01 01 SPEECH BY THE PRI14E MINISTER, THE RT. HON.
SIR ROBERT MENZIES KT, CH, QC, MP, AT THE
ENGLISH SPEAKING UI ION, LONDON ON THE
OCCASION OF THE MAUNCHING OF TT E OJINSTON
CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST APPEAL 1ST FEBRUARY, 1265
What we are proposing to do in Australia is to set
about having an appeal which will probably open and close on
one day February 28th, 1965.
You may think this is a little dramatic but we are
celebrating a very dramatic man. Of course donations will be
received and are, I believe already being received before
February 28th. But our modes ambition is that by the close
of that day, we in Australia will have raised œ CA1, OOO, OOO.
We believe that we will. We believe that if we can do that,
much larger sums of money can be expected from much larger and
richer countries, Now having said that, may I say this to you in the
broad. I went down the other day to Westminster Hall and I
was pleased to see how many young men and women and boys and
girls were passing through Westinster Hall, because you
know, men are easily forgotten and the names of even il
greatest of men may suffer some kind of eclipse for a while,
But it is vital that this name should never be
forgotten and it is vital that this man should never be
forgotten. It is vital that his spirit, touched with immortality
as it was, should continue to be immortal, a living thing,
a continiiing presence among many generations to come in
countries which speak the Eriglish language a language in
which he, by the miracle of scionce, was able to address so
mreaanyc hsincgo rethse man, d tosuccohreins g otfh emmi, l liionnssp iroifn gp etohpelme ddurriivnign gthe war,
pessimism underground, None of us who lived through all this
could ever forget it. I think we have a groat task here to
see that it is never forgotten.
Sometimes in the course of one's life one incurs a
debt and the debt may perhaps be discharged by one blow, by
one payment, by one act, but this is not a debt of that kind.
This is a debt which is part of our inheritance; it will never
be fully discharged. If our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are living
in freedom, they will be his debtors, because at the crucial*
moment in modern history it was he more than anybody else who
inspired the public will and who made victory a certainty.
This is a continuing debt, and a continuing debt is not paid
merely by having monument, great thougia it may be, merely by
having some inscription on some tablet in some place. It maust
be paid in a continuing fashion.
And that is the beauty of this conception which was
worked out here in this country and was taken to us and to
other people and was understood and acted upon. This is a
marvellous conception because in 200 years' time, there will
be Churchill fellows, men and women of all sorts of colours,
all sorts of religious beliefs, all sorts of experiences, ./ 2
-2-
some of them on a high level of academaic learning andsvme of
them in the practising field of ordinary industry and ordinary
life thousands of thoem, as time goes by, who will corry this
gre at name this proud name, and who will regard it as a matter
of honour to think of him and to perpetuate his memory,
This is a wonderful way of securing a continuing
payment of a continuing debt, and I think that if it is looked
, at in this way, this appeal will be a great success. Its
results will go on.
I trust that as time goes on its funds will be enriched
from time to time by people who see it with the eye of
imaginotion and will be proud of discharging a debt, How
valuable this isl How important this is!
We have looked at in this way in my country, and the
people engaged in the central Connittee in the various bodies
which have been set up cover the full range.
We have not cast the not narrowly we have cast it
wide and I am happy we have had the enthusiastic support of
all. That makes this a notable, historic occasion because
it is the launching of proposals to honour in that abiding
fashion the most historic person whom you or I ever knew or are
ever likely to know#