singular peculiarity, that he arouses in us, from the onset, a
profound, instinctive, intuitive feeling of antipathy. But, even so
and wherever our preferences may have lain, our treaties, our pledged
word, the very reason of our existence, all forbade us to take part in
the conflict. Then came the incredible ultimatum, the monstrous demand
of which you know, which gave us twelve hours to choose between ruin
and death or dishonour. As you also know, we did not need twelve hours
to make our choice. This choice was no more than a cry of indignation
and resolution, spontaneous, fierce and irresistible. We did not stay
for a moment to ponder the extenuating circumstances which our
weakness might have invoked. We did not for a moment consider the
absolution which history would have granted us later, on realizing
that a conflict between forces so completely disproportioned was
futile, that we must inevitably be crushed, massacred and annihilated
and that the sacrifice of a little people in its entirety could
prevent nothing, could barely cause delay and would have no weight in
the immense balance into which the world's destinies were about to be
flung. There was no question of all this; we saw one thing only: our
plighted word. For that word we must die; and since then we have been
dying. Trace the course of history as far back as you will; question
the nations of the earth; then name those who have done or who would
have done what we did. How many will you find? I am not judging those
whom I pass over in silence, for to do so would be to enter into the
secret of men's hearts which I have not the right to violate; but in
any case there is one which I can name aloud, without fear of being
mistaken; and that is the British nation. This people too entered into
the conflict, not through interest or necessity or inherited hatred,
but simply for a matter of honour. It has not suffered what we have
suffered; it has not risked what we have risked, which is all that we
possessed beneath the arch of heaven; but it owes this immunity only