7 NOVEMBER 1952, Page 5

I No one could better deserve honour than Lord Samuel

did the tribute paid him by his fellow Liberals on Monday. The fact that he was first elected to the House of Commons fifty years ago does not mean that he has sat for fifty years, for there was a long break from 1918 to 1929. No one, I think, among living politicians holds an unbroken fifty years' record. Lord Lambert was elected to the House of Commons in 1891, but he was out from 1924 to 1929. Mr.: Churchill was elected in 1900, but he was out for a few weeks in 1908 and he was beaten three times between 1922 and 1924. As a Liberal, as a supporter of Zionism (though not, I think, himself a Zionist), as a philosopher, Lord Samuel has rendered distin- guished public service in many fields. Incidentally he once rendered me a private service of which he has no knowledge. When the official—and defaitiste—bulletin on the Battle of Jutland, with its devastating list of losses of British ships, me in, I said in a leading article in the Daily News, for which was then writing, that when we had sustained a defeat (the acts as first published justified the conclusion that we had) we ad better recognise the fact frankly. Someone asked a ques- on about this article in the House, suggesting that it was alculated to spread gloom and despondency. Sir Herbert amuel, who was Home Secretary at the time, in his reply nnly refused to put any such construction on the article—for hich I have felt gratitude to him ever since.