A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
LORD DARNLEY'S very unusual motion in the House of Lords on Tuesday—calling on His Majesty's Government to " take initial steps towards the reorganisation of human society now in danger of collapse, to secure its survival "—produced an unusual debate, in which Lord Pakenham's reply for the Government was particularly notable as an attempt to indicate the essential bases of a Christian administration. Lord Pakenham is a very sincere and a very broad-minded Roman Catholic, but there was nothing in the smallest degree sectarian about his speech on Tuesday. One of his closing passages deserves quotation. After rejecting the idea that a Christian policy means a policy of absolute pacifism ( " pacific, yes ; pacifist, no ") he laid down certain basic principles:
" We must pray for all those in bondage, we must pray alike for the victims and for those who are oppressing them. We must be ceaselessly vigilant in seeking to preserve, and extend where possible, the area of freedom. We must struggle unremittingly towards the eventual goal—the only goal of any satisfaction to Christians—a single world whose barriers have been torn down, a 'world where the Communists are ready to co-operate with the Christians, and the Christians come forward to give them all the help in their power." Such speeches are not common in Parliament ; they would be less impressive if they were. * * * *
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