DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49383#0080
72
CHA PT EH TV,
responsibility. We have eagerly responded to the trumpet call of
the Empire at the present moment by assembling here, not because
it is a privilege to assist in her hour of need the great country that
has wished India well and has guided her destinies for 160 years.
What is real friendship? What are-the bonds of partnership? With
the words of the gracious message of the Emperor of India ringing
in our ears, with the Prime Minister’s appeal fresh in our minds, is it
likely, I ask, that the heart of India can lie dormant at this time ?
Is it possible to conceive that India is going to let this opportunity
go by to prove, as she has proved in the past, that, according to her
power and circumstances, she is true to herself and so is
determined to be true to the Empire of which she forms an integral
part ?
It was truly put once by one of Your Excellency’s predecessors
when, talking to India, he said “You cannot do without us. We
should be impotent without you.” If this is so, and it is so, then let
this sacred union be a consecration at the altar of divine love for the
advance of both countries to the highest purpose of life. India is
proud of her connection with the country whose love of justice and
liberty is now being practically tested on the anvil of the battlefield
and every blow is aciding lustre and glory before the world, to the
steel foundations on which her structure is built. With such
a country our destinies are bound and with her we rise, witfe her
we fall.
Our Motherland, like any other country in the world, has her
domestic needs. She requires many adjustments of her present
conditions. She aspires, and legitimately so, to strengthen, if
possible, her position within the Empire so that she may no longer
go forth before the world with bent head. India is now eager to
raise her head on an equality with her sister dominions, but Your
Excellency and your Government know her wants and you are aware
of her urgent needs. If I like to think that, for the present, my
country reposes these sacred charges in the trust of the British
people, it is because we have a more urgent duty to fulfil. Trust
CHA PT EH TV,
responsibility. We have eagerly responded to the trumpet call of
the Empire at the present moment by assembling here, not because
it is a privilege to assist in her hour of need the great country that
has wished India well and has guided her destinies for 160 years.
What is real friendship? What are-the bonds of partnership? With
the words of the gracious message of the Emperor of India ringing
in our ears, with the Prime Minister’s appeal fresh in our minds, is it
likely, I ask, that the heart of India can lie dormant at this time ?
Is it possible to conceive that India is going to let this opportunity
go by to prove, as she has proved in the past, that, according to her
power and circumstances, she is true to herself and so is
determined to be true to the Empire of which she forms an integral
part ?
It was truly put once by one of Your Excellency’s predecessors
when, talking to India, he said “You cannot do without us. We
should be impotent without you.” If this is so, and it is so, then let
this sacred union be a consecration at the altar of divine love for the
advance of both countries to the highest purpose of life. India is
proud of her connection with the country whose love of justice and
liberty is now being practically tested on the anvil of the battlefield
and every blow is aciding lustre and glory before the world, to the
steel foundations on which her structure is built. With such
a country our destinies are bound and with her we rise, witfe her
we fall.
Our Motherland, like any other country in the world, has her
domestic needs. She requires many adjustments of her present
conditions. She aspires, and legitimately so, to strengthen, if
possible, her position within the Empire so that she may no longer
go forth before the world with bent head. India is now eager to
raise her head on an equality with her sister dominions, but Your
Excellency and your Government know her wants and you are aware
of her urgent needs. If I like to think that, for the present, my
country reposes these sacred charges in the trust of the British
people, it is because we have a more urgent duty to fulfil. Trust