August 2, 2015

Finest Hour 167, Special Issue 2015

Page 20

By Sir Robert Menzies

Remarks made by former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies on the BBC during Churchill’s Funeral.

Some day, some year, there will be old men and women whose pride it will be to say, “I lived in Churchill’s time.” Some will be able to say, “I saw him, and I heard him—the unforgettable voice and the immortal words.” And some will be able to say, “I knew him, and talked with him, and was his friend.”

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This I can, with a mixture of pride and humility, say for myself. The memory of this moves me deeply now that he is dead, but is gloriously remembered by me as he goes to his burial amid the sorrow, and pride, and thanks, of all of you who stand and feel for yourselves and for so many millions.

Many of you will not need to be reminded, but some, the younger among you, the inheritors of his master-strokes for freedom, may be glad to be told your country, and mine, and all the free countries of the world, stood at the very gates of destiny in 1940 and 1941 when the Nazi tyranny threatened to engulf us, and when there was no “second front” except out own….

There were, in 1940, defeatists, who felt that prudence required submission or such terms as might be had. There were others who, while not accepting the inevitability of defeat, thought that victory was impossible.

Winston Churchill scorned to fall into either category, and he was right. With courage, and matchless eloquence, and human understanding, he inspired us and led us to victory.