realized that the man
who spoke to them was sincere
could feel in his tones
Only a few weeks ago we were listening to the King’s Christmas broadcast. I am sure that as the years went by people liked more and more to listen to these talks addressed by a King to his own people. They realized that the man who spoke to them was sincere. They could feel in his tones that firm religious faith which was one of the sources of his strength.
So wrote Clement Attlee, the man who replaced Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in an election in the summer of 1945, in his autobiography, As It Happened.
He is writing about George the Sixth, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India.
This was the same King whose stuttering problem was profiled in the movie, The King’s Speech.
The same King who stayed in London during the bombing in WW2.
As his wife, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother said when asked about leaving London for someplace safer or maybe sending their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret away, “The girls will not leave without me. I will not leave without the King. And the King will not leave.”
Some might look for me here to point out that even today we have people making speeches and we might feel in that person’s tones their level of sincerity and the extent of that person’s firm religious faith.
But no, I am not going to point any fingers or make any comparisons.
If anyone came to your mind, well, squeaky wheel and tight shoe pinching the foot and all that.
Can’t stop you from making any comparisons now can I.
This is the speech Mr. Attlee heard on Christmas Day, 1951.
George VI died the next month on January 31, 1952, of lung cancer/
“As I speak to you to-day, I would like to wish you, wherever you may be, a happy Christmas. Though we live in hard and critical times, Christmas is, and always will be, a time when we can, and should, count our blessings – the blessings of home, the blessing of happy family gatherings, and the blessing of the hopeful message of Christmas.
“I myself have every cause for deep thankfulness, for not only – by the grace of God and through the faithful skill of my doctors, surgeons and nurses – have I come through my illness, but I have learned once again that it is in bad times that we value most highly the support and sympathy of our friends. From my peoples in these islands and in the British Commonwealth and Empire as well as from many other countries – this support and sympathy has reached me, and I thank you now from my heart.
“I trust that you yourselves realise how greatly your prayers and good wishes have helped, and are helping me, in my recovery. It has been a great disappointment to the Queen and to myself that we have been compelled to give up, for the second time, the tour which we had planned for next year. We were looking forward to meeting mv peoples in their own homes, and we realise that they will share our regret that this cannot be. I am very glad that our daughter, Princess Elizabeth, with her husband, will be able to visit these countries, and I know that their welcome there will be as warm as that which awaited us.”
I think I can repeat that last of the 1st paragraph.
Christmas is, and always will be, a time when we can, and should, count our blessings –
the blessings of home,
the blessing of happy family gatherings,
and the blessing of the hopeful message of Christmas.
No Haiku For You 