Crossing the Atlantic in the battleship “Duke of York”, the British Premier arrived in Washington on December 22nd 1941, Next day he attended the first War Council.
He spent Christmas Day with President Roosevelt, and on the 26th address both Houses of Congress in the Senate Room.
That part of his oration which was concerned with the Japanese attack on Britain and America is given below.
Mr Winston Churchill in a Address to the two Houses of Congress at Washington, December 26th 1941
Mr Churchill spoke of his American forebears and his American mother, and said that throughout his life he had been in harmony with the tides which had flowed on both sides of the Atlantic against privilege and monopoly.
He had “steered” confidently towards the Gettysburg ideal of the government of the people by the people for then people”.
He spoke of the immense strides that had been made in the conversion of American industry to military purposes, and said that the broad flow of munitions in Britain had already begun.
There followed a tribute to the glorious defence of their native soil by the Russian armies and people.
Mr Churchill said that the “boastful Mussolini” had crumpled already, and was now but a lackey and a serf.
He reviewed the course of events in Libya and spoke of his hopes for General Auchinleck’s success.
Then he turned to the attack recently made upon Britain and America by Japan.
Consequences of the Japanese Onslaught
The onslaught upon us, said Mr Churchill, so long and so secretly planned by Japan, has presented both our countries with grievous problems for which we could not be fully prepared.
If people ask me, as they have the right to ask me in England, why is it that you have not got ample equipment of modern aircraft and weapons of all kinds in Malaya and the East Indies I can only point to the victories which General Auchinleck has gained in the Libyan campaign?
Had we diverted and dispersed our gradually growing resources between Libya and Malaya we should have been found wanting in both spheres.
If the United States has been found at a disadvantage in the Pacific Ocean, we know that is to no small extent because of the aid you have given us in munitions for the defence of the British Isles and for the Libyan campaign and above all because of your help in the Battle of Atlantic, upon which all depends and which has been in consequence successfully and prosperously maintained.
Of course it would have been much better, I freely admit if we had had enough resources of all kinds to be at full strength at all points.
But considering how slowly and reluctantly we brought ourselves to large scale preparations and how long these preparations take, we had no right to expect to be in such a fortunate position.
The choice of how to dispose of our hitherto limited resources had to be made by Britain in time of war and by the United States in time of peace.
And I believe that history will pronounce that upon the whole and it is upon the whole that these matters must be judged the choice made was right.
Now that we are together, now that we are linked in a righteous comradeship of arms, now that our two considerable nations, each in perfect unity have joined all their life energies in a common resolve, now since that has happened our steady light will glow and brighten.
Many people have been astonished that Japan should in a single day have plunged into war against the United States and the British Empire.
We all wonder why if this dark design, with its laborious and intricate preparations, had been so long filling their secret minds, they did not choose our moment of weakness 18 months ago.
Viewed quite dispassionately, in spite of the losses we have suffered and the further punishment we shall have to take, it certainly appears an irrational act, but it is of course only prudent to assume that they have made very careful calculations and think that they see their way through.
Nevertheless there may be another explanation.
We know that for many years past Japan has been dominated by secret societies of subalterns and junior officers of the Army and Navy who have enforced their will upon successive Japanese Cabinets and Parliaments by the assassination of any Japanese statesman who opposed or did not sufficiently further their aggressive policy.
It may be that these societies, dazzled and dizzy with their own schemes of aggression and the prospect of early victories, have forced their country against its better judgement into war.
They have certainly embarked upon a very considerable undertaking.
And after the outrages they have committed upon us at PearlHarbour, in the Pacific also in the Philippines in Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies they must now know that the stakes for which they have decided to play are mortal.
When we compare the resources of the United States and the British Empire with those of Japan, when we remember those of China, which have so valiantly withstood invasion and tyranny, and when also we observe the Russian menace which hangs over Japan, it becomes still more difficult to reconcile Japan’s action with prudence and sanity.
What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible that they do not realize we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?
Members of the Senate and members of the House of Representatives, I will turn for one moment more from the turmoil and convulsions of the present to the broader basis of the future.
Here we are, together facing a group of mighty foes who seek our ruin; here we are together defending all that which to free men is dear.
Twice in a single generation the catastrophe of world war has fallen upon us, twice in our lifetime has the long arm of fate reached across the ocean to bring the United States into the forefront of battle itself.
If we had kept together after the last war, if we had taken common measures for our safety, then this renewal of the curse need never have fallen upon us.
Do we not own it to ourselves, to our children, and to mankind to make sure that these catastrophes do not engulf us for the third time?
It has been proved that pestilences may break out in the Old World which carry their destructive ravages into the New World, from which, once they are afoot the New World cannot escape.
The Pestilence of Nazism must be Controlled.
Duty and prudence alike command first that, the germ centres of hatred and revenge should be constantly and vigilantly starved and treated in good time, and that an adequate organization should be set up to make sure that the pestilence can be controlled at its earliest beginnings before it spreads and reaches throughout the entire earth .
Five or six years ago it would have been easy, without shedding a drop of blood, for the United States and Great Britain to have insisted on the fulfilment of the disarmament clauses of the treaties which Germany signed after the Great War, and that also would have been the opportunity for assuring to the Germans those raw materials which we declared in the Atlantic Charter should not be denied to any nation, victor or vanquished.
That chance has passed. It’s gone. Prodigious hammer strokes have been needed to bring us together again.
If you will allow me to use other language I will say that some must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below of which we have the honour to be faithful servants.
It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future.
Still I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate , that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.
