Stammering King George VI was ready for war

BRITAIN was preparing to declare war on Nazi Germany before it invaded Poland, according to an early draft of King George VI's 1939 speech.

BRITAIN was preparing to declare war on Nazi Germany before Hitler invaded Poland, according to an early draft of the royal broadcast that was the subject of the movie The King's Speech.

The outline of George VI's first wartime radio address is dated August 25, 1939, seven days before German troops crossed the Polish border, triggering the declaration of war delivered by then prime minister Neville Chamberlain.

The typed document, which has just come to light, is an edited version of a speech drafted by Harold Vale Rhodes, a civil servant who disapproved of some of the alterations made to his original. A pencilled note in the margin criticises the length of some of the sentences and suggests reverting to his text.

It does not mention Hitler or Germany by name, referring instead to "our enemies", but its tone is essentially the same as the speech made by the king to the nation and Commonwealth immediately after the declaration of war on September 3. Some of Mr Rhodes's advice was heeded, however, as the final speech was composed of short sentences that the King could read.

The draft speech opened with the line: "In this grave hour, perhaps the gravest in our history." The early draft accuses Germany of being a bully wanting to dominate the world by brute force and stressed that "we are fighting for the principles of freedom and justice". Rhodes died in 1970 and the draft was found among his effects. It is expected to fetch at least pound stg. 4000 ($7000) at auction in London on December 10.

In the film, the king is given little time to practise the most important address of his reign. In reality he had at least nine days to prepare. Gabriel Heaton of Sotheby's, the auction house selling the draft, said: "This document brings to life not just the speech but a pivotal moment in British history.

"It shows that something was being prepared days in advance of the declaration of war so that the monarch had a speech ready. You get a sense of the preparations for the speech and the struggle to find the right words to prepare the nation for the terrible fight that lay ahead."

Hitler had consistently broken international pledges and war seemed inevitable, although the precise timing was unclear. Nigel Steel, a historian at the Imperial War Museum, said: "When it happened, war wasn't out of the blue. There had been a number of political crises involving Germany going on for over a year before.

"The idea that this speech was prepared in advance of war is not a huge surprise, especially as the king had difficulties in delivering speeches."

The 2010 film starred Colin Firth as a stammering George VI struggling to overcome his impediment to address his subjects.