I am glad to come to Westminster College this afternoon and am complimented that you should
give me a Degree. The name "Westminster" is somehow familiar to me. I seem to have heard of
it before. Indeed it was at Westminster that I received a very large part of my education in
politics, dialectic, rhetoric and one or two other things.
It is also an honour, ladies and gentlemen, perhaps almost unique, for a private visitor to be
introduced to an academic audience by the President of the United States. Amid his heavy
burdens, duties and responsibilities-unsought but not reconciled from- the President has
travelled a thousand miles to dignify and magnify our meeting here today and give me an
opportunity of addressing this kindred nation, as well as my own countrymen across the
ocean and perhaps some other countries too. The President has told you that it is his
wish, as I am sure it is yours, that I should have full liberty to give my true and faithful
counsel in these anxious and baffling times. I shall certainly avail myself of this freedom
and feel the more right to do so because any private ambitions I may have cherished in
my younger days have been satisfied beyond my wildest dreams. Let me however make
it clear that I have no official mission or status of any kind, and that I speak only for myself.
I can therefore allow my mind, with the experience of a lifetime, to play over the problems
which beset us on the morrow of our absolute victory in arms; and try to make sure that
what has been gained with so much sacrifice and suffering shall be preserved for the future glory
and safety of mankind.
The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the
American democracy. With primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability
to the future. As you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done but
also feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear
and shining, for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring
upon us all the long reproaches of the after-time. It is necessary that constancy of mind,
persistency of purpose and the grand simplicity of decision shall guide and rule the
conduct of the English-speaking peoples in peace as they did in war. We must and
I believe we shall prove ourselves equal to this severe requirement.
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory.
Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do
in the immediate future or what are the limits if any to their expansive and proselytizing
tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regards for the valiant Russian people and for
my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is sympathy and goodwill in Britain- and I
doubt not here also- towards the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to preserve
through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships.
We understand the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of
all possibility of German aggression. We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the
leading nations of the world. Above all we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts
between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic. It is my duty
however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place
before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across
the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and
Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia,
all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the
Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence
but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.
Athens alone, with its immortal glories, is free to decide its future at an election under
British, American and French observation. The Russian-dominated Polish Government
has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass
expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are
now taking place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these
Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their
numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments
are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true
democracy. Turkey and Persia are both profoundly alarmed and disturbed at the claims
which are being made upon them and at the pressure being exerted by the Moscow
Government. An attempt is being made by the Russians in Berlin to build up a
quasi-Communist party in their zone of occupied Germany by showing special
favors to groups of left-wing German leaders. At the end of the fighting last
June, the American and British Armies withdrew westwards, in accordance with an
earlier agreement, to a depth at some points of 150 miles on a front of nearly 400 miles
to allow the Russians to occupy this vast expanse of territory which the Western Democracies
had conquered. If now the Soviet Government tries, by separate action, to build up a
pro-Communist Germany in their areas this will cause new serious difficulties in the British
and American zones, and will give the defeated Germans the power of putting themselves
up to auction between the Soviets and the Western Democracies. Whatever conclusions may be
drawn from these facts- and facts they are-this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought
to build up. Nor is this one which contains the essentials of permanent peace.
From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that
there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have
less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of
a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins,
offering temptations to a trial of strength. If the Western Democracies stand together in strict
adherence to the principles of the United Nations charter, their influence for furthering these
principles will be immense and no one is likely to molest them. If however they become divided
or falter in their duty and if these all-important years are allowed to slip away then indeed
catastrophe may overwhelm us all.