I think of maist these days--that it would be a sair
thing and a tragic thing if the spirit that filled the world during
the war should falter the noo. We've suffered sae much--we've given
sae much of our best. We maun gain a' that we can in return. And the
way has been pointed tae us. It is but for us to follow it.

Things have aye been done in certain ways. Weel, they seemed ways gude
enow. But when the war came we found they were no gude enow, for all
we'd thocht. And because it was a case of must, we changed them.
There's many would gae back. They say that wi' the end o' the war
there maun be an end o' all the changes that it brought. But we could
do more, we could accomplish more, through those changes. I say it
would be a foolish thing and a wicked thing to go back.

It was each man for himself before the war. It couldna be sae when the
bad times came upon us. We had to draw together. Had we no done so we
should have perished. Men drew together in each country; nations
approached one another and stood together in the face of the common
peril. They have a choice now. They can draw apart again. Or they can
stay together and advance wi' a resistless force toward a better life
for a' mankind.

I've the richt to say a' this. I made my sacrifice. I maun wait, the
noo, until I dee before I see my bairn again. When I talk o' suffering
it's as ane who has suffered. When I speak of grief it's as ane who
has known it, and when I think of the tears that have been shed it is
as ane who has shed his share. When I speak of a mother's grief for
her son that is gone, and her hope that he has not deed in vain, it is
as one who has sought to comfort the mither of his ain son.

So it's no frae the ootside that auld Harry Lauder is looking on. It's
no just talk he's making when he speers sae wi' you. He kens what his
words mean, does Harry.

I ken weel what it means for men to pull together. I've seen them
doing sae wi' the shadow of death i' the morn upon their faces. I've
sung, do you mind, at nicht, for men who were to dee next day, and
knew it. And they were glad, for they knew that they were to dee sae
that the world micht have a better, fuller life. I'd think I was
cheating men who could no longer help themselves or defend themselves
against my cheating were I to gie up the task undone that they ha'
left tae me and tae the rest of us.

Aye, it's a bonny world they've saved for us. But it's no sae bonny
yet as it maun be--