The Struggle For Peace

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Europe. Already there are indications that the process has
begun, and it is obvious that it is likely now to be speeded up.
" We ourselves will naturally turn first to our partners in
the British Commonwealth of Nations and to France, to
whom we are so closely bound, and I have no doubt that
others, too, knowing that we are not disinterested in what
goes on in South-Eastern Europe, will wish to have our
counsel and advice.
** In our own country we must all review the position
with that sense of responsibility which its gravity demands.
Nothing must be excluded from that review which bears upon
the national safety. Every aspect of our national life must be
looked at again from that angle. The Government, as always,
must bear the main responsibility, but I know that all indi-
viduals will wish to review their own position, too, and to
consider again if they have done all they can to offer their
service to the State.
" I do not believe there is anyone who will question my
sincerity when I say there is hardly anything I would not
sacrifice for peace. But there is one thing that I must except,
and that is the liberty that we have enjoyed for hundreds of
years, and which we will never surrender. That I, of all men,
should feel called upon to make such a declaration—that is the
measure of the extent to which these events have shattered the
confidence which was just beginning to show its head and
which, if it had been allowed to grow, might have made this
year memorable for the return of all Europe to sanity and
stability.
" It is only six weeks ago that I was speaking in this city,
and that I alluded to rumours and suspicions which I said
ought to be swept away. I pointed out that any demand to
dominate the world by force was one which the democracies
must resist, and I added that I could not believe that such a
challenge was intended, because no Government with the
interests of its own people at heart could expose them for
such a claim to the horrors of world war.
" And indeed, with the lessons of history for all to read,
it seems incredible that we should see such a challenge. I feel
bound to repeat that, while I am not prepared to engage this
country by new unspecified commitments operating under