We all have vivid recollections of September of last year. Moreover, it will, I believe, demonstrate that the leader of Germany has, for a long time, steadily pursued a policy which was deliberately designed to produce either war or a subjugation of one non-German country after another by the threat of war. It will exhibit to the eyes of the future student some of the most remarkable instances of a ruthlessness and indifference to common humanity which the darkest centuries of European history can scarcely parallel. The history of recent months in Europe has been an eventful one. What I want to do tonight is just to put before you, honestly, and as clearly as I can, a short account of how this crisis has developed. But in the result, their efforts have failed and we are therefore, as a great family of nations, involved in a struggle which we must at all costs win and which we believe in our hearts we will win. They have kept the door of negotiation open. They have, as I firmly believe, been patient.
Great Britain and France, with the cooperation of the British Dominions, have struggled to avoid this tragedy. No harder task can fall to the lot of a democratic leader than to make such an announcement.
Menzies Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war.
May God in his mercy and compassion grant that the world may soon be delivered from this agony.’Īnnouncer Here is the Prime Minister of Australia, the Right Honourable RG Menzies. Bitter as we all feel at this wanton crime, this is not a moment for rhetoric … I know that in spite of the emotions we are all feeling, you will show that Australia is ready to see it through. Menzies denounces the need for rhetoric but arguably uses it to support the ideal of Australia fighting for her motherland: 'There can be no doubt that where Great Britain stands, there stands the people of the entire British world. To overcome this disadvantage, Menzies occasionally switches to first person, personalising his views to relate to his audience: ‘Your own comments on this dreadful history will need no reinforcement by me.’ This technique enhances the sense of objectivity and reliability of the information being given but also creates distance between the audience and the story. Menzies mostly speaks in the third person, as though he plays no personal part in the story but knows all the facts. Menzies’s language is grandiose: ‘Whatever the inflamed ambitions of the German Führer may be, he will undoubtedly learn, as other great enemies of freedom have learned before, that no empire, no dominion, can be soundly established upon a basis of broken promises or dishonoured agreements.’ His English is refined and reminiscent of a time when the British Empire lived on in the voices of the Australian people. The prime minister’s words are statesman-like, his voice thick and low.
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