My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory
of a party or of any class. It's a victory of the great British nation
as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword
against tyranny. After a while we were left all alone against the most
tremendous military power that has been seen. We were all alone for
a whole year.
There we stood, alone. Did anyone want to give in?
[The crowd shouted "No."] Were we downhearted? ["No!"]
The lights went out and the bombs came down. But every man, woman and
child in the country had no thought of quitting the struggle. London
can take it. So we came back after long months from the jaws of death,
out of the mouth of hell, while all the world wondered. When shall the
reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?
I say that in the long years to come not only will the people of this
island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human
hearts, look back to what we've done and they will say "do not
despair, do not yield to violence and tyranny, march straight forward
and die if need be-unconquered." Now we have emerged from one deadly
struggle-a terrible foe has been cast on the ground and awaits our judgment
and our mercy.
But there is another foe who occupies large portions
of the British Empire, a foe stained with cruelty and greed-the Japanese.
I rejoice we can all take a night off today and another day tomorrow.
Tomorrow our great Russian Allies will also be celebrating victory and
after that we must begin the task of rebuilding our hearth and homes,
doing our utmost to make this country a land in which all have a chance,
in which all have a duty, and we must turn ourselves to fulfill our
duty to our own countrymen, and to our gallant Allies of the United
States who were so foully and treacherously attacked by Japan. We will
go hand and hand with them. Even if it is a hard struggle we will not
be the ones who will fail.