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That I address you as a friend is no formality. I own no foes. My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind, irrespective of race, colour or creed. ... We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents... But your own writings and pronouncements and those of your friends and admirers leave no room for doubt that many of your acts are monstrous and unbecoming of human dignity, especially in the estimation of men like me who believe in human friendliness. Such are your humiliation of Czechoslovakia, the rape of Poland and the swallowing of Denmark. I am aware that your view of life regards such spoliations as virtuous acts. But we have been taught from childhood to regard them as acts degrading humanity...Hence we cannot possibly wish success to your arms....But ours is a unique position. We resist British imperialism no less than Nazism... If there is a difference, it is in degree. One-fifth of the human race has been brought under the British heel by means that will not bear scrutiny... Our resistance to it does not mean harm to the British people. We seek to convert them, not to defeat them on the battle-field... No spoliator can compass his end without a certain degree of co-operation, willing or unwilling, of the victim.... The rulers may have our land and bodies but not our souls.... We know what the British heel means for us and the non-European races of the world. But we would never wish to end the British rule with German aid... We have found in non-violence a force which, if organized, can without doubt match itself against a combination of all the most violent forces in the world... If not the British, some other power will certainly improve upon your method and beat you with your own weapon. You are leaving no legacy to your people of which they would feel proud. (en) |
