[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio version .]
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen:
I am honored today by being received in your ancient university, and by the address which has been given to me on your behalf, and which I greatly value.
I wish to speak to you today about the tragedy of Europe.
This noble continent, comprising on the whole the fairest and the most cultivated regions of the earth, enjoying a -- a temperate and equable climate, is the home of all the great parent races of the western world. It is the fountain of Christian faith and Christian ethics. It is the origin of most of the culture, the arts, philosophy, and science -- both of ancient and modem times.
If Europe were once united in the sharing of its common inheritance, there would be no limit to the happiness, to the prosperity and the glory which its three or four hundred million people would enjoy. Yet, it is from Europe that have sprung that series of frightful nationalistic quarrels, originated by the Teutonic nations in their rise to power, which we have seen in this 20th century, and even in our own lifetime, wreck the peace and mar the prospects of all mankind.
And what is the plight to which Europe has been reduced?
Some of the smaller states have indeed made a -- a good recovery, but over wide areas a vast, quivering mass of tormented, hungry, careworn, and bewildered human beings gape at the ruins of their cities and their homes, and scan the dark horizons for the approach of some new peril, tyranny, or terror.
Among the victors there is a babel of
voices; among the vanquished the sullen silence of despair. That is all
that Europeans, grouped in so many ancient states and nations -- that is
all that the Germanic races have got by tearing each other to pieces and
spreading havoc far and wide. Indeed, but for the fact that the Great Republic across the Atlantic
Ocean had at length realized that the ruin
or enslavement of Europe would involve their own fate as well, and has
stretched out hands of succor and of guidance -- but for that, the Dark
Ages would have returned in all their cruelty and squalor. Gentlemen, they may still return.
Yet, all the while there is a remedy which, if it were generally and
spontaneously adopted by the great majority of people in many lands,
would as if by a miracle transform the whole scene and would in a few years
make all Europe, or the greater part of it, as free and as happy as
Switzerland is today. What is this sovereign remedy? It is to recreate
the European fabric, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with
a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom.
We must build a kind of United States of Europe.
In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living. The process is simple. All that is needed is the resolve of hundreds of millions of men and women to do right instead of wrong, and to gain as their reward blessing instead of cursing. Much work has been done upon this task by the exertions of the Pan-European Union, which owes so much to Count Coudenhove-Kalergi and which commanded the services of the famous French patriot and statesman, Aristide Briand.
There is also that immense body of doctrine and procedure which was brought into being amid high hopes after the First World War: I mean, the League of Nations. The League of Nations did not fail because of its principles or conceptions. It failed because these principles were deserted by those states who had brought it into being. It failed because the governments of those days feared to face the facts and act while time remained. This disaster must not be repeated. There is, therefore, much knowledge and material with which to build and also bitter, dear bought experience to spur the builders.
The League of Nations did not fail because of its principles or conceptions. It failed because these principles were deserted by those States who had brought it into being. It failed because the Governments of those days feared to face the facts and act while time remained. This disaster must not be repeated. There is, therefore, much knowledge and material with which to build; and also bitter dear-bought experience.
I was very glad to read in the newspapers two days ago that my friend, President Truman, had expressed his interest and sympathy with this Great Design.
There is no reason why a regional organization of Europe should in any way conflict with the world organization of the United Nations. On the contrary, I believe that the larger synthesis will only survive it is -- if it is founded upon coherent natural groupings. There is already a natural grouping in the Western Hemisphere. We British have our own Commonwealth of Nations.1 These do not weaken, on the contrary they strengthen, the world organization. They are in fact its main support. And why should there not be a European group which could give a sense of enlarged patriotism and common citizenship to the distracted peoples of this turbulent and mighty continent? And why should it not take its rightful place with other great groupings and help to shape the onward destinies of men?
In order that this should be accomplished, there must be an act of faith in which millions of families speaking many languages must consciously take part. We all know that the two world wars through which we have passed arose out of the vain passion of a newly united Germany to play the dominating part in the world. In this last struggle, crimes and massacres have been committed for which there is no parallel since the invasion of the Mongols in --in the fourteenth century; and no equal at any time in human history.
The guilty must be punished. Germany must be deprived of the power to rearm and make another aggressive war. But when all this has been done, as it will be done, as it is being done, then there must be an end to retribution. There must be what Mr. Gladstone many years ago called “a blessed act of oblivion.”2 We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past. We must look to the future. We cannot afford to drag forward across the years that are to come the hatreds and revenges which have sprung from the injuries of the past. If Europe is to be saved from infinite misery, and indeed from final doom, there must be this act of faith in the European family; and this act of oblivion against all the crimes and follies of the past.
Can the free peoples of Europe rise to the height of these resolves of the soul and of the instincts of the spirit of man? If they can, the wrongs and injuries which have been inflicted will have been washed away on all sides by the miseries which have been endured. Is there any need for further floods of agony? Is the only lesson of history to be that mankind is unteachable? Let there be justice, mercy, and freedom. The people have only to will it, and all will achieve their hearts' desire.
I am now going to say something that will astonish you.
The first step in the re-creation of the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany. In this way only can France recover the moral and cultural leadership of Europe. There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany. The structure of the United States of Europe, if well and truly built, will be such as to make the material strength of a single state less important. Small nations will count as much as large ones and gain their honor by their contribution to the common cause.
The ancient states and principalities of Germany, freely joined together for mutual convenience in a federal system, might each take their individual places among the United States of Europe. I shall not try to make a detailed program for hundreds of millions of people who want to be happy and free, prosperous and safe, who wish to enjoy The Four Freedoms of which the great President Roosevelt spoke, and live in accordance with the principles embodied in the Atlantic Charter. If this is their wish, if this is the wish of Europeans in so many lands, they have only to say so, and means can certainly be found, and machinery erected, to carry that wish to full fruition.
But I must give you a warning: Time may be short. At present, there is a breathing-space. The cannons have ceased firing. The fighting has stopped but the dangers have not stopped. If we are to form a United States of Europe, or whatever name it may take, we must begin now.
In these present days we dwell strangely and precariously under the shield, and will even say protection, of the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb is still only in the hands of a State and nation which we know will never use it except in the cause of right and freedom. But it may well be that in a few years this awful agency of destruction will be widespread, and the catastrophe following from its use by several warring nations will not only bring to an end all that we call civilization, but may possibly disintegrate the globe itself.
I must now sum up the propositions which are before you:
Our constant aim must be to build and fortify the strength of the United Nations Organization.
Under and within that world concept, we must re-create the European family in a regional structure called, it may be, the United States of Europe.
And the first practical step would be to form a Council of Europe.
If at first all the States of Europe are not willing or able to join the Union, we must nevertheless proceed to assemble and combine those who will and those who can. The salvation of the common people of every race and of every land from war or servitude must be established on solid foundations and must be guarded by the readiness of all men and women to die rather than submit to tyranny.
In all this urgent work, France and Germany must take the lead together. Great Britain, the British Commonwealth of Nations, mighty America, and, I trust, Soviet Russia -- for then indeed all would be well -- must be the friends and sponsors of the new Europe and must champion its right to live and shine.
And, therefore, I say to you: Let Europe arise!
1 Participants in the First (1945) and Second (1946) Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference were the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa.
2 Quotation unconfirmed as delivered; the words may have been first offered up in Gladstone's speech of 1876 at Blackheath in reference to the Ottoman Empire's vicious response to the Bulgarian revolt of 1876. Gladstone does use the term "blessed oblivion" in his House of Commons speech of 1886 in reference to the question of Irish Home Rule.
Research Note: The transcription above is derived from an audio version (also above), which may have been edited at the source. Therefore, it cannot be said with reasonable certainty that the transcription above constitutes a complete record of everything delivered by Churchill on this occasion.
Page Updated: 2/5/24
U.S. Copyright Status: Text = Public domain.