If it be that there is only suspicion, it is wrong that at this moment of Supreme Crisis there should be even a suspicion as to what is going on in some parts of the country.
If that time should come, and if the right hon. Gentleman, in that hour of Supreme Crisis, finds himself without the means of making that appeal, no one would blame the right hon. Gentleman half so bitterly as he himself would deplore the course he had taken, if it were successful, which prevented the making of this register.
A Supreme Crisis arose, and it still continues.
And when we in this House are inclined, as we often are inclined, to abuse the French, let us 1201 remember that the French did resist, to the very best of their ability, the American debt settlement and that they certainly did not copy us in restoring the franc to the Gold Standard at the prewar parity of exchange; and when we are inclined to lay the blame, as we so often are, upon France for all our troubles and for the economic difficulties of the world, I sometimes think that if we had paid a little more attention to the very realistic economic policy pursued by France during the last 10 years, and had even attempted to copy it in some respects, our bankers might not have been compelled to go cap in hand to Paris at the Supreme Crisis last summer.
1112 That was part of our financial policy and it was necessary at the time of the Supreme Crisis.
In the second place I do not think it weakens the argument for taking this action if it is held to be expedient politically now to do it, when in a moment of Supreme Crisis we are engaged in a struggle for the defence of the liberties not only of ourselves, but of small peoples, including the freedom of the Jews from cruel and vile oppression.
They are not a bribe or a reward for the Colonies' support in This Supreme Crisis.
And now I feel that they have never shown greater courage than in coming forward, at This Supreme Crisis, to serve their country.
I appealed to himto make it the crowning event of his life to be the peacemaker at This Supreme Crisis, and instead of fencing with the British Government or asking for the fulfilment of extreme conditions, which he knew in fact could not be fulfilled, to use his great influence to make his followers realise two things - first, that this is a war of right against wrong and India's war just as much as ours; and secondly, that here in this war emergency is a challenge and an opportunity to make a fresh start in the approach to all our joint problems.
Of Roosevelt, however, it must be said that had he not acted when he did, in the way he did, had he not felt the generous surge of freedom in his heart, had he not resolved to give aid to Britain and to Europe in the Supreme Crisis through which we have passed, a hideous fate might well have overwhelmed mankind and made its whole future for centuries sink into shame and ruin.
Not long ago the Minister made some very sensible remarks about the Supreme Crisis which threatens Britain today.
Now, here is the Minister's way of dealing with This Supreme Crisis.
Now the Minister, as part of his handling of This Supreme Crisis, is going to injure Britain abroad, and is going to add to the losses which the Coal Board will make at home.
The Minister of Fuel and Power at Porthcawl spoke of "this moment of Supreme Crisis for the Government".
I must insist upon the constitutional rights of the Admiralty, and, indeed, of all those in positions of supreme responsibility, to choose officers in whom they have confidence at moments of Supreme Crisis.
I have always believed that the procedures of the House made it possible for us to give humanity a hearing at moments of Supreme Crisis like that at present in Biafra and Nigeria.
I would not, therefore, be surprised if we had to come back in September or early October to deal with the Supreme Crisis which is blowing across the Western world but which has been made infinitely worse by the Government's policies.
It has failed at moments of Supreme Crisis to act on the decisions that it has already taken.
Those achievements are significant, but because the UN has failed to act in moments of Supreme Crisis it now appears to some people - although I am not one of them - as merely a talking shop.