The Strength and Threat of Japan

MR. HUMPHREYS: If asked how he would like to be introduced, I feel sure that Mr. Carney would suggest "Simply say I am a business man."

Our guest, Mr. Ralph W. Carney, is Vice-President of The Coleman Lamp and Stove Company of Wichita, Kansas, and as he and his chief, Mr. Coleman, put it, they have lost all their customers but one-a very big company known as "War Effort Unlimited."

For some time past Mr. Carney has given all the time he can spare as well as his outstanding talent as a public speaker to his fellow countrymen and others in the interests of "Unity of purpose and unity of action for the quick and complete defeat of the Axis powers."

Mr. Carney has much to say to us and I promised not to encroach upon his time. I shall say no more except this--in your name we welcome our guest and neighbour who will now address us on "The Strength and Threat of Japan to Canada and the Empire." Mr. Carney.

MR. CARNEY: Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the Empire Club and guests, and People of Canada

I am honored by your invitation to meet with you today and I have a great sense of responsibility for the value of the time of this grand audience and of those who may be listening at their radios.

While I am strange to you, both in name and person, I do not feel a stranger. You Canadians, and We Americans, are so much alike in our background, the origin of our blood, in our thinking, and in our hopes that when an American comes to Canada, it is just like first cousins visiting with each other.

Because of the pressure of radio time limitation, it is necessary that I speak rapidly in order to say even a portion of what is on my mind and in my heart and I ask, therefore, that you tune your minds and your ears to my speed of speech, and please do not think that because I talk rapidly that what I say has not been carefully considered.

It would be presumptuous, if not impertinent, if I were to come here and comment upon your prosecution of this war, or offer any advice whatsoever. I can only give you an opinion and make suitable confession of our own mistakes in America so that you may profit--not by our success--but by our failures.

My authority is a simple one. I do not carry the glamour of a Hollywood reputation, nor the glitter of a uniform. I'm a plain American business man with an unusual opportunity for observation. I have only one authority and that is a travelling experience equalled by no man in America and approached by only one woman!

I travel 150,000 miles a year, every year! That is six times around the world-pretty largely within the confines of the United States-some of it in your own beautiful country-some in Mexico, the West Indies and South America-most. of it at home. In these constant travels I am in daily contact with seat companions on trains and planes, in Pullman car washrooms-porters, taxi drivers, bell-hops, hotel clerks, endless committees of trade associations of every type and kind of business under the sun -war workers in plants in large groups, smaller training classes and individually at the machines. And so, I have a most interesting opportunity to sort of lay my ear on the breast of my own country and hear its heart beat and judge faintly, too, the pulse of your own nation.

Therefore, I am just an instrument--a voice--a reflector of what I see and hear.

I come to you today, and with considerable pride, from the World of Industry-Manufacturing Industry and what might be called, "Big Business". I fully appreciate that the shallow thinkers and the envious, out of their own sense of failure and frustration, very nearly succeeded in making those two words--"Big Business"--seem like an odious and a shameful thing, forgetting that Industry became big in both of our countries because it deserved to be; because it served our people well, brought them undreamed of comforts and the standard of living of which we have all been so proud.

Every time I go into a war plant today and see the enormous transformation that has taken place, and I know something of the sacrifices, in markets, in advertising values, in the memory of the Public, and the quite some considerable and frequent dollar losses on war contracts, I think of those who have attempted to destroy Industry, simply because it had become big, forgetting that only because it was big did we have better and better automobiles, and electric refrigerators, and radios, and heating equipment and not at higher and higher, because they were better, but at lower and lower prices! That's the entire history of all industry--a constantly improved product, at a constantly reduced price.

Oh, I wish these politicians who have shown so little consideration for the little business man, and who have attempted to rip big industry apart, would just humbly and thankfully follow the example that business has already set for them and give us better and better government, at lower and lower cost! Wouldn't that be something! And now, only the bigness of industry saves us from slavery

I am proud of the part that Industry has played in offering the facilities of their plants and machines, their processes, and their experience to their Government, in most cases, without thought of profits as a governing consideration, and with many losses already experienced. If any scoffer disbelieves that, let me remind him that with the income tax laws of today, the businessman is just a "middle man" for money. He takes it in but he doesn't keep it. He is like the bus driver, the street-car conductor. He receives the nickels when the passengers pay their fare but when he gets to the "car barn" he turns the nickels to the Government Treasury.

No aviator that brings down an enemy plane and no troop of soldiers with honored and tattered and shot-torn colors has a right to a greater pride than these factories who, in less time than anyone could have, believed, and in far less time than Germany guessed, have given us mass production of fighting planes and bombers and guns and ships and tanks and ammunition. It was Hitler's and Hirohito's one great miscalculation. They did not think it could be done!

The next time anybody, within my hearing, ever again impugns the overall honesty, fairness, unselfishness and true willingness to sacrifice of the Canadian and the American business man-and part of my purpose in travelling over our two countries is to put a ram-rod up the backs of business men who have been entirely too meak in speaking up for themselves-the next time anyone throws mud at business, I'm just going to ask him, very sharply, who it was we turned to in our hour of danger and distress. Was it to the crack-pots, the dreamers, the social planners, the something-for-nothing boys, or, was it to Canadian and American factories, built and managed under our system of private enterprise?

In this room here today, close by my side, sits one of my colleagues who knew the Germans and the Japs better than most of us because he travelled those countries for years. He was trying to convince me long before the war opened and I would not believe. He was one of these "business men" whom some labor leaders have come to regard as fair game for any kind of an unfair assault and some of our politicians had regarded as a poor, dumb, patient cow, fit only to give down his daily bucket of tax milk. He was not a paid government employee nor a member of our Intelligence Staff, but he knew, more than most, of the evil that was rising against us.

When the crisis came, this man did not say to the Canadian Government, "You cannot have our plant-our skill, and the labor of our people-unless you guarantee us premium profits-time and a half profits-double time profits." This man, who represents Industry, asked for nothing but the privilege of offering the complete facilities of his factory to Canada and to England, on September 27 of 1938one full year before the outbreak of war in Europe-and that factory began the making of war goods at a time when our politicians were misleading us with appeasement and Mr. Chamberlain, following the Munich conference was stepping out of a plane to announce, "It is Peace in our time"-Which was the better prophet?-This offer was not only concurred in but enthusiastically supported by his Parent Company.

If the example of my friend, with whom I am so proud to associate, had been followed by everyone, we might not even be in the war today. Certainly, we would have been better prepared and thousands of lives of our finest boys would have been saved.

This war, therefore, is real enough to Industry-to business of all classes-to the little man who has already gone out of business-to those who are going to go out of business-to those who are going to lose money by staying in business in order to maintain their organization, and to those who make money on operation but pay it back to the government in taxes.

This war still is not real to many millions of Americans and it may be even so to some thousands of Canadians.

Oh, sure, we see the headlines in the papers and I remember being in Canada when you were being led to think that you were winning in Europe and our people get excited when we knock a few Jap planes out of the sky or sink a ship.

This war isn't real to the point of being a bitter, personal war. Our cities haven't yet been bombed. Our countrysides have not been laid waste. We haven't yet dragged the bodies of Canadian and American women and babies out of the debris of destroyed buildings! We haven't yet sustained any of the agony of war--not unless you have already suffered the loss of a son.

Another reason I know that the war isn't real to millions of my own people, at least, is that as long as this little word "get" remains the great American word--as long as Government owned and other plants operating on a cost plus basis fail to provide proper planning; as long as management in such plants fails to impress upon and convince its employees that every dollar of cost is justified--farm organizations, through pressure of political blocs, try to get the highest possible price for farm products--prices come first, their country second, to their political leaders-as long as labour unions are trying to get the highest possible dollar volume of wage rates, ceaseless and unending demands for increased political power--the union first, their country second, and so clearly proven in endless strikes where the country suffers that one union may gain a victory over another; as long as politicians are thinking in terms of getting elected and selfish capitalists, in terms of getting richer-how can a war be real to people who think of it in terms of what they get out of it!

But I'll tell you where this war is real

Five minutes ago--just five minutes--in the Solomon Islands-in North Africa or over Europe--there was a Canadian boy alive, and full of life--and yet, Mothers of Canada--so young that he had hardly yet tasted any of the joys of living--just 19, 20, or 21.

He's there where he is with no choice in the matter. When he volunteered he didn't bargain or when he got his call to join up, he didn't say, "Now, wait just a minute, Mr. Prime Minister-wait just a minute! What kind of a deal are you going to make me? Several of the boys here, and I, have gotten together and we want to bargain with you. How much are you going to pay me? How many hours am I going to be on duty? How much extra are you going to pay me for every hour over eight? I'm not going to fight on Saturdays nor report for duty on Sundays! What about my social gains-my rights-my privileges? What about my standard of living that must not be reduced in any way!"

He's there, thousands of miles from his mother, wife, or sweetheart, and the play of children--his education interrupted--his job and lifework impeded--in filthy jungles and fox-holes--and for how much? In Canada just $1.30 a day, most of them.

He doesn't say, "I will not give my service unless I get all of the things I demand!" He just gives his service! That's all

And because he is only a boy, every day he's thinking about home. He's thinking of that thrill-packed moment when he'll get off the train and say ,"Hello Dad!", and kiss his mother, and draw his wife or his sweetheart to him, and go home, arm in arm, for a big home cooked dinner where they can be proud of him and a little excited, and at last hear of his experiences.

Every day and every night he's thinking about home and what he's going to do, too, when he gets there.

That was five minutes ago-when I first started talking about him-and now, already-right now-HE'S DEAD! Right now, he is! Torn from life in any of the countless ways a man can die in war.

If you could be there where he is--not here in perfect comfort or sitting before your radios--be there where he is--and with your own eyes, see that one boy die, and witness his agony before death releases him from it, and then be in the home of his parents a few weeks later when they get the news from the War Department--see the happiness of another Canadian home forever collapse and hear the sobs of another broken-hearted Gold Star Mother-by the Eternal God! You'd know where war was real! And for nothing he got out of it-nothing that he asked for, either!

We have developed some rather superficial ideas of patriotism the past few years. It isn't enough to stand up when they play, "God Save the King," nor applaud the flag in a news reel! It isn't nearly enough

We must accept the fact that Patriotism now means pain, and sacrifice-and that's a word I am of raid we do not yet know the meaning of-most of us at least. Patriotism means bloodshed, and heartache, and we must dismiss from our minds any thought of what me might hope to get and think only in terms of what we can give and do, to the very full limit of our doing. We must not confuse inconvenience with sacrifice

We made another fundamental mistake at the beginning of this war-we thought it would be like the last one. Well, it isn't! It isn't anything at all like the last one!

This is a war of an indulgent, luxury--loving, appeasement-minded America and the British Empire, against a lean, hard, fit, well-trained and--never doubt it--still powerful Germany, overlord and master of all Europe, and with the slave labor of all of Europe's millions making weapons for its Master and as far as the over-all military situation is concerned, as the map behind me so clearly indicates--a completely victorious Japan, conqueror of an empire potentially stronger than Russia, or Germany, or the British Empire, or the United States.

We are facing, too, not only in Europe, but even more so in the Pacific, an entirely new kind of an enemy-witness the murder of those American flyers-prisoners of war, daring and honorable ones-an enemy with new and horrible ideas, bestial, pagan, soul-destroying-an enemy newly equipped with a 20 years carefully concealed preparation upon the part of Japan-preparation for which my country furnished the scrap iron!

And for what I say to you in the next few minutes, do not think I am a pessimist. It is not that we shall not win some day. It is a matter of time and cost that I consider with you now.

I am just a realist. So are the leaders of our countries. Mr. Roosevelt said the other day:

"This is not the time for exultation. There is no time now for anything but working and fighting."

Your own matchless Churchill, upon the landing in Africa warned:

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is perhaps the end of the beginning."

Following the Casablanca Conference, Mr. Churchill again admonished

"I know of nothing that has happened yet which justifies the hope that war will not be long and that bitter and bloody years do not lie ahead."

For those of you who may be indulging in wishful thinking, examine this war map with me. It so clearly demonstrates the task on which we have hardly yet begun.

Every Rising Sun flag--and there are 60 of them on this map--identifies a known, strongly fortified naval and air base, island and mainland--stretching in an enormous archipelago--a vast, new and enveloping empire--5,000 miles long, 2,500 miles wide, for those who think of Japan as two or three little Islands!

In this area, lies about one-fourth of all of the wealth of the world and a great percentage of its total manpower. A large percentage of the native populations of Malaya and Burma have already proven themselves proJapanese. We have thought of Java as a cup of coffee. I wonder how many know that on that island there are 43,000,000 people, mostly natives. A great proportion of that male population can easily become part of Japanese military manpower.

If there is any one thing this war has proven, it is that any ship afloat is at the mercy of land based bombers. Study this map and the distances and you will understand why Japan started a war she did not think she could lose. There isn't a single spot where United Nations task forces can proceed beyond Guadalcanal and not be within range of the Japanese land based bombers.

When the Japs sank your Prince of Wales and Repulse, they then felt sure that no hostile force could ever successfully run the gauntlet so clearly shown on this map.

How excited we, in America, became over Guadalcanal and the sinking of a few Jap ships. I have asked many an American audience to face the facts with me. We landed on Guadalcanal over nine months ago. In that length of time, (for those of you who think in terms of a short war) and at a cost of 38%0 of our Pacific Fleet today at the bottom of the ocean-32 American war ships sunk and how many lives, I do not know, we have that one little fly-speck--that tiny island 60 x 90 miles and one airport!

Here, a short distance away, is the great base of Truk at which General MacArthur warns us, the Japanese have gathered 250 000 tons of shipping. Amboina is the former great Dutch naval base.

Nine months, it took for Guadalcanal-General MacArthur and his brave Australians, seven months, to gain a couple of "yards through the line" at the tip end of New Guinea.

At this rate, how long, Oh Lord, how long, will it take to drive them out! And not until every Rising Sun flag shall be replaced with the Star of the United Nations, shall this task be finished.

And in this area, there is a second enemy almost as deadly to white men as the. Japanese themselves, and that is malaria, and other tropical diseases that, at one time or another, placed flat on their backs, one-half of the total occupying force at Guadalcanal.

To those of you who dismiss this strength and strategic power--these unsinkable aircraft carriers--this accumulation of men, and plane, and ammunition, and food, and native populations, and say, "Oh well, we're not going to do it that way! We're going to attack Japan direct from China!"

Well, that's fine! Take a look at this map and tell me how we're going to get into China, completely surrounded as it is, mainland, coast points, Indo-China, Siam, and Burma-and open only on the Russian side.

I have freely admitted our weaknesses and it now must be confessed that General Wavell's second campaign in Burma is a failure and a defeat and we are no closer to driving the Japanese out than we were a year ago and the Japanese are infinitely stronger.

Japan can place 11,000,000 soldiers in the field--as great an army as America can raise and equip. That is because there is no percentage of the Japanese male population engaged in supporting any form of personal comfort. They are in the Army and everyone at home is supporting the Army by every hour of their labor, and the sacrifice of everything but the barest sustenance.

Let me say to you, that with Rommel driven out of Africa, Italy over-run and Germany out of the war altogether, we may find that 90,000,000 Japs, plus native populations, fighting in their own front yard, fanatics--all to gain and nothing to lose--soldiers who can live on a bowl of rice a day and who have already shown that they must be killed to be defeated--can be very hard to lick unless 12,000,000 Canadians and 130,000,000 Americans take them more seriously and fight this war harder and with a more bitter intensity than we have up to now.

Eight months ago, we were experiencing this same wave of optimism that is now deceiving our people. I want you to see what can happen when we quit fighting, before the enemy has stopped.

We were so optimistic then and from all over the United States, eight months ago, there came the murmur and prediction of a short war.

There'd be a Second Front in 1942! We were well into 1943 and there is, yet, no true Second Front because you know very well our people and Mr. Stalin interpreted a Second Front in terms of a landing on the Continent of Europe. They neglected, too, to say how we would land and equip an army on the Continent of Europe, before our weapons were yet forged and our soldiers trained, particularly in view of the fact that Germany, with all of her advance preparation, had only been able to get Rudolph Hess into England!

The outcome of Coral Sea and Midway had removed the threat to Alaska, and Hawaii, and the Pacific Coast. Sure, the Japs had landed in the Aleutians but we'd knock them out when the fog lifted and anyway, Doolittle had bombed Tokyo!

Oh, how excited we got over light, left jabs that have done no more than bring a little blood and bruise the nose of a powerful enemy that has plunged ahead just the same, to achieve every single objective, in less time and at a price -less than he was willing to pay. We made the fatal mistake of confusing blows struck, for victories.

The Russians were holding and counter-attacking. The British had superiority in men and equipment at the rate of 8 to 5 in Libya but even Mr. Churchill, with his profound common sense, was led astray because he announced to the world while he was in Washington then that, "There is no doubt but what General Rommel's plans had gone completely awry." Remember?

And somehow, in that rosy glow and while our faces were turned toward Europe, a greater enemy was growing stronger at our backs--the stings and the aches, and the shame of--count them with me--because it is the unfinished job regardless of what happens to Hitler--Hong Kong, Indo-China, Siam, Malaya, Singapore, Manila, Bataan, Sumatra, Java, New Guinea, Wake Island, Pearl Harbor, Dutch Harbor-well, it didn't seem quite so painful. By refusing to look, we pretended that those defeats were not there.

We scrambled among ourselves to get aboard War's "gravy train." Strikes loomed up. And in spite of the solemn promise of the leaders of both unions in my country, that there would be no more strikes--well, what is the record?

In May and June of last year there were 340 strikes in war plants alone--700 strikes of all kinds in the State of Michigan alone.

Some of these strikes can be attributed to management--some to labor--most of them were the result of differences of opinion which could have been and should have been settled by agreement in this national emergency. Between May and December last year, there were lost in America 6,600,000 man days of labor--priceless time that can never be regained-for which our sons' lives will pay the penalty.

I could give you the record of strikes over jurisdictional disputes where there were no wage disagreements but just a quarrel between unions and where each union made its own interests paramount to the safety of their country.

I do not know what you think about it up here and you're beginning to have your own troubles, but I want to tell you what fathers and mothers are saying in United States, "Any time any man leaves work in a war plant today, for any reason whatsoever except serious illness, he ought to be in the Army tomorrow, at Army pay and incurring a soldier's risks."

Suppose an entire division of soldiers in an important sector, with the lives of our countries at stake, should all at once, throw down its arms and refuse to fight. How quickly those self-same strikers would use the words, "Coward" and "Quitter" and "Traitor."

Well, what's the difference? You tell me! What's the difference between a man who throws down a gun and the man who throws down the tools with which that gun and its ammunition is made!

Well, because of all of this-our fighting a part-time war in our thinking-this mistaking blows for victories, forgetting that there is no victory until we have reoccupied every one of those territories marked with the flag of Japan-because selfish business men were thinking of profits, and politicians of elections, and laborers of wages, and farmers of prices-what was the hang-over of the morning after Mr. Churchill's sincere but mistaken prophecy?

Well, Tobruk was taken and the British were driven from Libya. Rommel's forces came within 90 miles of Alexandria and the capture of Alexandria might have meant the end of the war.

China's back to the wall with the Burma Road closed and most of her airfields in the hands of the Japanese.

Japan's strengthening of her outposts toward Australia as Generals MacArthur and Blarney have warned us, and capitalizing upon all of her enormous material conquests in the South Pacific and the Dutch East Indies.

The Japanese still encamped in the Aleutians and growing stronger.

India seething with unrest.

Japan growing stronger as Germany grows weaker and not enough Allied ships, or planes, in the Pacific to uphold General MacArthur's hands and adequately defend Australia.

It's time we faced facts as they are! This isn't a war to be fought only by armies and navies and air fleets--that this war attacks and, as they have found out in England, must therefore be fought by civilians as well--farmers who grow food without regard to the price--just grow food to feed our peoples and our armies--workers who forge weapons without regard to pay and premium pay for every extra effort-making weapons to defend the lands we love--business men who give of their substance to the Red Cross--who buy more bonds than they think they can possibly afford instead of buying as few as they can get by with and escape censure--and the whole great Public of our countries who can well afford to do without now and buy bonds until there is nothing left of their income but a bare living and fight, as the Russians fight, and meet the Japanese on their own terms.

Every Canadian is a soldier in this fight--some in uniform, suffering and dying; and all of the rest of us with the easy end of it, supplying the food and the weapons, and the dollars, and no man, woman or child can escape his share.

There is no referee to judge this fight--no draw decision. Take a look at that map again and contemplate the power, the persistence, the fanaticism of a country who does nothing but fight while we still try to live comfortable lives--and realize that this is for "keeps"

It is just win-or-lose! And the sobering thought is, that Japan did not start nor Germany or Italy support a war they did not think they could win. And they knew more about our resources than we knew about theirs.

They only miscalculated on one point and it will be their undoing. They failed to judge correctly, the unconquerable spirit of an inspired, United Nations--of a people that think in terms of giving and not in terms of getting, and what a free people can do when they once know what they must do.

And this, then, is the crux of the matter. Leave not the fighting to our soldiers and sailors and flyers, but let us, each one of us, MAKE WAR! MAKE WAR! Fight War, in our thinking! Make War with our hands and labor! Make War with our prayers! Make War in the enduring of discomforts! Make War with our dollars and make war with a bitter, relentless fighting spirit that stops for no cheering until the enemy is dead!

I want to read you a despatch and then I'll be through, because this the kind of a boy that I have in mind when I pleaded for no cessation of labor, for the opening of your hearts and your pocketbooks, in furnishing the dollars needed for equipment and supplies

There were two letters in the bulky envelope marked "Passed by Naval Censor" which Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Glorch of Chicago opened with trembling fingers. The first was in the familiar handwriting of their son Henry, Machinist Mate, First Class, Class, aboard the U.S.S. George' F. Elliott. The second was in an unfamiliar script. Naturally, they first read the letter from their son:

"Dear Mother and Dad

This is one letter I hope you'll never get. Funny way to start a letter, isn't it? But it's the best I can do under the circumstances because if you do get it, that means I have been very unfortunate.

Tomorrow, I will have the great honor to participate in Uncle Sam's first move of retaliation against the Japs and, believe me, I can't wait. Boy, Oh Boy, have they got a surprise coming to them! We've been cruising around the Coral Sea for the last couple of days, just passing the time away while a few of our planes and destroyers and cruisers and stuff, were dropping cold steel messages on the Solomons to sort of soften them up a little. Boy, am I glad I'm not a Jap! Especially the way some of our Marines are acting up.

Serious, they are, and making expert and tricky preparation. Our job, of course, is to get them to the beach as fast and as many as we can. And we'll do it, too, if we have to swim ashore with the Marines on our backs, because I don't believe in history, a bunch of men have gone into any engagement as cold, as calm and as confident as this group and there will be only one answer-it will be successful.

As I write this, I want you to know, Mama, that I'm not writing because I have any premonition of anything happening to me. I'm just writing this because, in case I do get mine, you'll know I got it like a man with a clear conscience and I'm not afraid to die for my country. Believe me and please don't grieve, for this will all soon be over. I will have only one regret and that is I did not see you once more. I love my father and mother and family more than I ever told you.

I'll put this letter in my locker, and in case it happens, my buddy has instructions to mail it to you first thing. I hope he never gets the chance. I'll close this letter now and try to catch a few hours snooze before we get ready to make the Japs remember Pearl Harbor.

So, it's goodbye and good sailing and my most sincere love to all the family and my friends. Your fond and loving son, Henry"

The other letter is from Henry's buddy, John Demarskey, who said he was carrying out instructions in mailing the letter. "I don't know just what to write," Demarskey said to the family. "You're lost a very fine son and I've lost a very fine buddy."

Well, what price--the life of a boy like that? A boy with a mind that can write that kind of a letter--with that heart and soul and flaming courage! What price!

Did he bargain with his country for his services? Did he put it on a basis of time and a half and overtime? Did he say, "I will not fight until you give me more than I am getting or as much as someone else?" No! He said, "I can't wait!"

Let me tell you that any one in management or labor who causes men to stop work making arms to defend boys like that, sells out his country just as surely as Judas took his 30 pieces of silver. You must not let that happen in Canada

Profit, please, from our weakness and timidity in the United States.

And what is all of this for: My appeal to you today--the deeper sacrifices that you are called upon to make and the loss of the lives of boys like the one whose letter I have just read?

It is for this thing that perhaps some of you have come to take for granted--from which many have taken much and given back so little--it is for this thing you call, "THE BRITISH EMPIRE."

Have you ever thought of what it really is--this British Empire that you talk about, hear about over the radio, read about in history, and that, in personification, you ask God to save, in your famous song?

Well, let me, an American, respectfully salute you, bid you goodbye, and thank you for your attention here today, by telling you what I think it is . . . .

The British Empire is the "Sleeping, Appeasing Giant" among nations, suddenly transformed by bombs on Warsaw into a Smashing Colossus and a terrible instrument of righteous vengeance; the joyrider turned Pilot of the R.C.A.F. and the R.A.F.; the jazz orchestra become the fife and drum corps.

It is Piccadilly Circus and The Savoy, suddenly warmed by the Spirit of Waterloo and the defeat of the Spanish Armada; it is the night club, the hunting-lodge and the country club discarding its play clothes for uniform and jumpers, and the sign of the Red Cross upon its sleeve.

It is waltz music and the rhumba, shifting to the blare of bugles; it is all the trivial ditties of Tin Pan Alley welling into "O Canada" and "God Save the King."

It is the soda clerk dying for democracy, the fat man on the golf links flinging away his clubs to become an air warden; the youth on a tennis court suddenly flashing through the air to bomb the Bismarck.

It's the cry of "Gimme, Gimme," changing to "Take all I have if you need it" and the slogans, "Every man for himself" and "What do I get out of it" becomes again, "England expects every man to do his duty."

It's the Mayfair playboy turned parachute trooper; a grimy coaltown laborer leading a suicide squadron to retake Singapore; the village ne'er-do-well on a mine sweeper in a raging sea; the top dancer stripped to the waist in a blazing gun turret; the ex-gangster finding his soul in the emulation of Air Marshals Blishop and Fleming and Edith Cavell.

It is a cocktail lounge transformed into a barracks; a youth idling on a Newfoundland beach suddenly giving his life in defense of a lonely colonial outpost; it is laughter in a western chuck-wagon, turning into a hoarse shout of "Let 'em have it" from a Churchill tank.

It's the club car fading into an armored car--the deluxe sleeper into an ammunition train and the porter into Gunga Din; the Timid Soul laying down his life for a pal.

The street corner idler winning a citation for valor; the "boy who wasn't much use" sticking to the guns of a flaming, sinking cruiser, taking one last defiant shot before a cold and pitiless ocean closes over to strangle out his life.

It is the Three-Hours-for-Lunch fellow carrying a sandwich and the labor unions keeping their promise that there shall be no more strikes.

It is Clive of India, Kitchener of Khartoum, Wellington of Waterloo; Sir Douglas Haig, Wavell and Montgomery; Lord Nelson, Henry Morgan and Admirals Jellicoe and Beatty; Gladstone, Disraeli and Edmund Burke; Henry VIII and Cromwell and William the Conqueror; the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Windsor; William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Charles Dickens, and Browning and Sir Walter Scott; Queen Victoria and Lady Astor; Gracie Fields and Sir Harry Lauder and Noel Coward; Robert Bruce and Sean O'Malley; De Valera and Lloyd George; the Welsh miner in the coal-blackened bowels of the earth and his thunderous chorus, the skyscraper scrub-woman and the colonel's lady.

It's Westminster Abbey, Scotland's moors and its heather--Ireland's shamrock and her songs--Limehouse, the Lions of Trafalgar Square--Big Ben and the Tower of London--Nova Scotia's fishing banks, the mines of Kimberley, Australia's sheep and her fighting heart--New Zealand's lonesome bravery--the Canadian RockiesLake Louise and Banff--Montreal and Quebec and Ottawa and Toronto--and the great sublime future of Canada.

It is Curtin of Australia, MacKenzie King, Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill-the King and sweet Queen Elizabeth-God truly save them-and the Unknown. Soldier-the Union Jack and the Maple Leaf and the awful majesty of that deathless name-THE BRITISH EMPIRE!

What a proud people you should be! And it is every man, woman and child who buys a Victory Bond and stamp, supports the Red Cross, gives his blood for plasma, glowing in sacrifice that becomes pain as our wounded bear their pain so that, truly, "There will always be an England!"

It's self-interest becomes self-sacrifice--the spirit of indifference become the Spirit of General Montgomery--the homestead turned kirk or cathedral because of the prayers of mothers there; the dingy town become a flaming symbol because it has given birth to heroes; and the human heart and soul become torch and beacon to light the way to Liberty and Freedom for all of the oppressed peoples of the world.

That, is the BRITISH EMPIRE!

That, too, is Canada, and it is for that, that we work, and pray, and fight! And unto whom we surrender up our sons!

God Save the King and bless the British Empire--the people here assembled, and may you serve your King and Queen and Empire even better now, with your influence and your effort and your unsparing dollars!