SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE RT. HON. R. G*
MENZIES AT CRANIBROOK SCHOOL 6N SATURDAY,
DECEMBER. 1960
I call this a " softening up" process. I stand up here.
shaking hands for a long time, handing out prizes, with all the
gusto of a politician giving things away ( Laughter) and when
they have just about reduced me to a state of weakness, then a
man who used to be my friend, Sir Kenneth Street, gets up quite
blithely and says, " Now, make a speech". ( Laughter)
As a matter of fact before I begin to make a very
sh~ ort speech I think I ought to tell you that I formed the
highest admiration for the Headmaster. He took a risk today
that I wouldn't have dreamed of taking after 30 odd years in
politics. He said " If anybody can't hear Lie, will ho hold up
his hand". ( Laughter) The last politician who was rreen enough.
to do that had a man hold up his hand whereupon a fellow in the
front seat, you remember? turned around and said " I'll change
places with you willingly". ( Laughter, applause3
I was also of course, delighted to find that in a
progressive school ol this kind, which, judg. ing by the books
that I've been handing out, embraces judo among its
accomplishments, I was delighted to find that there was to be a
course in " Elementary Russian".
Now, as a matter of fact, if you want any assistance,
on a voluntary basis, on that matter I'm prepared to offer it.
I am a master of elem~ entary Russian ? Laughter, applause) You
see, not for the first time the audience is ahead of me,
because what I was gping to say was I am a ritor of elementary
Russian punctuatiin it is done w ith the sole of your shoe.
( Laughter, applause) I hand on that secret to you.
Now, for anybody who has himself been talked into
making aspeech at a school Speech Day, there is always a rather
grim choice to be resolved. Should I talk to the parents? In
which case the boys, if they have any sense, will be bored
stiff. Or, should I talk to the boys whose minds are more
receptive than those of most audiences I speak to, ( Laughter)
and leave the parents alone?
VJell I'm going to say just a few words to the boys on
the principle, the well-established principle, that except for
a few shining exceptions, who will identify themselves without
difficulty, the parents here today are practically beyond
redemption. Their minds are made up about all sorts of
things; but the boys well they asIiagehtligt
entertain an idea or two., asIaybewligt
I have always sympathised with boys at a School Speech
Day. Just toward the end I gave some learned fellow, whose name
I now regret to say I don't recall, the prize for Latin and
French, and I would have you know I'll say this to the
parents, some of whom may have a disregard for my intell ' ectual
capacities that was the last prize I got at School too,
( Laughter) Latin and Fronch I still retain a few b) roken
shards of each of these languages one dead, and now deaderthe
other alive, but strangely pronounced in its own countryl
But my deepest sym. pathy ! ns always -bo-en for-thec poor
chaps who have to sit thcrc, as wec all did I'm talking about
the mean today in our time, when some ponderous old
platitudinous politician came along and made a speech and said,
" Boys, these are the happiest days of your life. You must make
the mott of your school days because when they are over, and you
come out into the hard cold world you will have to forget all
this-stuff you have been learning at school, and learn the hard
facts of life". ( Laughter)
Well I used to listen to these chaps for a few
minutes and then yawn, and then go to sleep. And it shows,-Sir,
how the habits of youth can persist when I tell you that that is
exactly what I do in Parliament at the end of the Session.
( Laughter, applause)
But could I just offer an obsorvation to ry friends
over here on two or throG, or perhaps four matters not one of
which will take me long, because I see the stumps arc up and
light is shining brightly.
What are the -reat things, the great virtues that we
ought to achieve when we are at school? Because if we don't
achieve then then, our prospect of achieving them thereafter are
not as good as they might be.
I think one of the virtues is what I will call
" Pride". I know, Headmaster pride is supposed to be one of the
deadly sins. But pride in the sense of a proper self-respect,
a determination to do your own work, and to play your own play,
and to stand on your own feet this is one of the great
qualities in mankind. Nobody knows it better than a man who has
been engaged, fairly responsibly most of the time, in public
affairs. So many people in the world don't start with their
self-respect, or their self-help, but make their first port of
call the Government, which is only another way of saying that
they want other people, through the Government, to do their
work for them. This is a great point with me. It is a great quality
to be independent, for a man to have a proper pride, and to say
" If I can do this myself I'm going to do it myself. And it is
only if I can't do it myself that I must call on other people,
if I have a chance, to help me to do it".
Pride is not to be confused with vanity. There is
nothing sillier than vanity; and vanity brings about its own
downfall every day of the week, or, as we say, every tick of the
clock. But pride, in the true sense is a great virtue. I say
get it; and stick to it.
Then of course you most of you I would have hoped
all of you have read J. M. Barrie's famous rectorial address at
St. Andrew's University a remarkable speech which ought to be
read by every thoughtful person at least once a year.
The theme of Barrie's address was courage. I had the
great privilege, years afterwards, of walking up and down in a
garden in the west of England for an hour with J. M. Barrie
discussing this speech, and how he had gone about making it.
His theme was courage, the lovely virtue, as he called
it, the virtue without which other virtues can be broken into
the dust. Now we can think about courage in many ways. The
rarest form ofcourage, I think, in the world, is moral courage.
The courage that a man has when he is prepared to form his view
of the truth and to pursue it, when he is not running around
the corner every five minutes to say, " Is this going to be
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popular?" Not like the traditional old politician of fiction
who said, " Find out what the people want, and that is my
policy". Cmurage is very im~ portant, all important. But of
course it is no use becoming addicted to sticking to your own
view unless you have taken all the preliminary steps to do your
best to see that it is the right view. Courage without work,
courage without thought, courage without judgment will not be
worth so much. It might ultimately am~ ount to mere obstinacy.
But properly considered and properly set, it is one of the great
virtues. There arc two things could talk about a dozen
which perhaps are not very much respected now-a-days. They are
at the other end of the scale, I grant you.
One is to have good manners, courtesy. One becomes
dejected occasionally at the-decline in glood manners. Why is it
thought by so many people that to be strong, you must be rude?
That to demonstrate that you have a mind of your own you must
engage in the most ' Drutal discourtesy to other people? ' Manners
maketh man' is one of the oldest of the old school mottos. And
although, of course, it g ' oes deep into the character of the
boy, and of the man, it also has its superficial aspect, the
courtesy which human beings owe, one to the other.
Life becomes a rugh, tough thing; public life is a
rough, tough life. There are many aspects in the world which
appear superficially to be rough and tough, in which victory
goes to the strongest, and the most enduring. No man was ever
less strong, no man was ever less tough by treating with
courtesy what other people think or say, or do.
Since everybody has been here now for some tine I just
want to mention my fourth which you will think quite absurd, I'm
sure. Because this is not one of the great virtues at all.
This is something that I think is , ravely misunderstood, I'm
all in favour of boys wrhen they are at school learning to speak
their own language with respect and with justice.
I'm staggered, ladies and gentlemen, at the numbher of
times I can listen to a man talking, not getting up and making
a speech, but just talking, conversationally, turns out to have
two or three deg. rees but no degree at all in the English
languagell Speaking in a shoddy, snufflinga fashion, murdering
the King's . kiglish or the Queen's Enlgish as I suppose it is
now. This is no good. This is not a sign of intelligence. It
is a sign of quite the opposite.
I don' t know enough about Cranbrook to know to what
extent you are an exception to a deplorable rule but It m bound
to tell you quite frankly that in my experience Lhe average
Girls' School is more concerned at speech than the average
Boys' school. It is very easy, you know, when you are a boy at school
to disregard that because if a boy at school finds himself the
exception in a liltle gr,, oup, and has been in the habit of
speaking his language with precision and correctness, and
pleasantly, somebody may say that he's a bit " sissy"; somebody
imitates him, you know.
I say don't worry about that. This English languaige
of ours I speak with the valor of partial igniorance is one
of the -reatest and most flexible tongues that God ever put
into the mind and mouth of man to speak. It's a marvellous
languago. ( Applause)
0 4.
It has produced more poetry, I venture to say, of the
highest order than any other language in the history of man. It
is a beautiful adjustable, flexible language with, contained
inside itself, all the subtleties in the world. And, like all
other great languages, those who know it best, will speak it
most simply. Don't fall into the error of thinking that it is a
proof of education to use long words with Latin endings.
( Laughter) The people I have known who loved long words most,
who were polysyllabic marvels, were those who undorstood the
language least. The great object of knowing your own language is to
speak it with justice and weight and simplicity. You read a
speech by Winston Churchill, you go back and read a speech by
the younger Pitt 100 years before, and you will find the lovely
simplicity of language.
Because after all, it is only a man who is a master of
his language who can eliminate these rather foolish long words
and settle for that simple, direct speech which is the ultimate
proof of scholarship and of knowledge of the language.
Now I say that to the boys because I think this is
tremendously important, that we should have in our owm country
don't worry about people's arguments over whether so-and-so has
an accent of the home counties or whether he's got an English or
Somerset accent, or Victorian accent which of course is very
good ( Laughter) or a Sydney accent, which has its moments.
( Laughter) Don't worry about that.
What we ought to worry about is the quality, the
justice, the conciseness, the effect of the words you use.
Now, Sir, I've given you a mixed grill really: two
very great virtues at the beginning, a third, a considerable
virtue; and the fourth you may not think a virtue at all. But
since speech is the universal means of communication, and since
in these days no man can lead in anything unless he can
communicate his ideas to other people, never neglect speech.
In the long run it is one of the groat instruments that you will
have to use all your life.
Now that is all I want to say. There have been
people standing up around the back, including I say with regret,
as a Presbyterian, the Dean of Sydney. Normally I don't mind a
Church of England fellow standing up and listening to me. But
I do feel that I've made it a little bit hot this afternoon,
both literally and otherwise.
I'm delighted to be here. On the last two occasions
I couldn't be here for reasons that were beyond my control. On
this occasion I made up my mind that I must be here whatever
came or went. It only just happened because Paiiar.. ent sat a
week longer than anybody supposed, and it sat up till 4 o'clock
on Friday morning. But this being Saturday, I've arrived, I
have spoken, I apologise but I'm delighted. ( Applause)