If we get that we are safe. If we fail to get it
we explode. Not at once. But sooner or later. Our army and navy have
never been in better shape. These two gentlemen can give your Majesty
their word for that. But you can take mine, too. The enemy's army is
politically rotten, and enfeebled by sentimental peace propaganda. Their
defenses are inadequate and their navy likewise. Those things will
change. Strike today--and they never raise their heads again. Wait--and
it is you who may be crushed.
KING
[_Sharply._
That is a theory. Not a fact. Ten years may change the aspect of things
entirely, particularly if we use those ten years in preparations not for
war but for peace, honest at home and abroad, just, open, civil, to our
neighbors.
PRIME MINISTER
Your Majesty, I look farther than ten years, farther than ten times ten
years. And I have wrought for this moment, prepared for this moment,
this moment of our strength and our enemy's weakness. I have a right to
insist that I, who have brought your kingdom thus far, shall not have my
hands tied when the moment for stern action arrives.
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