MGR. GRIFFIN TALKS TO AMERICA On September 3, 1939, our Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, announced to this nation and to the world that we were at war with Germany, said Archbishop Griffin this week in a broadcast to America.
We all knew to what lengths our leaders had gone to preserve peace and that the responsibility of plunging Europe into war rested solely with Hitler and Nazi Germany. The Prime Minister ended the broadcast with these words : " It is evil things that we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution. And against them I am certain tbat the right will prevail. The country, backed by the Empire, Was poised for the greatest struggle of all time.
Mr. Chamberlain did not live to see his words fulfilled. To-day we know that his confident prayer has been answered. God in His goodness has blessed us and our cause. The evil things against Which we took up arms lie scattered in the dust. The right has prevailed. Thanks be to God.
It is not without profound stirrings of the emotions that we look back over the past few years and recapture the moods that settled upon this country as the war passed through its various phases. After the epic of Dunkirk and the niiraculous preservation of our armies, this country stood alone. The enemy was within twenty-five miles of our shores and in possession of overwhelming material resources. The fight was for our very existence; it was also for the existence of all free men and nations throughout the world.
OUR FRIENDS
In our plight we looked to you, our friends in America, and found all that friendship stands for among honourable men. In your late President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose untimely death we deeply.deplore, we found not only a man of understanding, hut a roan of practical sympathy, a man of
action. Under his inspiration, in re sponse to our appeal " to give us the tools," there began to flow into this country a generous supply of food and arms of which we stood in such dire; need.
That was just the beginning of the story of our close wartime collaboration. As a result of subsequent events, we in this country welcomedyour men here to take part in the ',eighty struggle for civilisation. Our men and yours joined in a comradeship of arms to resist the aggressor in the Far East.
OUR GRATITUDE
To-day our two countries are rejoicing in the victory that has come to our arms in Europe. To-day the citizens of the countries of Europe send their heartfelt gratitude to the citizens of the U.S.A. for the tremendous part they have played in liberating them from the Nazi yoke. The torch of freedom, threatened for so long, burns brightly still. To-day we unite in thanking God with all our beans for giving us victory.
There still remains the foe in the Far East. Your men and outs have still one supreme effort to make. May God bless them and prosper them in the perils through which they have yet to pass, and bring a swift end to hos
tilities in that theatre of war. Then will the victory bells throughout the whole world find a joyful echo in the hearts of all freedom-loving men. Your country and mine have 4been partners in a mighty enterprise, and now we share the success of our consmon endeavour. At this solemn moment we ought to pledge our word to each other, and to the world, to continue in the clorst harmony for the future benefit of mankind ; to work for world peace, based on the principles of justice and charity.