ALLIED VICTORY
Today marks what will, perhaps, be
recorded as the most significant day in world history, for today has at last
been brought to account and to a crushing defeat a worldwide philosophy of
aggression against all peace-loving nations. This glorious victory has been won
because those peace-loving nations have persisted for long years of incredible
hardships, sacrifices, and determination to achieve freedom, decency, and
justice not for themselves alone but for the entire world. It is in this sense
that the victory over Japan which started in 1931 her infamous attack upon our
great friend the Republic of China and which led to the equally infamous
aggression against Ethiopia in 1935 and against Europe in 1939, takes on its
deeper significance for world history.
We have today, reversed the policy of
expediency at the expense of international justice. Today the victory which We
now celebrate, represents not only the triumph over Japan, not only the triumph
over those same forces in Europe which were part and parcel of the same
struggle, but also a triumph of the principle of collective security enshrined
in the Charter of the United Nations signed at San Francisco.
However, at this solemn moment in history Our
hearts turn in grief and tender reflection to those countless families
throughout the world who have sacrificed their most cherished possessions,
their husbands and sons, that justice might triumph. This victory has been
achieved at a cost of lives, sufferings, and treasure that have never before
been equalled. It has also recorded the bravest and most heroic deeds and
actions of modern times. In history will ever be enshrined the battle-fields of
Alamein, of Stalingrad, of Anzio, of Normandy, of Iwo Jima and of Okinawa.
Ethiopia, with the other United Nations and more than most, has contributed her
maximum efforts to the attainment of that victory. She will, with all others,
however, remain eternally grateful to the British Empire, for her aid in
liberating Ethiopia and, during those dark hours of 1940 and 1941, in carrying
on alone the war for the defence of decency and liberty; to the Soviet Union,
through incredible acts of heroism, for having ground to dust the vast German
armies in the East; and finally to the United States of America for its great
sacrifices in men and wealth, which with the combined forces of Britain and the
Soviet Union made possible the invasion of Europe and which by a series of
brilliant naval and air victories achieved the defeat of and victory over
Japan.
Re-Affirm
Faith
These sacrifices, the sacrifices of other United Nations and the long
bitter struggle of Our Empire for the defence and furtherance of the cause of
collective security impose upon all nations alike the obligation rendered
sacred by the life-blood and sufferings of Our people to ensure that war will
not again sear the face of Our fair lands, and that justice and not expediency
shall guide the councils of nations and, in the words of the Charter of the
United Nations “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human
rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of
nations large and small.”
Aug. 15, 1945.
Selected
Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie – page 88 –
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