusting to a human race so little different from their predecessors of the so-called barbarous ages such awful agencies as the atomic bomb. Give me the horse.
Royal College of Physicians, July 10, 1951.

Science, The Provider. My experience—and it is somewhat considerable—is that in these matters when the need is clearly explained by military and political authorities, science is always able to provide something. “Seek and ye shall find” has been borne out.
Commons, June 7, 1935.

Science in War. In the fires of science, burning with increasing heat every year, all the most dearly loved conventions are being melted down; and this is a process which is going continually to spread. In view of the inventions and discoveries which are being made for us, one might almost say every month, a unified direction of the war efforts of the three services would be highly beneficial.
Commons, March 21, 1934.

Scientistic Government. On many occasions in the past we have seen attempts to rule the world by experts of one kind and another. There have been theocratic governments, military governments, and aristocratic governments. It is now suggested that we should have scientistic—not scientific—governments. It is the duty of scientists, like all other people, to serve the State and not to rule it because they are scientists. If they want to rule the State they must get elected to Parliament or win distinction in the Upper House and so gain access to some of the various administrations which are formed from time to time.
Commons, November 7, 1945.

Scone, Stone of. The old quarrels, the age-old feuds which rent our island, have been ended centuries ago by the Union of the Crowns, and by the happy fulfilment of the prophecy, that wherever the Stone of Scone shall rest the Scottish race shall reign.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, October 12, 1942.

Screening. That is a curious phrase which has crept in. “Sifted” would have been a more natural word, and would avoid any ambiguity with the word “concealed.” “Screened” is a modern vulgarism.
Commons, May 7, 1947.

Sea, Command of the. So long as we keep command of the sea no descent upon Ireland is possible, and if ever we lost command of the sea it would not be upon Ireland that the descent would be made.
Commons, February 15, 1911.

Seaplanes. We have decided to call the naval hydroplane a seaplane, and the ordinary aeroplane or school machine, which we use in the navy, simply a ’plane, which is I think, an effective method of description.
Commons, July 17, 1913.

Seaplanes, Future of. The seaplane has a great future before it. Although it is still in its experimental stage, we cannot doubt that it will play an effective part in military and naval arrangements.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Seaplanes, 1914. The seaplanes fly by night as well as by day in ordinary weather. They carry wireless telegraphy which enables them to signal 120 miles effectively, and they have quite recently even been able to receive a message while in the air.
Commons, March 17, 1914.

Sea-Power. For more than 300 years we alone amongst the nations have wielded that mysterious and decisive force which is called sea-power. What have we done with it? We have suppressed the slaver. We have charted the seas. We have made them a safe highway for all.
Commons, March 26, 1913.

On the Continent the lines of advance are fixed by the mountain passes, the roads, the fertile plains, and the rivers. We were under a great disadvantage a thousand years ago in being surrounded by the sea, and we suffered terribly from it. But we did not give up; we did not evacuate the island and say that we must live on the mainland. Not at all. We conquered the sea; we became the mistress of the sea, and the very element which had given the invader access to the heart of our country, to our hearths and homes, became its greatest protection—became, indeed, the bridge which united us to the most distant parts of our empire throughout the world.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

It is refreshing in times like these for us to take an afternoon off from black care and dwell upon the great and growing strength of our navy and to feel confidence that the new inventions in the air and under the water, properly countered as they have been and are being, do not in any decisive degree deprive us of the measureless resources of sea-power with all that has so often followed in their train.
Commons, March 16, 1939.

Sea-Power, British. From Trafalgar and Waterloo to the first German war the British navy was supreme upon the seas. Our sea-power during the greater part of the nineteenth century equalled that of all other nations put together. Did we misuse that power? On the contrary, there never were so few warships afloat. History, which has been my guide and inspiration, will show the future ages that the control of the seas which the British held so long was used not for the exercise of warlike ambition, but to keep the peace, to suppress the slave trade and to make the seas safe for the commerce of all nations. All our ports, even our own coastwise trade, were opened to the entry and competition of men and goods from every land.
London, May 7, 1946.

Sea War. You may look at the map and see flags stuck in at different points and consider that the result will be certain, but when you get out on the sea, with its vast distances, its storms and mists, and with night coming on and all the uncertainties which exist, you cannot possibly expect that the kind of conditions which would be appropriate to consider in respect of the movements of armies, have any application to the chance and haphazard conditions of collisions by ships of war at sea.
Commons, April 11, 1940.

Searchlight Company. A friend of mine the other day saw a number of persons engaged in peculiar evolutions, genuflections and gestures . . . He wondered whether it was some novel form of gymnastics, or a new religion . . . or whether they were a party of lunatics out for an airing. They were a searchlight company of London Territorials, who were doing their exercises as well as they could without having the searchlight.
Commons, November 12, 1936.

Seas, Command of the. When we speak of the command of the seas, that does not mean that the Royal Navy and its French ally command every part of the seas at the same moment or at every moment. It only means that we can make our will prevail ultimately in any part of the seas which may be selected for operations, and thus indirectly we can make our will prevail in every part of the seas. That is what command of the seas means.
Commons, April 11, 1940.

Second Chamber. I should like to see a Second Chamber which would be fair to all Parties, and which would be properly subordinated to the House of Commons and harmoniously connected with the people.
Commons, March 31, 1910.

Second Chamber, Function of. The attitude and function of a Second Chamber in any land is essentially one of safeguarding and delaying violent or subversive measures which may endanger the long-gathered heritage of the whole people, without the gravity and significance of the issues involved being fairly and intelligibly placed before them.
Commons, October 18, 1948.

Second Front. When I hear people talking in an airy way of throwing modern armies ashore here and there as if they were bales of goods to be dumped on a beach and forgotten, I really marvel at the lack of knowledge which still prevails of the conditions of modern war.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Secret Sessions. There is the question of a secret session. I urged a secret session on Mr. Asquith and on Mr. Lloyd George during the war. Mr. Asquith declined for reasons which were the same as are given now. But Mr. Lloyd George, when Prime Minister, had a secret session, and I believe I am right in saying that none of the evils which were forecast took place, and the Government emerged from it with a sensibly enhanced advantage. We were told that Members would leak, and that the Press would invent even if it did not hear. I believe that in dangerous times, once public danger is made known, we should be found not less worthy of the handling of confidential matters than were the rugged generations which built up this island’s greatness. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be absolutely stultified in a secret session by the Government, and proved to be an alarmist. I would endure with patience the roar of exultation that would go up when I was proved wrong, because it would lift a load off my heart and off the hearts of many Members. What does it matter who gets exposed or discomfited? If the country is safe, who cares for individual politicians, in or out of office?
Commons, July 20, 1936.

Security of Britain. The Government command overwhelming majorities in both branches of the Legislature. Nothing that they ask will be denied to them. They have only to make their proposals, and they will be supported in them. Let them not suppose that if they make proposals, with confidence and conviction, for the safety of the country, their countrymen will not support them. Why take so poor a view of the patriotic support which this nation gives to those whom it feels are doing their duty by it? I cannot feel that at the present time the Government are doing their duty in these matters of defence, and particularly in respect of the air. It seems to me that while we are becoming ever more entangled in the European situation, and while we are constantly endeavouring to weaken, relatively, our friends upon the Continent of Europe, we nevertheless are left exposed to a mortal thrust, and are deprived of that old sense of security and independence upon which the civilization of our island has been built.
Commons, February 7, 1934.

Security, British. We have never lived at anybody’s mercy. We have never lived upon the good pleasure of any Continental nation in regard to our fundamental requirements. We have never entrusted the home defence of this country to any foreign power. We have never asked for any help from anyone. We have given help to many, but to make good the security of our own island we have asked for help from none.
Commons, March 8, 1934.

Security, Home. In my right hon. Friend the new Minister of Home Security [Mr. Herbert Morrison] we have a man of warm sympathy, of resource and energy, who is well known to Londoners and has their confidence, and who will equally look after the other cities which are assailed. But do not let it be thought that the work of his predecessor, now Lord President of the Council [Sir John Anderson] has not been of a very high order. There is no better war horse in the Government. I am ashamed of the attacks which are made upon him in ignorant and spiteful quarters. Every one of his colleagues knows that he is a tower of strength and good sense, fearless and unflinching in storm and action. With my many burdens, I rely greatly upon him to take a part of the civil and domestic load from off my shoulders, setting me free for the more direct waging of the war.
Commons, October 8, 1940.

Security, Injury to. The grave and perhaps irreparable injury to world security took place in the years 1932 to 1935 in the tenure of the Foreign Office by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer. [Sir John Simon.]
Commons, February 22, 1938.

Select Committees. The Government advise the House and the House decides. The Government advise the House whether there should or should not be a Select Committee, and the House decides. The idea that there is any automatic procedure or bounden duty to take a particular course is utterly devoid of foundation. The three last cases of charges against ministers which were made the subject of debate as to whether there should be a Select Committee or not, were the Marconi case in 1913, where the Government proposed a committee and the House accepted it, without a division, after prolonged agitation and consideration on both sides; the Maurice case in 1918, where the Opposition proposed a motion for a Select Committee and the House rejected it on the advice of the Government; and the Campbell case in 1924, where the Opposition proposed, and the House accepted, the motion of a Select Committee. The Government then resigned.
Commons, March 7, 1945.

Selection, Competitive. The existing organization of society is driven by one mainspring—competitive selection. It may be a very imperfect organization of society, but it is all we have got between us and barbarism. It is all we have been able to create through unnumbered centuries of effort and sacrifice. It is the whole treasure which past generations have been able to secure, and which they have been able to bequeath; and great and numerous as are the evils of the existing condition of society in this country, the advantages and achievements of the social system are greater still.
St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, October 11, 1906.

Selection, Principle of. Under the process of selection mistakes are made and, unwittingly, injustice done; but the process is at work not only in the army, but in every branch of commerce, in every walk of life, and it is nowhere more essential and more vital to efficiency than in the military service. We have to look no further than the House of Commons to see the principle of selection working in all its glory.
Commons, March 12, 1901.

Self-Abasement, National. Our difficulties come from the mood of unwarrantable self-abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section of our own intellectuals. They come from the acceptance of defeatist doctrines by a large proportion of our politicians. But what have they to offer but a vague internationalism, a squalid materialism and the promise of impossible Utopias?
Royal St. George Society, London, April 24, 1933.

Self-Government. Self-government is not a moral principle, and when it comes into collision with moral principles I think upon occasion it should be over-borne.
Commons, February 22, 1906.

It is one of the most precious gifts we can bestow, but it is a gift that can only be bestowed once. Once it has been given, it is no good to grudge it, and it is impossible to limit or restrict it.
Commons, February 28, 1906.

Self-Mutilation. What spectacle could be more sorrowful than that of this powerful country casting away with both hands . . . the great inheritance which centuries have gathered? . . . It is a hideous act of self-mutilation, astounding to every nation of the world.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, March 18, 1931.

Self-Reliance. There is no chance of making people self-reliant by confronting them with problems and with trials beyond their capacity to surmount. You do not make a man self-reliant by crushing him under a steam roller.
Norwich, July 26, 1909.

Self-Reliance of the Rich. It is very easy for rich people to preach the virtues of self-reliance to the poor. It is also very foolish, because, as a matter of fact, the wealthy, so far from being self-reliant, are dependent on the constant attention of scores, and sometimes even hundreds, of persons who are employed in waiting upon them and ministering to their wants.
Leicester, September 5, 1909.

Senior Service. It is always easier for the navy to get money than for the army.
Commons, May 17, 1916.

Sensationalism. I am inclined to think that in a free community every evil carries with it its own corrective, and so I believe that sensationalism of all kinds is playing itself out, and, over-doing, is itself undone.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 23, 1909.

Sense of Proportion. We cannot, moreover, exclude the possibility of new fronts of attack upon this island. We have been vigilantly watching for many months past every sign of preparation for such attacks. Whatever happens, they will not be of a nature to affect the final course of the war. But, should they come, they will certainly call for the utmost efficiency and devotion in our fire watchers and Home Guard, and also for a further display of the firmness and fortitude for which the British nation has won renown. This is no time to relax our precautions or discourage our splendid auxiliary services. This is no time to divide the unity of the nation by raising fierce Party political issues. This is no time for persons who have practical war work to do to dream easy dreams of brave new worlds. We must keep our sense of proportion, even when discussing the incidents of procedure in some of our juvenile courts.
Mansion House, London, November 9, 1943.

Sense of Unity. Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States. I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.
The White House, Washington, D.C., December 24, 1941.

Service, Dual. I entirely agree with what has been said about the desirability of Members of Parliament serving not only in the military forces but in all other forms of warfare, and discharging their Parliamentary duties at the same time or in alternation. No doubt difficulties arise, but I think they are well covered, and that the good sense of the House and of hon. Members will enable these dual and occasionally conflicting functions to be discharged.
Commons, November 21, 1942.

Service, National. Compulsory military service is not necessarily a problem for a regular standing army; but the only way of making us a nation of fighting men in time of war is by national service in time of peace. As all our habits in the past have been to live in a peaceable manner, we have entered all our wars unprepared or ill-prepared, and the delay before we are able to place an army in the field at the side of our allies has been a very serious weakness, not only in the physical but in the moral sphere.
Commons, March 31, 1947.

It is arguable even that we tried to play too large a part in European affairs between the wars and before the first war, while not being able or willing to accept the same conditions of service, or put up the same man-power, as our allies or potential allies were forced to do. We should have carried far more weight in the councils of peace if we had had national service.
Commons, March 31, 1947.

Service to the State. It is an honour to come forward at the call of King and Country and to render the highest form of personal service to the State. It is also our duty to make sure the cause is good.
Corn Exchange, Cambridge, May 19, 1939.

Share, Equal. In our view the strong should help the weak. In the Socialist view the strong should be kept down to the level of the weak in order to have equal shares for all. How small the share is does not matter so much, in their opinion, so long as it is equal.
Devonport, February 9, 1950.

Shares, Fair. What the average Socialist really means when he speaks of “Fair shares for all” is equal shares for all. Equal shares for those who toil and those who shirk. Equal shares for those who save and those who squander. No reward offered to the skilled craftsman. No incentive to the industrious and experienced piece-worker. No extra payment for overtime that is not taken back from him in PAYE. No reward for enterprise, ingenuity, thrift, and good housekeeping. “Equal shares for all,” that is what the Socialist Government really mean.
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, February 14, 1950.

Shillings, Five. It is not much, unless you have not got it.
Commons, May 25, 1911.

Sicily, Conquest of. On July 10th British and American armies, on the scale of perhaps half a million men, the first wave of whom were carried, as the House knows, in upwards of 2,700 ships and landing-craft, began their attack upon Sicily, and in a campaign of thirty-eight days the entire island was conquered, with a loss to the enemy of 165,000 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, or more than four times our allied losses in the operation.
Commons, September 21, 1943.

Sikorski, General. I was often brought into contact with General Sikorski in these years of war. I had a high regard for him, and I admired his poise and calm dignity amid so many trials and baffling problems. He was a man of remarkable pre-eminence, both as statesman and as soldier. His agreement with Marshal Stalin of July 30, 1941, was an outstanding example of his political wisdom. Until the moment of his death he lived in the conviction that all else must be subordinated to the needs of the common struggle, and in the faith that a better Europe will arise in which a great and independent Poland will play an honourable part. We British here and throughout the Commonwealth and Empire, who declared war on Germany because of Hitler’s invasion of Poland and in fulfilment of our guarantee, feel deeply for our Polish allies in their new loss. We express our sympathy to them, we express our confidence in their immortal qualities, and we proclaim our resolve that General Sikorski’s work as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief shall not have been done in vain.
Commons, July 6, 1943.

We learned yesterday that the cause of the United Nations had suffered a most grievous loss. It is my duty to express the feelings of this House, and to pay tribute to the memory of a great Polish patriot and staunch ally, General Sikorski. His death in the air crash at Gibraltar was one of the heaviest strokes we have sustained. From the first dark days of the Polish catastrophe and the brutal triumph of the German war machine until the moment of his death on Sunday night, he was the symbol and the embodiment of that spirit which has borne the Polish nation through centuries of sorrow and is unquenchable by agony.
Commons, July 6, 1943.

General Sikorski’s name will long be remembered in history. His faith sustained Poland’s spirit in her darkest hour. His courage inspired the Polish people to continue their long and relentless struggle against the German invader. His statesmanship had always in view allied unity in common action against Germany, and the restoration of Poland’s independence and greatness. So long as his memory is cherished the accomplishment of the great work for which he gave his life will be assured.
London, July 5, 1944.

In General Sikorski the cause of world freedom found a champion whose activities ranged far beyond the limits of his own country. He was a great Pole; but he was greater as a citizen of the whole world. He understood, deeply and intensely, the causes which were at stake in the struggle through which we have passed, and for which we are still contending.
The Sikorski Institute, London, July 5, 1949.

Simplicity. All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom; justice; honour; duty; mercy; hope.
The Royal Albert Hall, London, May 14, 1947.

Singapore, Fall of. I speak to you all under the shadow of a heavy and far-reaching military defeat. It is a British and Imperial defeat. Singapore has fallen. All the Malay Peninsula has been overrun. Other dangers gather about us out there, and none of the dangers which we have hitherto successfully withstood at home and in the east are in any way diminished. This, therefore, is one of those moments when the British race and nation can show their quality and their genius. This is one of those moments when it can draw from the heart of misfortune the vital impulses of victory. Here is the moment to display that calm and poise combined with grim determination which not so long ago brought us out of the very jaws of death. Here is another occasion to show—as so often in our long story—that we can meet reverses with dignity and with renewed accessions of strength. We must remember that we are no longer alone. We are in the midst of a great company. Three-quarters of the human race are now moving with us. The whole future of mankind may depend upon our action and upon our conduct. So far we have not failed. We shall not fail now. Let us move forward steadfastly together into the storm and through the storm.
London, February 15, 1942.

Singapore has fallen . . . other dangers gather about us . . . This, therefore, is one of those moments when the British race and nation can show the sheer quality of their genius. This is one of those moments when they can draw from the heart of misfortune the vital impulses of victory.
B.B.C., February 15, 1942.

To-night the Japanese are triumphant. They shout their exultation round the world. We suffer. We are taken aback. We are hard pressed. But I am sure even in this dark hour that “criminal madness” will be the verdict which history will pronounce upon the authors of Japanese aggression.
Commons, February 15, 1942.

I have also been asked whether the Government have a statement to make about the fall of Singapore. This extremely grave event was not unexpected, and its possibility was comprised within the scope of the argument I submitted to the House on the occasion of the Vote of Confidence three weeks ago. The House has, of course, many opportunities of discussing this and other aspects of the war situation. I am sure it would be a great mistake to try to discuss it to-day in the short time available. I have no information to give to the House other than that conveyed in the public press, nor would it be prudent to speculate in detail upon the various evil consequences which will follow from the fall of Singapore. Moreover, it would ill become the dignity of the Government and the House, and would render poor service to the Alliance of which we are a part, if we were drawn into agitated or excited recriminations at a time when all our minds are oppressed with a sense of tragedy and with the sorrow of so lamentable a misfortune.
Commons, February 17, 1942.

Singapore was, of course, a naval base rather than a fortress. It depended upon the command of the sea, which again depends upon the command of the air. Its permanent fortifications and batteries were constructed from a naval point of view. The various defence lines which had been constructed in Johore were not successfully held. The field works constructed upon the island itself to defend the fortress were not upon a sufficiently large scale. I shall certainly not attempt at this stage to pass any judgment upon our troops or their commanders, 73,000 of whom are stated by the enemy to be prisoners of war. Certainly larger numbers than that were in the fortress at the time of the attack. I shall not attempt, I say, to pass judgment. I think it would be a very unseasonable moment and a very ungracious task. We have more urgent work to do. We have to face the situation resulting from this great loss of the base, and the troops and the equipment of a whole army. We have to face the situation resulting from that, and from the great new Japanese war which has burst upon us.
Commons, February 24, 1942.

If I were to dilate upon our hopes, these might soon be falsified, and I might be mocked by those who prove themselves wise by our failures. If, on the other hand, I painted the picture in its darkest hues, very great despondency might be spread among our ardent and growing forces, and the enemy might be encouraged. I therefore say no more at this moment.
Commons, February 24, 1942.

This episode and all that led up to it seems to be out of harmony with anything that we have experienced or performed in the present war. Many explanatory factors are mentioned: the absence of the air force owing to the enemy’s domination of our airfields; the dispiriting effects of the long retreat upon the troops engaged in it; the enervating effects of the climate upon all Europeans; the fact that some of the reinforcements had been a long time on board ship; and above all the embarrassment to the defence, caused by it being intermingled with a city containing at that time upwards of one million human beings of many races and conditions.
Commons, April 23, 1942.

Sirens, Air-raid warning. There is really no good sense in having these prolonged banshee howlings from sirens two or three times a day over wide areas, simply because hostile aircraft are flying to or from some target which no one can possibly know or even guess. All our precaution regulations have hitherto been based on this siren call, and I must say that one must admire the ingenuity of those who devised it as a means of spreading alarm. Indeed, most people now see how very wise Ulysses was when he stopped the ears of his sailors from all siren songs and had himself tied up firmly to the mast of duty.
Commons, September 5, 1940.

Sixpence. The long battle that I have waged over this 6d. off the income tax is over. For four years I successfully defended that remission. I defended it against the assaults of the General Strike—I beg pardon, the assaults of the difficult events of 1926. But at last I am beaten. Mr. Snowden and his Party have had their way . . . The popularity of the measure is assured by reducing the number of taxpayers involved to limits where the voting powers of those who are left may be considered negligible.
Commons, April 15, 1930.

Slavery, Ancient. The Greek and Latin philosophers often seem to have been unaware that the society in which they lived was founded upon slavery. They spoke of freedom and political institutions, but they were quite unaware that their culture was built upon detestable foundations.
University of Oslo, May 12, 1948.

Smith, Al. I had followed Al Smith’s contest for the Presidency with keen interest and sympathy. I was in the fullest agreement with his attitude on prohibition. I even suggested to him a slogan—“All for Al and Al for All.”
New York, October 14, 1947.

His devotion to the religion he had learned as a child was perhaps a hindrance to him in a political appeal to the vast and varied American democracy, but it was the comfort and inspiration of his life, and his many private virtues and gaiety of nature and personal charm hung on this golden thread. He loved his fellow men and was capable of giving them the noblest forms of service and sacrifice. Long may his memory be cherished in the mighty city of which he was a shining and faithful son.
New York, October 14, 1947.

Smithers, Sir Waldron. My hon. Friend is often represented as the representative of extreme Toryism. He is now putting forward the most extreme proposals of free trade Liberalism.
Commons, April 1, 1952.

Smuts, Field-Marshal. In every way he seemed to be one of the most enlightened, courageous, and noble-minded men that we have known in these first fifty years of the twentieth century.
Commons, June 7, 1951.

Warrior, statesman, philosopher, philanthropist, Jan Smuts commands in his majestic career the admiration of us all. There is no personal tragedy in the close of so long, full, and complete a life. But those of his friends who are left behind to face the unending problems and perils of human existence feel an overpowering sense of impoverishment and of irreparable loss. This is in itself also the measure of the gratitude with which we and lovers of freedom and civilization in every land salute his memory.
Commons, September 13, 1950.

He and I are old comrades. I cannot say there has ever been a kick in our gallop. I was examined by him when I was a prisoner of war, and I escaped; but we made an honourable and generous peace on both sides, and for the last forty years we have been comrades working together.
Westminster Central Hall, London, October 31, 1942.

Snowden, Philip. A perverse destiny has seemed to brood over the right hon. Gentleman’s career; all his life has been one long struggle to overcome the natural amiability of his character.
Commons, May 25, 1925.

Social Betterment. When I first became Lloyd George’s friend and active associate, now more than forty years ago, this deep love of the people, the profound knowledge of their lives and of the undue and needless pressures under which they lived, impressed itself indelibly upon my mind.
Commons, March 28, 1945.

Social Justice. The scheme of society for which we stand is the establishment and maintenance of a basic minimum standard of life and labour below which a man or woman of goodwill, however old and weak, will not be allowed to fall. The food they receive, the prices they have to pay for basic necessities, the homes they live in, must be the first care of the State, and must have priority over all other peacetime requirements. Once that standard is being faithfully and even rigorously worked for by all concerned, and without prejudice to it, we propose (if and when we have the power) to set the people free as quickly as possible from the controls and restrictions which now beset their daily life. We propose to sweep away with sturdy strokes the vast encumbrance of regulations and penalties which are to-day preventing our people from making a good living in their island home. Once the basic standard has been established we shall liberate the energies, the genius, the contrivance, of the British nation from the paralysing and humiliating thraldom in which they are now plunged. Above the minimum basic standard there will be free competition. Everyone will be free to make the best of himself without jealousy or spite by all the means that honour, and the long-respected laws and customs of our country, allow.
Brighton, October 4, 1947.

At this moment in history the broad, toiling masses in every country have for the first time the opportunity of a fuller and less burdened life. Science is at hand to spread a more bountiful table than has ever been offered to the millions and to the tens of millions. Shorter hours of labour, greater assurances against individual misfortune: a wider if a simpler culture: a more consciously realized sense of social justice: an easier and a more equal society—these are the treasures which, after all these generations and centuries of impotence and confusion, are now within the reach of mankind.
Commons, May 9, 1938.

Social Organization. We are not going to measure the strength of great countries only by their material resources. We think that the supremacy and predominance of our country depend upon the maintenance of the vigour and health of its population, just as its true glory must always be found in the happiness of its cottage homes. We believe that, if Great Britain is to remain great and famous in the world, we cannot allow the present social and industrial disorders, with their profound physical and moral reactions, to continue unchecked. We propose to you a financial scheme, but we also advance a policy of social organization. It will demand sacrifices from all classes; it will give security to all classes. By its means we shall be able definitely to control some of the most wasteful processes in our social life, and without it our country will remain exposed to vital dangers, against which fleets and armies are of no avail.
Commons, May 19, 1909.

Social Progress. The social field lies open. There is no great country where the organization of industrial conditions more urgently demands attention. Wherever the reformer casts his eyes he is confronted with a mass of largely preventable and even curable suffering. The fortunate people of Britain are more happy than any other equally numerous class have been in the whole history of the world. I believe the left-out millions are more miserable. Our vanguard enjoys all the delights of all the ages. Our rear-guard straggles out into conditions which are crueller than barbarism. The unemployed artisan, the casual labourer and the casual labourer’s wife and children, the sweated worker, the infirm worker, the worker’s widow, the under-fed child, the untrained, undisciplined, and exploited boy labourer—it is upon these subjects that our minds should dwell in the early days of 1909.
Birmingham, January 13, 1909.

Socialism. Socialism is inseparably interwoven with Totalitarianism and the abject worship of the State. . . . This State is to be the arch-employer, the arch-planner, the arch-administrator and ruler, and the arch-caucus-boss.
London, June 4, 1945.

Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.
Perth, May 28, 1948.

Socialism is based on the idea of an all-powerful State which owns everything, which plans everything, which distributes everything, and thus through its politicians and officials decides the daily life of the individual citizen.
London, January 21, 1950.

Socialism in Britain. For my part, I believe profoundly that the attempt to turn Great Britain into a Socialist State will, as it develops, produce widespread political strife, misery, and ruin at home; and that, if this attempt involves nationalization of all the means of production, distribution and exchange—to quote the orthodox phrase which I understand was reaffirmed at the Labour Party meeting in May—then this island will not be able to support above three quarters of the population which now inhabits it.
Commons, December 6, 1945.

Socialism and Communism. Hitherto, British Socialist policy has been to nationalize what industries they thought fit and to pay reasonable compensation to the owners and shareholders. This is a matter of principle in which they differ from the Communist Party. That and the maintenance of political liberty are the two main points of difference.
Commons, May 21, 1952.

Socialism, State. Although it is now put forward in the main by people who have a good grounding in the Liberalism and Radicalism of the early part of this century, there can be no doubt that Socialism is inseparably interwoven with Totalitarianism and the abject worship of the State. It is not alone that property, in all its forms, is struck at, but that liberty, in all its forms, is challenged by the fundamental conceptions of Socialism.
B.B.C., June 4, 1945.

The concentration of all power over the daily lives of ordinary men and women in what is called “the State,” exercised by what is virtually single-chamber government, is a reactionary step contrary to the whole trend of British history and to the message we have given to the world.
Huddersfield, October 15, 1951.

Socialist Legislation. The Government cannot save the country and carry on the class warfare and a Socialist programme of nationalization at the same time. They must choose between the two. Either they must go down in a measureless crash with their Party flags nailed stoutly to the mast, and carry our country down too, or they must make an effort, by dropping their Socialist legislation, by freeing industry and enterprise from the trammels in which they have entangled them, and by restoring, at the earliest date, the outraged sense of national unity, to get out of the troubles in which we are.
Commons, March 12, 1947.

Socialists. A good many of those gentlemen who have delightful rosy views of a noble and brilliant future for the world are so remote from hard facts of daily life and of ordinary politics that I am not very sure that they will bring any useful or effective influence to bear upon the immediate course of events.
Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, May 14, 1908.

Society. We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.
B.B.C., March 21, 1943.

Society, Scheme of. The scheme of society for which Conservatives and National Liberals stand is the establishment and maintenance of a basic standard of life and labour below which a man or a woman, however old or weak, shall not be allowed to fall.
London, January 21, 1950.

Society, Varied. We seek a free and varied society, where there is room for many kinds of men and women to lead happy, honourable and useful lives. We are fundamentally opposed to all systems of rigid uniformity in our national life, and we have grown great as a nation by indulging tolerance, rather than logic.
Blackpool, October 5, 1946.

Solidarity, Allied. You would not expect the three great powers, so differently circumstanced as Britain, the United States, and Soviet Russia, not to have many different views about the treatment of the various and numerous countries into which their victorious arms have carried them. The marvel is that all has hitherto been kept so solid, sure, and sound between us all. But this process does not arise of itself. It needs constant care and attention. Moreover, there are those problems of distance, occasion, and personalities which I have so often mentioned to the House, and which make it extremely difficult to bring the heads of the three principal Allies together in one place at one time. I have, therefore, not hesitated to travel from court to court like a wandering minstrel, always with the same song to sing—or the same set of songs.
Commons, October 27, 1944.

Solidarity with America. Should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour.
Commons, November 10, 1941.

Solidarity of good people. When good people get into trouble because they are attacked and heavily smitten by the vile and wicked, they must be very careful not to get at loggerheads with one another. The common enemy is always trying to bring this about, and, of course, in bad luck a lot of things happen which play into the enemy’s hands. We must just make the best of things as they come along.
B.B.C., October 21, 1940.

Solutions. Perfect solutions of our difficulties are not to be looked for in an imperfect world.
Sheffield, April 17, 1951.

Solvency. There is no real relation between the solvency of a company and the geographical distribution of its assets.
Commons, November 24, 1909.

Solvency is valueless without security, and security is impossible to achieve without solvency.
Commons, March 5, 1953.

Somaliland. It is a country valueless to all except the wild inhabitants who live in it, and to them it is dearer than life.
Commons, March 3, 1910.

Soul of Man. Laws just or unjust may govern men’s actions. Tyrannies may restrain or regulate their words. The machinery of propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood and deny them truth for many generations of time. But the soul of man thus held in trance or frozen in a long night can be awakened by a spark coming from God knows where, and in a moment the whole structure of lies and oppression is on trial for its life.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, March 31, 1949.

South Africa. The situation in South Africa is difficult and complex. For its difficulty and complexity we are not responsible. We have succeeded to a legacy of financial, social and racial confusion. There, on that bench, are the testators of evil. And, sir, what an inheritance! A country struggling back to civilization after being laid waste by fire and sword, with all the after consequences of rebellion and civil war, a great army from over the seas mobilized for immediate war, a ponderous constabulary, a costly and not too efficient nominated and imported bureaucracy, the great industries on which the development of the country depends all resting on an essentially unnatural, unhealthy, and unstable basis—in all this vicious tangle no circumstance of first importance can be discerned for which we on this side of the House are responsible.
Commons, March 21, 1906.

South Africa, Government of. The idea which I have seen put forward in some quarters, that, in order to get full satisfaction for the expense and the exertions to which we were put in the war, we are bound to continue governing those peoples according to our pleasure and against their will, and that that is, as it were, an agreeable exercise which is to be some compensation for our labours, is an idea which no doubt finds expression in the columns of certain newspapers, but to which I do not think any serious person ever gave any countenance.
Commons, December 17, 1906.

South Africa, Self-government of. Let us finish this job in style. We can do it if we wish, and it is well worth doing. It is about the only thing in South Africa that is really worth doing. It is in contented colonies and prosperous populations that this country will find its only reward for all the sacrifices it had made, and an answer final, complete, and convincing to all our enemies, whether they be abroad or nearer home.
Commons, July 17, 1901.

Sovereignty. I am strongly of opinion that we require to strengthen our armaments in the air and upon the seas in order to make sure that we are still judges of our own fortunes, our own destinies, and our own action.
Commons, March 14, 1933.

Soviet Man. They are certainly calculating, ruthless men, officially divorced from Christian ethics in any form, and with Asiatic views of the value of human life and liberty.
Commons, January 23, 1948.

Soviet Russia. Here we have a State whose subjects are so happy that they have to be forbidden to quit its bounds under the direst penalties; whose diplomatists and agents sent on foreign missions have often to leave their wives and children at home as hostages to ensure their eventual return.
Commons, July 29, 1919.

Soviet Russia, Changes in. Profound changes have taken place in Soviet Russia. The Trotskyite form of Communism has been completely wiped out. The victories of the Russian armies have been attended by a great rise in the strength of the Russian State, and a remarkable broadening of its views. The religious side of Russian life has had a wonderful rebirth. The discipline and military etiquette of the Russian armies are unsurpassed. There is a new National Anthem, the music of which Marshal Stalin sent me, which I asked the B.B.C. to play on the frequent occasions when there are great Russian victories to celebrate.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Spain. Spain, once the most famous empire in the world, and down to this day a strong community in a wide land, with a marked personality and a culture distinguished among the nations of Europe.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

The Spaniards are a proud and morose people, and they have long memories. They have not forgotten Napoleon and the attempted French subjugation of Spain 130 years ago. Besides this, they have had a civil war which has cost them a million lives. Even the Communists in Spain will not thank foreign governments for trying to start another civil war, and anything more silly than to tell the Spaniards that they ought to overthrow Franco, while, at the same time, assuring them that there will be no military intervention by the Allies, can hardly be imagined.
Commons, June 5, 1946.

Spain, Civil War in. Of course, neither of the two Spanish sides can afford to say that it would tolerate the idea of a settlement. They are fighting for life; they are desperate men, and all their lives are at stake. They dare not show the slightest sign of weakness, but they have their seconds, they have their friends in these great powers who are in close touch with them. Is it not time when this horrible duel might for the moment be considered by the seconds and not necessarily only by the principal parties, and when the seconds could decide, as they often did in private duels, that honour is satisfied, or if you like to put it more truthfully, that dishonour is gorged?
Commons, April 14, 1937.

The agony of the Civil War [in Spain] continues. Had it been only a Spanish quarrel fought out by Spaniards, we might have averted our eyes from its horrors; but the shameful intrusions of Dictator powers with organized troops and masses of munitions under the deceitful masquerade of Non-Intervention, has invested their struggles with an added bitterness and a significance which extends far outside the Spanish Peninsula.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, May 9, 1938.

Spain During the War. There is all the difference in the world between a man who knocks you down and a man who leaves you alone. You may, conceivably, take an active interest in what happens to the former in case his inclination should recur, but we pass many people in the ordinary daily round of life about whose internal affairs and private quarrels we do not feel ourselves called upon to make continued inquiry.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Spain, Neutrality of. There is no doubt that if Spain had yielded to German blandishments and pressure at that juncture our burden would have been much heavier. The Straits of Gibraltar would have been closed, and all access to Malta would have been cut off from the west. All the Spanish coast would have become the nesting-place of German U-boats. I certainly did not feel at the time that I should like to see any of these things happen, and none of them did happen.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Spain, Non-Intervention in. I expect that the Non-Intervention Committee is full of swindles and cheats; anyhow it falls far short of strict interpretation and good faith, but it is a precious thing in these times of peril that five great nations should be slanging each other round a table instead of blasting and bombing each other in horrible war.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Spain, Policy towards. Some people think that our foreign policy towards Spain is best expressed by drawing comical or even rude caricatures of General Franco; but I think there is more in it than that.
Commons, May 24, 1944.

Spaniards. They do not want to go on killing each other for the entertainment of foreigners.
Commons, April 14, 1937.

Speaker, The. The Speaker represents and embodies the spirit of the House of Commons; and that spirit, which has transported itself to so many lands and climates and to countries far outside our sphere, is one of the gleaming and enduring glories of the British and in a special way . . . of the English message to the world.
Commons, November 15, 1951.

Speculation, Intelligent. It is, of course, very hazardous to try to forecast in what direction or directions Hitler will employ his military machine in the present year. He may at any time attempt the invasion of this island. That is an ordeal from which we shall not shrink. At the present time he is driving south and south-east through the Balkans, and at any moment he may turn upon Turkey. But there are many signs which point to a Nazi attempt to secure the granary of the Ukraine and the oilfields of the Caucasus and thus to gain the resources wherewith to wear down the English-speaking world. All this is speculation. I will say only one thing more. Once we have gained the Battle of the Atlantic and are certain of the constant flow of American supplies which is being prepared for us, then, however far Hitler may go, or whatever new millions and scores of millions he may lap in misery, he may be sure that, armed with the sword of retributive justice, we shall be on his track.
Commons, April 9, 1941.

Speech, Free. Free speech carries with it the evil of all foolish, unpleasant, and venomous things that are said, but on the whole we would rather lump them than do away with them.
Commons, July 15, 1952.

Speech in Wartime. No sensible person in wartime makes speeches because he wants to. He makes them because he has to, and to no one does this apply more than to the Prime Minister. I have repeatedly called attention to the disadvantages of my having to give too frequent reviews of the war, and I have always declined to be drawn into discussions about strategy or tactics so far as they may have relation to current or pending events.
Commons, November 12, 1941.

Speed. In the modern world everything moves quickly. Tendencies which 200 or 300 years ago worked out over several generations, may now reach definite decisions in a twelvemonth.
Commons, April 24, 1950.

Spending. The detailed method of spending the money [on “conquering unemployment”] has not yet been fully thought out, but we are assured on the highest authority that if only enough resource and energy is used there will be no difficulty in getting rid of the stuff. This is the policy which used to be stigmatized by the late Mr. Thomas Gibson Bowles as the policy of buying a biscuit early in the morning and walking about all day looking for a dog to give it to. At any rate, after this, no one will ever accuse the right hon. Gentleman of cheap electioneering.
Commons, April 15, 1929.

Spion Kop, Battle of. Rather more than three years previously I was present at the battle of Spion Kop and the fact that had struck me was on what tiny trifles the fortunes of battles depended. Had there been, on the morning of the battle of Spion Kop, a few good maps of the country with the troops, they could have taken up a position on Spion Kop as nearly impregnable as the one they did take up was untenable. The hill was held all day at a great sacrifice of life, and had there been a little oil to work the signalling lamps at night, so that communications might be kept up between Sir Charles Warren’s headquarters and Colonel Thorneycroft on the hill, that sacrifice might have been taken advantage of and reinforcements sent up. I was very much impressed by that.
Commons, February 24, 1903.

Spirit of Britain. Little does he [Hitler] know the spirit of the British nation, or the tough fibre of the Londoners, whose forebears played a leading part in the establishment of Parliamentary institutions and who have been bred to value freedom far above their lives. This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed. He has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe, and until the Old World—and the New—can join hands to rebuild the temples of man’s freedom and man’s honour, upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown.
London, September 11, 1940.

Spur of necessity. Many things which were attempted in the war we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and above all, the spur of necessity under war conditions made men’s brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demand. That being so, I venture to set the research side of air defence in a position of primary importance. I agree that there is nothing which can offer any substitute for an equal or superior force, a readiness to retaliate, but if you could discover some new method the whole of our affairs would be greatly simplified.
Commons, June 7, 1935.

Squandermania. The right hon. Member for Caernarvon Boroughs [Mr. David Lloyd George] is going to borrow £200,000,000 and to spend it . . . upon paying the unemployed to make racing tracks for well-to-do motorists to make the ordinary pedestrian skip; and we are assured that the mere prospect of this has entirely revivified the Liberal Party. At any rate, it has brought one notable recruit. Lord Rothermere, chief author of the anti-waste campaign, has enlisted under the Happy Warrior of Squandermania.
Commons, April 15, 1929.