Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill [HL]

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Monday 6th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, I shall speak briefly in the gap. As soon as I knew the Government had had the good sense, foresight and courage to put this Bill before us, I put my name down to speak. However, I had to withdraw this morning because recently there was a sad accident involving two members of the congregation of Lincoln Cathedral. They were killed in a car crash in France and their funeral was today. I felt my first obligation was to be there, but as I got back in time to hear every word of the debate, I shall say a few things.

I must declare my interest as the founder and current president of the All-Party Parliamentary Arts and Heritage Group, to which many of your Lordships belong. I have long taken a particular interest in the subject before us today. I emphasise that there is a difference between destruction, where something is gone for ever, and looting, where there is a possibility of restoration. I am reminded of destruction every time I go into the glorious cathedral in Lincoln because all the brasses that were there in the 17th century, many of them going back long before that, were taken out and melted during the Civil War. So we are not dealing with a new problem, although recent horrific events have made it all the more necessary that we ratify the convention, and this Bill is an extremely important step on the way to doing that.

I remember a few years ago going with the All-Party Parliamentary Arts and Heritage Group to an amazing exhibition at the British Museum of treasures from Afghanistan. Many of your Lordships will remember that. In those cases, we saw some wondrous objects, some of which had been brought for safekeeping at a particularly difficult time in the history of Afghanistan. This was in the wake of the destruction for ever of the great Buddhas. We looked at those marvellous things, and I felt what a great service the British Museum was doing for this country and the world by putting on that exhibition.

In this brief contribution, I want to underline and emphasise the good sense of the proposal by my noble friend Lady Berridge. She talked about displaying in this country, whenever we can, looted objects that might strike a real chord with many of the communities which are now part of our nation. Indeed, the interesting speech of my noble friend Lady Mobarik touched on similar themes. I put it to the Minister that I hope we might be able to have a special fund to enable looted objects or objects that have been brought here for safety to tour our provincial museums and galleries. That would have a dual purpose. Obviously it would bring pleasure and enlightenment to those who saw them, but more importantly it would provide a link with those communities—Muslim and others—which are now part of our nation. This could do nothing but good. Touring objects from our own museums is a very good thing. Loan exhibitions for people who cannot easily come to London bring great pleasure and joy, which I know from what we have done in Lincoln over the past couple of years. Amid the general awareness that has been aroused by the Bill, I hope there will be a determination to do one or two specific things about it.

My final point is to endorse the comments made by my noble friend Lord Borwick, who did not criticise the Bill—like me, he welcomes it warmly—but pointed to it not necessarily being the easiest Bill to understand. I hope we will be able to clarify it a bit in Committee. I give the Bill my warmest endorsement.