KING TO HIS PEOPLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1940, Page 6

KING TO HIS PEOPLE

BROADCAST ON EMPIRE DAY Rallying Call in Hour of Supreme Emergency FIGHT FOR LIFE AGAINST BRUTE FORCE AND TREACHERY UNITED EFFORT NEEDED TO AVERT ECLIPSE (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.17 a.m.) RUGBY, Hay 24. His Majesty the King, broadcasting' tonight, said: A year ago I spoke to the peoples of the Empire from Winnipeg, in the heart of Canada. We were at peace. On that Empire Day, I spoke of the ideals of freedom, justifce and peace upon which our commonwealth of free peoples is founded. Clouds were gathering, but I held fast to the hope that those ideals might yet achieve fuller, richer development without suffering the grievious onslaught of war. But it was not to be. The evil which we strove unceasingly and with all honesty of purpose to avert fell upon us. In this our conscience is clear. For there is now revealed, without possibility of mistake, a long-planned scheme to subjugate by force the nations of the world, against which all our efforts for peace were doomed to break. The decisive struggle is now upon us. “I am going to speak plainly to you, for in this hour of trial I know you would not have me do otherwise. Let no one be mistaken. It is not merely territorial conquest our enemies are seeking. It is the overthrow, complete and final of this Empire and of everything for which it stands, and after that the conquest of the world. And if their will prevails, they will bring to its accomplishment all the hatred and cruelty which they have already displayed. It was not easy for us to believe that designs so’ evil could find a place in the human mind. But the time for doubt is long past. To all of us in this Empire, to all men of vision and goodwill throughout the world the issue is now plain. It is an issue of life and death for us all. Defeat will not mean some brief eclipse from which we shall emerge with strength renewed—it will meain the destruction of our world as we know it and the descent of darkness upon its ruins. -

CONFLICT WITH EVIL

“I speak to you today with a' new vision of .this Empire before my eyes,” his Majesty continued. “Now that it has come into conflict and sharp comparision with the evil system which is attempting its destruction, its full significance appears in a brighter and more certain light. There is a word which our enemies use against us — ‘imperialism.’ By it they mean a spirit of domination and lust of conquest. The free people of the Empire cast that word back in rheir teeth. It is they who have these evil aspirations. Our one object always has been peacepeace in which our institutions may be developed, the condition of our peoples 'improved, and the problems of government solved. In a spirit of goodwill. This peace they have taken from us, and they are seeking to destroy all we have striven to maintain. Against our honesty is set dishonour, against our faithfulness is set treachery, against our justice, brute force. There is the clear and unmistakable opposition in which lie the forces that now confront one another. The great uprising of peoples throughout the Empire shows without doubt which will prevail. They have risen in just wrath against the thing which they detest and despise. Nothing can shake their resolution. In perfect unity of purpose, they will defend their lives and all that makes life worth living. “Let no one think my confidence is dimmed when I teil you how perilous is the ordeal which we are facing. On the contrary, it shines in my heart as brightly as it shines in yours. But confidence alone is not enough. It must be armed with courage and resolution, with endurance and selfsacrifice.”

OUR* FIGHTING MEN

“These are the high qualities that the men of the Homeland and men from overseas in an unending stream are bringing to the struggle on land, and sea, and in the air. At this moment, our thoughts turn to our fighting men and those who love them —mothers, wives and sweethearts at home. Beside them stand the soldiers of our old ally, France, and with them, Poland, Norway, Belgium and Holland, peoples upon whose peaceful lands have fallen all the horror of treacherous and unprovoked aggression.

“At this fateful hour we turn, as our fathers before us have turned in all times of trial, to God Most High. Here in the Old Country, I have asked that Sunday next be . observed as a day of national prayer. It may be possible for many of our brothers across the seas to join their prayers to ours. Let us with one heart and soul, humbly, but confidently commit our cause to God and ask His aid, that we may valiantly defend the right as it is given to us to see it. “So now, peoples of the Empire, men and women in all quarters of the globe, I say to you, put into your task, whatever it may be, all the courage and purpose of which you are capable. Keep your hearts proud, your resolve unshaken. Let us go forward to that task as one man, with a smile on our lips, our heads high, and with God’s help we shall not fail.”