peeled-静静的
When I awoke on the morning of Sunday, the
22nd, the news was brought to me of Hitler's
invasio
n of Russia. This changed
conviction
into certainty. I
had not the slightest doubt where our duty
a
nd our policy lay. Nor indeed what to
say. There only remained the task of composing it.
I asked th
at notice should immediately
be given that I would broad-cast at 9 o' clock
that night. Presently Ge
neral Dill, who
had hastened down from London, came into my
bedroom with detailed news. The
Germans
had invaded Russia on an enormous front, had
surprised a large portion of the Soviet Air
Force grounded on the airfields, and
seemed to be driving forward with great rapidity
and violence
. The Chief of the Imperial
General Staff added,
hordes
.
I spent the
day composing my statement. There was not time to
consult the War Cabinet, nor was i
t
necessary. I knew that we all felt the same on
this issue. Mr. Eden, Lord Beaverbrook, and Sir
Sta
fford Cripps
–
he had left Moscow on the 10th
–
were also with me during
the day.
The
following account of this Sunday at Chequers by my
Private Secretary, Mr. Colville, who
was
on duty this weekend, may be of
interest:
Mrs. Eden, and Edward
Bridges were staying. During dinner Mr. Churchill
said that a German atta
ck on Russia was
now certain, and he thought that Hitler
was counting on
enlisting
capitalist and
Right Wing sympathies in this country
and the U. S. A. Hitler was, however, wrong and we
should
go all out to help Russia.
Winant said the same would be true of the U. S. A.
After dinner,
when I was walking on the
croquet
lawn with Mr.
Churchill, he
reverted
to
this them
e, and I asked whether for
him, the arch anti-Communist, this was not bowing
down in the House
of Rimmon. Mr.
Churchill replied,
nd my life is much
simplified
thereby
. It
Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a
favourable
re
ference
to the Devil in the House of Commons. '
I was awoken at
4 a. m. the following morning by a telephone
message from the F. O. to the effect
that Germany had attacked Russia. The
P. M. had always said that he was never to be
woken up fo
r anything but Invasion (of
England). I therefore postponed telling him till 8
am. His only commen
t was, 'Tell the
B.B.C. I will broadcast at 9 to
–
night. 'He began to
prepare the speech at 11a. m., a
nd
except for luncheon
（
=
lunch
）
, at which Sir
Stafford Cripps, Lord Cranborne, and Lord
Beaverbrook were present,
he devoted
the whole day to
it…
The
speech was only ready at twenty minutes to
nine.
In this
broadcast I said:
regime
is
indistinguishable
from the
worst features of Communism. It is
devoid of
all
theme and principle except appetite and
racial domination. It
excels
all forms of human
wickednes
s in the efficiency of its
cruelty and
ferocious
aggression. No one has been a more
consistent
cons
istent
opponent of Communism than I have for
the last twenty - five years. I will
unsay
no word
t
hat I have spoken about it. But all
this fades away before the spectacle which is now
unfolding. Th
e past, with its crimes,
its follies, and its tragedies, flashes away. I
see the Russian soldiers standin
g on
the
threshold
of their
native land, guarding the fields which their
fathers have
tilled
from
tim
e
immemorial
.
I see them guarding their homes where mothers and
wives pray - ah, yes, for there
are
times when all pray
–
for
the safety of their loved ones, the return of the
bread-winner, of their
champion, of
their protector. I see the ten thousand villages
of Russia where the means of existenc
e
is
wrung
so
hardly
from the soil, but
where there are still
primordial
human joys, where
maiden
s laugh and children play. I see
advancing upon all this in
hideous
onslaught
the Nazi war machin
e, with
its
clanking
, heel-
clicking,
dandified
Prussian
officers, its
crafty
expert
agents fresh from
the
cowing
and
tying
down
of a dozen countries. I see also
the dull, drilled,
docile
,
brutish
mass
es of
the Hun soldiery
plodding
on
like a
swarm
of crawling
locusts. I see the German bombers an
d
fighters in the sky, still
smarting
from many a British
whipping, delighted to find what they
beli
eve is an easier and a safer prey.
villainous
men
who plan, org
anise, and launch this
cataract
of horrors upon
mankind...
ch
the great
Dominions
will in due
concur
–
for we must speak out now
at once, without a day's
delay. I have
to make the declaration, but can you doubt what
our policy will be? We have but one
aim
and one single,
irrevocable
purpose. We are
resolved to destroy Hitler and every
vestige
of th
e
Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us
–
nothing. We will never
parley
; we will never
nego
tiate with Hitler or any of his
gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight
him by sea, we shall
fight him in the
air, until, with God's help, we have rid
the earth of
his shadow and
liberated its pe
oples from his
yoke
. Any man or state who
fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any
man
or state who marches with Hitler is
our foe... That is our policy and that is our
declaration. It follo
ws therefore that
we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and
the Russian people. We shall
a
ppeal
to all our
friends and allies in every part of the world to
take the same course and
pursue
it,
as we shall faithfully
and
steadfastly
to the
end....
is engaged, without
distinction of race,
creed
,
or party. It is not for me to speak of the action
of th
e United States, but this I will
say
：
if Hitler imagines that
his attack on Soviet Russia will cause the
slightest
divergence
of aims
or
sl
ackening
of
effort in the great democracies who are resolved
upon his
doom
, he is
woefully
mista
ken. On the contrary, we shall be
fortified and encouraged in our efforts to rescue
mankind from hi
s
tyranny
. We shall be
strengthened and not weakened in determination and
in resources.
selves to be struck down one
by one, when by united action they could have
saved themselves and
saved the world
from this
tyranny
. But when
I spoke a few minutes ago of Hitler's
blood-lust
an
d
the hateful appetites which have
impelled
or
lured
him on his Russian adventure I said
there wa
s one deeper motive behind his
outrage
. He wishes to
destroy the Russian power because he
hope
s that if he succeeds in this he
will be able to bring back the main strength of
his Army and Air For
ce from the East
and hurl it upon this Island, which he knows he
must conquer or suffer the
penalt
y
of his
crimes. His invasion of Russia is no more than a
penalty
to an attempted
invasion of the B
ritish Isles. He
hopes, no doubt, that all this may be accomplished
before the winter comes, and th
at he
can overwhelm Great Britain before the Fleet and
air-power of the United States may
interve
ne
. He
hopes that he may once again repeat, upon a
greater scale than ever before, that process of