King George V speech
Rudyard Kipling
1932 Royal Christmas Message
The first of
the Royal Christmas Messages live radio broadcasts from Sandringham House
Through one
of the marvels of modern Science, I am enabled, this Christmas Day, to speak to
all my peoples throughout the Empire. I take it as a good omen that Wireless
should have reached its present perfection at a time when the Empire has been
linked in closer union. For it offers us immense possibilities to make that
union closer still.
It may be
that our future may lay upon us more than one stern test. Our past will have
taught us how to meet it unshaken. For the present, the work to which we are
all equally bound is to arrive at a reasoned tranquillity within our borders; to
regain prosperity without self-seeking; and to carry with us those whom the
burden of past years has disheartened or overborne.
My life's
aim has been to serve as I might, towards those ends. Your loyalty, your
confidence in me has been my abundant reward.
I speak now
from my home and from my heart to you all. To men and women so cut off by the
snows, the desert or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them;
to those cut off from fuller life by blindness, sickness, or infirmity; and to
those who are celebrating this day with their children and grand-children. To
all - to each - I wish a Happy Christmas. God Bless You!.
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