We seek no treasure
man finds himself equal in
the eyes of the law
In 1941, Mr. Harry Hopkins toured Great Britain as the personal representative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
At a dinner with the Prime Minister, Mr. Hopkins asked, “What”, should he tell the President, “are Britain’s War Aims?”
Winston Churchill replied:
We seek no treasure,
we seek no territorial gain,
we seek only the right of man to be free, we seek his rights to worship his God,
to lead his life in his own way, secure from persecution.
As the humble labourer returns from his work when the day is done,
and sees the smoke curling upwards from his cottage home in the serene evening sky,
we wish him to know that no rat-a-tat-tat [here he rapped on the table] of the secret police upon his door will disturb his leisure or interrupt his rest.
We seek government with the consent of the people,
man’s freedom to say what he will,
and when he thinks himself injured,
to find himself equal in the eyes of the law.
But war aims other than these we have none.
I think we lost a lot of people today at, “we seek no treasure.“
Otherwise …
Well …
As Mr. Churchill, having a British father and American Mother, said when addressing Congress on December 26, 1941 (19 days after Pearl Harbor mind you) … “By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own.“
Maybe he would have made his way there … back then.
Today?
No Haiku For You 