The speech for Queen Elizabeth to deliver in the event of
WWIII was recently made public by the British national archives. It was written
by government officials for hypothetical broadcast in the spring of 1983 when
Soviet-West relations were at their worst. The queen was to urge Britons to
remain united and resolute. Excerpts from the text:
"Now, this
madness of war is once more spreading through the world and our brave country
must again prepare itself to survive against great odds."
"If families
remain united and resolute, giving shelter to those living alone and
unprotected, our country's will to survive cannot be broken."
"I have
never forgotten the sorrow and the pride I felt as my sister and I huddled
around the nursery wireless set listening to my father's (King George VI's)
inspiring words on that fateful day in 1939 (at the start of the World War
Two)."Not for a single moment did I imagine that this solemn and awful duty would one day fall to me."
Catching this item on AOL News took me back much further – back
to the time in the 1940s when a very young Princess Elizabeth and her little
sister Margaret took to the airwaves themselves to encourage the English who
were literally under the gun during WWII.
It’s doubtful, of
course, that such a speech could be either broadcast or heard in the event of
nuclear war, but it’s certainly a noble gesture. As Lord Robert Baden-Powell
(founder of the Boy Scouts) admonished: Be Prepared.
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