Though we hardly needed it, we
received further confirmation this week that the declaration of war against
Germany had nothing to do with Poland, and was in fact a brutal war of
aggression launched for economic and Jewish reasons against the peaceful German
people.
An early version of the ‘King’s
Speech’ reveals Britain
was preparing to declare war on Germany before Hitler invaded Poland.
George VI’s address to the nation,
depicted in the 2010 movie starring Colin Firth as the stammering monarch, had
been written at least nine
days beforehand.
The three-page document that has
come to light is entitled ‘Draft King’s Speech’ and is dated August 25, 1939.
The document, which was written on
August 25, 1939 – seven days before Germany’s invasion of Poland – has come to
light after 74 years.
The typed document, the second draft
of the speech, was retained by civil servant Harold Vale Rhodes, who had
previously written a first attempt.
In a pencilled note in the left-hand
margin, Mr Rhodes criticised the length of some of the sentences in the second
draft and hinted that his should be used.
It would appear his advice was
followed – the final speech read to the nation and the Commonwealth by the King
on September 3 contained shorter, more concise sentences.
Although the tone remained the same,
some of the content was significantly different. For instance, it did not
mention Germany or Hitler by name but merely ‘our enemies’.
The early draft accused Germany of
being a bully that wanted to dominate the world by brute force and stressed
that ‘we are fighting for the principles of freedom and justice’.
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