July 18, 2013

FINEST HOUR 126, SPRING 2005

EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY PAUL H. COURTENAY

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Question Time is that period in the Parliamentary week where Members are allowed to ask the Prime Minister any question, governed only by decorum and the judgment of the Speaker as to whether they are genuinely asking questions or (as is commonly the case) giving a speech. Churchill was a master of Question Time, as Paul Courtenay demonstrates.

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CONSCRIPTION

On 15 April 1943 a Member said that conscription should be extended to Northern Ireland, where between 20,000 and 25,000 men and women of military age were unemployed. WSC: ” I understand that, according to the latest information, the number of men and women of all ages registered as unemployed in Northern Ireland was 19,778. When this matter was last raised, about eighteen months or two years ago, I think, I came to the conclusion that it would be more trouble than it was worth, and I have not seen any reason up to the present moment for making a pronouncement on the subject. Certainly, it is a very unsatisfactory situation when large numbers of Americans are taken by compulsion from their homes and made to stand guard while large numbers of the local inhabitants are under no such obligation.”

RELAXATION

On 22 April 1943 a Member asked for an assurance that the existing methods of regimentation and compulsion would be relaxed at the earliest possible date after the war. WSC: “The transition from war to peace will no doubt bring many changes in its train, but I do not desire at present to expatiate unduly on these topics.”

RING OUT THE BELLS

On 20 April 1943 a Member asked for a statement on the ringing of church bells as an invasion warning (clearly a planted question, to allow a formal statement to be made). WSC: “The War Cabinet, after receiving the advice of the Chiefs of Staff, have reviewed this question in the light of changing circumstances. We have reached the conclusion that the existing orders on the subject can now be relaxed, and that the church bells should be rung on Sundays and other special days in the ordinary manner to summon worshippers to church.”

On 22 April 1943, the Prime Minister was questioned on the decision not to use church bells as warning of an invasion. WSC: “We have come to the conclusion that this particular method of warning was redundant, and not in itself well adapted to the present conditions of the war. Replacement does not arise. For myself, I cannot help feeling that anything like a serious invasion would be bound to leak out.”

EQUAL PAY

On 4 May 1943 a Member asked what machinery existed for coordinating rates of pay and allowances between the three Services, adding that senior officers in the Navy had received no advance in pay since 1938. WSC: “Coordination in this sphere of Government, as in others, rests ultimately on the existence of a united Government collectively responsible for its acts. It is maintained in practice by the normal machinery of constant Ministerial and inter-departmental consultation, and I cannot accept my hon. and gallant Friend’s suggestion that the Services or the Ministers responsible for them fail to cooperate to the fullest extent in matters of common concern. As regards the pay of senior naval officers, no general advances have been made since 1938 in the pay of senior members of any Crown service, and none is at present contemplated.”

PARLIMENTARY REPARTEE

The following entries are not from Question Time but are typical Churchillian rejoinders to critics:

In a speech on the war situation on 12 November 1941… WSC: “There was a custom in ancient China that anyone who wished to criticise the Government had the right to memorialise the Emperor and provided that he followed that up by committing suicide, very great respect was paid to his words and no ulterior motive was assigned. That seems to me to have been from many points of view, a wise custom, but I certainly would be the last to suggest that it be made retrospective.”

In December 1941 Churchill sent Alfred Duff Cooper to Singapore to ascertain the military situation there. Singapore fell on 13 January and Mr. Duff Cooper came under immediate attack. WSC: “I am invited under the threats of unpopularity to victimise the chancellor of the Duchy [of Lancaster, Mr. Duff Cooper] and throw him to the wolves. I say to those who make this amiable suggestion…’I very much regret that I am unable to gratify your wishes’—or words to that effect.” 
 

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