During the last fortnight the British Navy, in
addition to blockading what is left of the German Fleet and chasing
the Italian Fleet, has had imposed upon it the sad duty of putting
effectually out of action for the duration of the war the capital
ships of the French Navy. These, under the Armistice terms, signed
in the railway coach at Compiegne, would have been placed within
the power of Nazi Germany. The transference of these ships to
Hitler would have endangered the security of both Great Britain
and the United States. We therefore had no choice but to act as
we did, and to act forthwith. Our painful task is now complete.
Although the unfinished battleship, the Jean Bart, still rests
in a Moroccan harbour and there are a number of French warships
at Toulon and in various French ports all over the world, these
are not in a condition or of a character to derange our preponderance
of naval power. As long, therefore, as they make no attempt to
return to ports controlled by Germany or Italy, we shall not molest
them in any way. That melancholy phase in our relations with France
has, so far as we are concerned, come to an end.
Let us think rather of the future. Today is the
fourteenth of July, the national festival of France. A year ago
in Paris I watched the stately parade down the Champs Elysees
of the French Army and the French empire. Who can foresee what
the course of other years will bring? Faith is given to us to
help and comfort us when we stand in awe before the unfurling
scroll of human destiny. And I proclaim my faith that some of
us will live to see a fourteenth of July when a liberated France
will once again rejoice in her greatness and in her glory, and
once again stand forward as the champion of the freedom and the
rights of man. When the day dawns, as dawn it will, the soul of
France will turn with comprehension and with kindness to those
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, wherever they may be, who in the darkest
hour did not despair of the Republic.
In the meantime, we shall not waste our breath
nor cumber our thought with reproaches. When you have a friend
and comrade at whose side you have faced tremendous struggles,
and your friend is smitten down by a stunning blow, it may be
necessary to make sure that the weapon that has fallen from his
hands shall not be added to the resources of your common enemy.
But you need not bear malice because of your friend's cries of
delirium and gestures of agony. You must not add to his pain;
you must work for his recovery. The association of interest between
Britain and France remains. The cause remains. Duty inescapable
remains. So long as our pathway to victory is not impeded, we
are ready to discharge such offices of good will toward the French
Government as may be possible, and to foster the trade and help
the administration of those parts of the great French Empire which
are now cut off from captive France, but which maintain their
freedom. Subject to the iron demands of the war which we are now
waging against Hitler and all his works, we shall try so to conduct
ourselves that every true French heart will beat and glow at the
way we carry on the struggle; and that not only France, but all
the oppressed countries in Europe may feel that each British victory
is a step towards the liberation of the Continent from the foulest
thraldom into which it has ever been cast.
All goes to show that the war will be long and
hard. No one can tell where it will spread. One thing is certain:
the peoples of Europe will not be ruled for long by the Nazi Gestapo,
nor will the world yield itself to Hitler's gospel of hatred,
appetite and domination.
And now it has come to us to stand alone in the
breach, and face the worst that the tyrant's might and enmity
can do. Bearing ourselves humbly before God, but conscious that
we serve an unfolding purpose, we are ready to defend our native
land against the invasion by which it is threatened. We are fighting
by ourselves alone; but we are not fighting for ourselves alone.
Here in this strong City of Refuge which enshrines the title-deeds
of human progress and is of deep consequence to Christian civilization;
here, girt about by the seas and oceans where the Navy reigns;
shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen-we
await undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come tonight.
Perhaps it will come next week. Perhaps it will never come. We
must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden violent
shock or-what is perhaps a harder test-a prolonged vigil. But
be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms,
we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy-we shall ask for
none.
I can easily understand how sympathetic onlookers
across the Atlantic, or anxious friends in the yet unravished
countries of Europe, who cannot measure our resources or our resolve,
may have feared for our survival when they saw so many States
and kingdoms torn to pieces in a few weeks or even days by the
monstrous force of the Nazi war machine. But Hitler has not yet
been withstood by a great nation with a will power the equal of
his own. Many of these countries have been poisoned by intrigue
before they were struck down by violence. They have been rotted
from within before they were smitten from without. How else can
you explain what has happened to France?-to the French Army, to
the French people, to the leaders of the French people?
But here, in our Island, we are in good health
and in good heart. We have seen how Hitler prepared in scientific
detail the plans for destroying the neighbour countries of Germany.
He had his plans for Poland and his plans for Norway. He had his
plans for Denmark. He had his plans all worked out for the doom
of the peaceful, trustful Dutch; and, of course, for the Belgians.
We have seen how the French were undermined and overthrown. We
may therefore be sure that there is a plan-perhaps built up over
years-for destroying Great Britain, which after all has the honour
to be his main and foremost enemy. All I can say is that any plan
for invading Britain which Hitler made two months ago must have
had to be entirely recast in order to meet our new position. Two
months ago-nay, one month ago-our first and main effort was to
keep our best Army in France. All our regular troops, all our
output of munitions, and a very large part of our Air Force, had
to be sent to France and maintained in action there. But now we
have it all at home. Never before in the last war-or in this-have
we had in this Island an Army comparable in quality, equipment
or numbers to that which stands here on guard tonight. We have
a million and a half men in the British Army under arms tonight,
and every week of June and July has seen their organization, their
defences and their striking power advance by leaps and bounds.
No praise is too high for the officers and men-aye, and civilians-who
have made this immense transformation in so short a time. Behind
these soldiers of the regular Army, as a means of destruction
for parachutists, airborne invaders, and any traitors that may
be found in our midst (but I do not believe there are many-woe
betide them, they will get short shrift)-behind the regular Army
we have more than a million of the Local Defence Volunteers, or,
as they are much better called, the "Home Guard." These
officers and men, a large proportion of whom have been through
the last war, have the strongest desire to attack and come to
close quarters with the enemy wherever he may appear. Should
the invader come to Britain, there will be no placid lying
down of the people in submission before him, as we have seen,
alas, in other countries. We shall defend every village, every
town, and every city. The vast mass of London itself, fought street
by street, could easily devour an entire hostile army; and we
would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should
be tamely and abjectly enslaved. I am bound to state these facts,
because it is necessary to inform our people of our intentions,
and thus to reassure them.
This has been a great week for the Royal Air
Force, and for the Fighter Command. They have shot down more than
five to one of the German aircraft which have tried to molest
our convoys in the Channel, or have ventured to cross the British
coast line. These are, of course, only the preliminary encounters
to the great air battles which lie ahead. But I know of no reason
why we should be discontented with the results so far achieved;
although, of course, we hope to improve upon them as the fighting
becomes more widespread and comes more inland. Around all lies
the power of the Royal Navy. With over a thousand armed ships
under the White Ensign, patrolling the seas, the Navy, which is
capable of transferring its force very readily to the protection
of any part of the British Empire which may be threatened, is
capable also of keeping open communication with the New World,
from whom, as the struggle deepens, increasing aid will come.
Is it not remarkable that after ten months of unlimited U-boat
and air attack upon our commerce, our food reserves are higher
than they have ever been, and we have a substantially larger tonnage
under our own flag, apart from great numbers of foreign ships
in our control, than we had at the beginning of the war? Why do
I dwell on all this? Not, surely, to induce any slackening of
effort or vigilance. On the contrary. These must be redoubled,
and we must prepare not only for the summer, but for the winter;
not only for 1941, but for 1942; when the war will, I trust, take
a different form from the defensive, in which it has hitherto
been bound. I dwell on these elements in our strength, on these
resources which we have mobilised and control-I dwell on them
because it is right to show that the good cause can command the
means of survival; and that while we toil through the dark valley
we can see the Sunlight on the uplands beyond.
I stand at the head of a Government representing
all Parties in the State-all creeds, all classes, every recognisable
section of opinion. We are ranged beneath the Crown of our ancient
monarchy. We are supported by a free Parliament and a free Press;
but there is one bond which unites us all and sustains us in the
public regard-namely (as is increasingly becoming known), that
we are prepared to proceed to all extremities, to endure them
and to enforce them; that is our bond of union in His Majesty's
Government tonight. Thus only, in times like these, can nations
preserve their freedom; and thus only can they uphold the cause
entrusted to their care.
But all depends now upon the whole life-strength
of the British race in every part of the world and of all our
associated peoples and of all our well-wishers in every land,
doing their utmost night and day, giving all, daring all, enduring
all-to the utmost-to the end. This is no war of chieftains or
of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of
peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this
Island but in every land, who will render faithful service in
this war, but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will
never be recorded. This is a War of the Unknown Warriors; but
let all strive without failing in faith or in duty, and the dark
curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age.
