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This is the message broadcast to the Empire by King George VI on Christmas Day 1939 and makes a fascinating read for us sitting here and looking back 75 years later knowing what happened. In 1939 the expectation was not that France would fall within 6 weeks and that the BEF would be lucky to get out through Dunkirk. At Christmas 1939, the pictures and words published about the BEF show that another attritional trench war was expected and that the Germans would not be strong enough to beat the Allies.
1939 ends on a positive note; how different it would all be by Christmas 1940.
The festival which we know as Christmas is above all the festival of peace and of the home. Among all free peoples the love of peace is profound for this alone gives security to the home.
But true peace is in the hearts of men, and it is the tragedy of this time that there are powerful countries whose whole direction and policy are based on aggression and the suppression of all that we hold dear for mankind.
It is this that has stirred our peoples and given them a unity unknown in any previous war. We feel in our hearts that we are fighting against wickedness, and this conviction will give us strength from day to day to preserve until victory is assured.
At home we are, as it were, taking the strain for what may lie ahead of us, resolved and confident. We look with pride and thankfulness on the never-failing courage and devotion of the Royal Navy upon which, throughout the last four months, has burst the storm of ruthless and unceasing war.
And when I speak of our Navy today, I mean all the men of our Empire who go down to the sea in ships, the Mercantile Marine, the minesweepers, the trawlers and drifters from the senior officers to the last boywho has joined up. To every one in this great fleet I send a message of gratitude and greetings, from myself as from all my peoples.
The same message I send to the gallant Air Force which in co-operation with the Navy is our sure shield of defence. They are daily adding laurels to those that their fathers won.
I would spend a special word of greeting to the armies of the Empire, to those who have come from afar, and in particular to the British Expeditionary Force.
Their task is hard. They are waiting, and waiting is a trial of nerve and discipline. But I know that when the moment comes for action they will prove themselves worthy of the highest traditions of their great Service.
And to all who are preparing themselves to serve their country, on sea or land or in the air, I send my greeting at this time. The men and women of our far flung Empire, working in their several vocations, with the one same purpose, all are members of the great family of nations which is prepared to sacrifice everything that freedom of spirit may be saved to the world.
A new year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle we shall remain undaunted.
In the meantime, I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you.
"I said to the man who stood in the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
"And he replied. 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."
May that Almighty hand guide and uphold us all.
The quote at the end is from"The Desert" by Miss M L Haskins.
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