The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park)
(Con):...Many noble Lords will have appreciated
’s great capacity to
advise and persuade, which was perhaps most evident when he played
a pivotal role in bringing an end to the civil war in what was then
Rhodesia. As your Lordships will be aware, he left office at the
outset of the Falklands conflict because he held
himself to an exceptionally high standard of personal
responsibility and put his country first—before everything else.
The Foreign Office was held in great esteem under his stewardship
and his resignation was received with deep regret but respect by
those who worked with him...
(Lab):...Among the high offices he held, as outlined by
the noble Baroness the Leader of the House, were Leader and shadow
Leader of your Lordships’ House as well as Defence Secretary and
Energy Secretary. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher appointed him as her
Foreign Secretary and, with great skill, he chaired the Lancaster
House constitutional conference in which all the factions in
Rhodesia agreed to a new constitution and free elections, which led
to Zimbabwe gaining independence in 1980. Many in your Lordships’
House recall the dignity with which he resigned as Foreign
Secretary when Argentina invaded the Falklands, despite the support of the Prime
Minister, who considered it a devastating blow and who tried to
persuade him to stay. As the noble Baroness said, he considered it
a matter of personal honour that he should take personal
responsibility. The then shadow Leader of your Lordships’ House,
Lord Peart, in paying tribute to , remarked that it was a
sad day for your Lordships’ House and said:
“We hope we shall see him here in the future. He can be sure of a
most genuine welcome from all of us, whatever Benches we
occupy”.—[Official Report, 5/4/82; col. 1.]...
(LD)...My Lords,
was, for people of my
generation, a somewhat distant figure but someone who one knew
embodied the highest values of public life: honour, integrity and
a very strong sense of public duty and public service. As we have
heard, he had a most remarkable and lengthy period of public and
parliamentary service, and he had to cope with those elements of
luck and chance which characterise all public life. He was
arguably lucky to be moved from the Ministry of Defence to become
High Commissioner to Australia just before the Suez crisis, but
he was even more unlucky to be Foreign Secretary at the time of
the Falklands invasion. Despite having warned of the danger of
possible invasion, he took the blame when it happened and
resigned. It was a rare case of a ministerial resignation on a
matter of principle and an even rarer one in that it enhanced,
rather than soured, his reputation...
(CB):...He first took his seat in this House over
70 years ago when Clement Attlee was the Prime Minister. It was
not long before he began to make his mark here, but of course,
like so many others, I look back to his decision, at the start of
the Falklands conflict in 1982, to
resign from the position that he had held as Foreign Secretary. I
saw this then, and still do, as a prime example of the very high
standards that he set for himself in his public life. It was the
first time that his name came to my attention, and although that
was 36 years ago I have never forgotten the occasion. I recall
the keen sense of regret that I think we all felt up and down the
country that he had to bring his political career to an end in
that way, but that sense of regret was coupled with much
admiration for him as a man. What he did, not only then but
throughout his public life, was an example to us all. There is so
much to look back on in his long life and to celebrate...
(Con): My
Lords, I served two periods with in the Foreign Office,
first as a Lord in Waiting, answering most of the Questions in
your Lordships’ House, then later on as a Parliamentary
Secretary. I remember that, on the first morning of the Falklands
conflict, when he was presenting his resignation, several of us
tried to persuade him not to do so. He kept saying: “You do not
understand: my honour demands nothing less”.
To read all the tributes, CLICK
HERE
: My Lords, many fine
tributes have been paid to the remarkable life of . It is generally
agreed that he was an outstanding Foreign Secretary. Very
briefly, I want to record my experience of his leadership at the
time of the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands on 2
April 1982. I was serving as his Minister of State with
responsibility for, among other areas, the Falkland Islands.
Immediately after the invasion, he decided that the best way to
serve his Prime Minister, Government and country was to stay at
his post and to rally support in the United Nations behind the
Government’s policy to restore the islands to British
sovereignty. On 5 April, three days after the invasion and in the
light of the growing criticism of the Government in and outside
Parliament, he concluded that although he could not have
prevented the invasion, someone had to carry the can for this
foreign policy disaster. That day, he decided to resign to make
way for a new team at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to
start afresh. Throughout that agonising weekend, his only concern
was to put his country before himself. My Lords, he did so with
honour.
