King George VI - Speech - Guildhall (15 May 1947)
The Royal Family on their way to London’s Guildhall where they were welcomed home after their return from South Africa; the King delivered a twenty-minute speech - one of the longest he ever made.
In his remarks, George VI described the sweep of their travels and touched on South Africa’s ‘unique’ task: ‘nothing less than adjusting, almost from day to day, the progress of a white population of well over two million, whose future must always lie in South Africa, with that of a far greater number of other peoples, very different in race and background - coloured, Indian, and above all African.’ It was, at best, an attempt to paper over South Africa’s deep racial divisions that would draw growing condemnation within and beyond the Commonwealth in the decades ahead.
[...] The King was said to be suffering from laryngitis, and The Times noted that delivering it [the speech] must have been ‘a miserable ordeal.’ His voice grew hoarser as he went along, and his pauses weren’t prompted by his stammer but, rather more worryingly, by a persistent cough. Nevertheless, The Times concluded that ‘the tones were forceful and resolute, and it was one of his most effective utterances.’
GEORGE VI AND ELIZABETH by SALLY BEDELL SMITH
ABOVE: A brief snippet of the speech - it is apparent the King’s voice was not at its best.
Some background on the preparation of the speech:
In a handwritten note waiting for the King to read as soon as they were on board Vanguard and on their way back [from South Africa], [Alan] Lascelles pointed out that there were three versions to work from. The first was a final version of Sir Dugald Malcolm and Lord Altrincham’s joint draft, written in London and ‘telegraphed to me to-day’. The second was Malcolm’s first draft, handed to Lascelles before he left South Africa. The third was not a draft, but the notes given to Lascelles by General Smuts.
‘I think there is good stuff in all three,’ appended Lascelles, ‘which can be worked up into a suitable speech.’ Lascelles and the King must have been aware of its importance and the difficulties it presented. ‘I’m glad we have got a clear fortnight [ie, the voyage back] in which to do this and put in any other parts Your Majesty may wish to make.’
THE LAST HURRAH by GRAHAM VINEY
THE SPEECH:
My Lord Mayor,
As I listened to your proposal of this Toast, which has been drunk with that loyalty and kindness always characteristic of our great City of London, it was inevitable that my thoughts should turn to the last time that I spoke in Guildhall. That was eight years ago, on the occasion of my return from my visit to Canada. Eight years is not a long time in the span of a man’s life; but there is not one of us here today, who, looking back to that summer of 1939, does not feel that since then he has lived through events, through trials, through sorrows, and through triumphs, which make that relatively brief period seem more like a full century. There is, indeed, a grim reminder of all that we endured before our very eyes; we have only to look round at the scars still borne by this splendid old building in which we sit - this monument to London’s greatness in the past, and, I have not the slightest hesitation in adding, to her undiminished greatness in the future.
Today, as in 1939, I come to tell you something of a long journey overseas. It is barely three weeks since the Queen and I, with our daughters, left Cape Town, breaking our homeward voyage only to pay a short visit to that famous outpost of our Empire, the island of St. Helena. I welcome this early opportunity of speaking in this country upon the warmth of the welcome given us everywhere and also upon the very deep impressions that remain with me.
I cannot today do more than touch on a few of the multitude of such impressions of our tour that remain with me. And here let me say that I speak of ‘our’ tour with set purpose. All through it - and it was a long journey and often arduous - all through it, and at every function connected with it, the Queen and our daughters were at my side to help me; and if it achieved any success, as I know it did, that result is in large measure due to them.
Travelling as I did from the Cape of Good Hope to the river Zambezi and back again, I passed through a field of infinite variety; variety of race and culture, ranging from the fine flower of British and Dutch civilization to the still primitive conditions of African tribalism: variety of occupation, from the pastoral in its simplest form to the highest developments of modern industrial enterprise; variety of scene, from the peaks of the Drakensberg and the grandeur of the Victoria Falls to the semi-arid fringe of the Kalahari Desert. Yet behind all this variety there is a unity which transcends it all, comprehending the African tribesmen who regard the occupant of the Throne as their father, to the men of European stock in whose hands the destiny of the country lies.
South Africa has now grown to a full measure of manhood; her future, and the decisions that affect it, must be her own; but she is one of our great family, and we in this old country who still sit, so to speak, at the family hearth, can do much to help her by co-operation, provided - and this is most important - provided that our co-operation is based on knowledge. She is engaged on a task which I believe to be unique in the world; nothing less than that of adjusting, almost from day to day, the progress of a white population of well over two million, whose future must always lie in South Africa, with that of a far greater number of other peoples, very different in race and background - coloured, Indian, and above all African. There is no easy formula for the wise discharge of that formidable task. It calls for breadth of vision, human sympathy, and statesmanship based on experience, and it is essentially the task of the people who live there. That the mass of African people have gained, and are gaining, immeasurably in health, happiness, and prosperity from their contact with the civilization of Europe I am well assured. That much more remains to be done, nobody knows better than the South Africans themselves.
But they are in no way dismayed by this or any other of the tasks that lie before them. Nobody who travelled as I did through the length and breadth of their wonderful sunlit country can fail to be impressed, and heartened, by the faith in its destiny that animates all who live in it and who love it so well. Remembering their history and what they have passed through in the last half-century, and the splendid outcome of it all in the realm of high statesmanship, I find myself no less grateful for the inspiration of their brave outlook on life than I am for the memory of their magnificent welcome and affectionate hospitality to the Queen, my daughters, and myself. If our visit has done anything to strengthen the bonds which, please God, will always unite us within our great fellowship of nations, then, perhaps, we have in some measure repaid them for the wonderful and unforgettable experience that they have given us.
But, while my memories of South Africa are vivid and happy indeed, I am very glad to be back in the United Kingdom again, for the ordeals through which my people here have passed during my absence have never been far from my thoughts. I was often sorely torn between my duty towards the wonderful country that I have just left and my anxiety to share at first hand, as I have always tried to do, the troubles which faced you here. But, as I said at Pretoria, I was greatly helped in completing the programme of my tour by the evidence on all sides of the sympathy felt by South Africans for the men and women of the British Isles and of the admiration for their fortitude in their gallant struggle against post-war misfortunes. Believe me, my Lord Mayor, the experience of warfare bravely waged together, and the realization of the common need of peace and reconstruction, have given to the Nations of the Commonwealth a sense of spiritual, no less than material, partnership - an intangible bond of union reflected in the fine words of Field-Marshal Smuts that you have just quoted. That partnership is of priceless value, not only to those Nations themselves, but to the cause of united international effort for the better ordering of a distracted world.
Though I am, naturally, speaking today more particularly of the countries that I have just visited - the Union of South Africa, the Rhodesias, and the Territories of Basutoland, Swaziland, and Bechuanaland - I must make mention of the wonderful evidence recently given by my Governments and peoples in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand of their practical desire to help this country through the arduous period of recovery. This is still further proof of the strength of that sense of partnership to which I alluded just now. As Sovereign of our Commonwealth and Empire, I owe an equal duty to all its units. I wish to thank them all, from the bottom of my heart, for the spirit of comradeship which they have once more so practically shown.
My travels have made two things more clear to me than ever before. One is the strength for peace and good which the Commonwealth and Empire derives from the wide dispersion of its resources - a strength which no political system possesses in equal measure - a strength which we must all do our utmost to enlarge by mutual help for the benefit of all. The other is the value of moral unity and mutual understanding, whereby our widely distributed strength may be as effective in the tasks of peace as in the ordeal of war. All that I, as Sovereign, can do by travel and by understanding to promote that unity will, I assure you, be done. But I would remind you that in this country we still have much to learn about our comrades overseas, and I trust that my Ministers, the members of my Parliaments, and men and women in every branch of national life will seize every possible opportunity of travel in the Empire as eagerly as I shall always do myself. I trust, too, that such opportunities will be made increasingly available to our young men and women.
I spoke just now of the warm sympathy which South Africans feel, and to which they have given such generous practical expression, towards the people of these islands. But I would not have you think for one moment that their attitude towards the British people is limited merely to sympathy. Far from it. That sympathy is based on something much deeper - on a very real respect for their national character and for their determination to pull through. Never has the British reputation stood higher in South Africa than it does today. To me it was a very impressive experience thus to see our people here, among whom I have spent the greater part of my life, as others at a distance see them. To you here, immersed in the intense and continuing post-war struggle, many things are obscure which are perhaps better seen by those who watch you from afar. If from among my many stirring recollections of my tour I had to single out one as outstanding, it would be my realization that the faith of South Africans in Britain is not only unimpaired but has become stronger on account of her unflagging effort in war and in peace. This, more than anything, renewed my pride in the past, and strengthened my confidence in the future.
Moreover, South Africans are convinced that the mission of Britain in the world is not ended but is only entering upon a new phase. In the wave of imperialist expansion in the last century, Britain played a great part, on which opinion in South Africa, and elsewhere, was deeply divided. Now, as South Africans see it, another and finer mission is opening out before her. Her heroic and tragic sacrifices, and the new moral prestige which has come to her, have prepared her for a new role in world affairs. In the supreme councils of the world, she speaks not merely with an authority based on physical force and war potential, but also with a moral authority, and with an unrivalled experience in the handling of men and human affairs. South Africans feel most strongly that the world needs Britain now more than ever before, and there is a firm faith in her ability to weather the present storms and to continue to play a noble part in shaping the future of the world.
For myself, I share that faith. I shall hold to it till the end of my days. Come what may, nothing will ever shake my belief that this old country - old in history, old in experience, old in achievement - is at heart as young and vigorous as she has ever been.
TRANSCRIPT: KING GEORGE VI TO HIS PEOPLES 1936-1951
At Guildhall before sitting down to lunch as guests of the Lord Mayor [L-R]: the Duchess of Gloucester, Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Princess Margaret, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Geoffrey Fisher), Queen Mary, the Lord Mayor of London (Bracewell Smith), the Queen, the King, the Lady Mayoress (Edith Smith), the Duke of Gloucester (standing back), Princess Elizabeth, the wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rosamond Fisher), the Lord Chancellor (William Jowitt), Violet Attlee, the Speaker of the House of Commons (Douglas Clifton Brown) and Lady Addison.