General Jaruzelski, Prime Minister Rakowski, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentleman:
Earlier today, I laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. Tomorrow, you and I, General Jaruzelski, will together lay a wreath at the great monument at Westerplatte, where the first shots in the Second World War were fired.
Many of the names on those monuments— Narvik, Tobruk, Monte Cassino, Arnhem and many others—stir particular memories in Britain, memories of British and Polish lives lost, memories of comradeship, memories of heroic deeds. They remind us how, after Nazi Germany's attack on Poland, Britain went to war for freedom, for Poland and for Europe.
Both our countries were in that war in Europe from the earliest days until the last. It was a war in which one million Britons lost their lives, in which at least six million people in Poland lost their lives.
The Polish Government came to London to continue the fight for freedom. One pilot in eight fighting in the Battle of Britain in 1940 was Polish—and like the British pilots alongside whom they fought, they bore heavy casualties.
We remember, too, the desperate courage of the Warsaw uprising against overwhelming odds and the heroism displayed by British and Allied pilots who risked—and often lost—their lives to drop them supplies.
On Remembrance Sunday, in just over a week's time, representatives from the Polish Home Army will once again march proudly alongside their British comrades-in-arms at the Cenotaph in London in an act of remembrance for all those who gave their lives.
Nothing can create a stronger bond between peoples than shared experiences such as these.
Now, nearly fifty years since Britain gave its historic pledge to fight if Poland was attacked, it is with a profound sense of history and a deep wish that neither of our countries should ever again have to suffer the agonies of war, that I pay this first ever visit by a British Prime Minister to Poland.
Of course, the links between Britain and Poland started long before the Second World War.
Two of the more colourful characters in British history—King Canute and Bonnie Prince Charlie—were half-Polish. For two hundred years there was a large English—and even larger Scottish—population in Gdansk. The first steam-powered factory in Poland was set up with British help and produced pianos, one of which was owned by Chopin.
Our histories have intermingled in curious ways over many centuries and I hope that we can recreate those varied contacts in the new climate in Europe today.
Britain is proud of its history as a nation. So is Poland—and with good reason. [end p1]
In the mid-sixteenth century, you were Europe's largest state. Through all the despair of partition—and even of dismemberment—you kept alive your national spirit.
I recall the moving story of Pope John Paul II, on a visit to Poland in 1980. He took a little girl in his arms and asked her where Poland was. When she looked bewildered, he placed his hand gently over her heart and said: “Poland is here” .
The names of your great leaders—King Casimir, Jan Sobieski, Tadeusz Kosciuszko—shine out from the pages of Europe's history. We think of Poland's remarkable contribution to science with Copernicus, to literature with Joseph Conrad and Milosz, to music through such great names as Chopin, Paderewski, Rubinstein—all of world renown.
One thinks, too, of the unbreakable spirit of the Polish people as they set about rebuilding Warsaw to its former glory from the ashes and devastation of the Second World War.
From this past, two lessons stand out:
Poland's irrepressible sense of nationhood, which has survived through centuries of turmoil to regain a national home; and at the same time, Poland's indisputable place in the mainstream of Europe and its affairs.
For us, Warsaw, Prague and Budapest are just as much great European cities as London, Paris and Rome. Your roots lie as deep in the soil and the history of Europe as do ours.
President Gorbachev has spoken of building a common European house, to which you referred, Mr. Chairman, but the only wall so far erected is the Berlin Wall, which divides and separates. As so often when one wants to build a new house, you have to start by knocking a few walls down.
We want to see the barriers which have divided Europe for the last 40 years dismantled, so that Poland and other Eastern European countries can once again share fully in Europe's culture, Europe's freedom and Europe's justice—treasures which sprang from Christendom, which were developed through a rule of law and found their expression in democracy.
So you will find in Britain and Europe a great readiness for more contacts of every sort, together with a wish to see the peoples of Eastern Europe play a much fuller part in the life of Europe as a whole, and that is why we are keen to expand the economic and trade links between the countries of the European Community and of Eastern Europe; that is why we welcome the bold and courageous reforms being undertaken by President Gorbachev in the Soviet Union and earnestly hope that he will succeed.
You yourself have described it, General Jaruzelski, as “a historic current of change” and I share that view.
You will recall the words of Brutus in Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,[end p2]
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;1
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
General Jaruzelski, we must take that tide at the flood and not lose our ventures, but we need real changes if our hopes are to be realised, changes which go to the root cause of the hostility and confrontation which has fractured Europe since the Second World War.
We hope that very soon agreement will be reached at the meeting in Vienna which will allow talks on Conventional Security in Europe to begin. That will enable us to tackle the substantial imbalance of conventional forces which is heavily in favour of the Warsaw Pact. For those talks to succeed, we shall need to be frank with each other, frank about the numbers of troops and weapons on each side—a frankness which was never achieved by the Warsaw pact in the earlier and unsuccessful talks on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions.
We also need to remove from Europe—from the world indeed—the threat of chemical weapons, in which the Warsaw Pact countries have such a vast preponderance.
Above all, we need to see that the basic human rights enshrined in the Helsinki Accords—signed by 35 nations, including all the Warsaw Pact countries and the countries of the Nato Alliance—are genuinely and fully respected.
When contemplating closer relations with other countries, we judge them by how they treat their own citizens. We shall not reach the trust and confidence we need for full-hearted cooperation until those rights are entrenched and observed as part of the way of life of the countries of Eastern Europe and of the Soviet Union; until all enjoy freedom under the law—a law which applies not only to those who are governed, but to those who govern as well. It is both a moral and a practical matter.
In modern societies, success depends upon openness and free discussion. Suppress those things, and you are unable to respond to the need for change. We in the West could never have achieved our great technological advance without them.
Change has been very much the theme of my talks with you today, General Jaruzelski, and with Prime Minister Rakowski and tomorrow, I shall have the opportunity to hear the views of Solidarity and its leaders as well.
Reform is never easy or free from painful consequences, but we have to ask ourselves what would be the cost of failing to carry through change and reform? Would not the consequences be even more painful, more prolonged?
In a smaller way, we faced this problem in Britain in 1979, but the British people rejected the path of economic decline. They knew that the problems would not go away merely because we refused to face them.
People are prepared to endure hardship and difficulty when they believe that the result will be a better life for them and their children; when they know that they are fully involved in decisions; and when they are convinced that what they are doing is right.
We, in Britain, now have one of the fastest-growing and most successful economies in Europe because we were prepared to face up to difficult choices and to take hard decisions.
You have told me today about your plans for economic reform; that you want to remove the restrictions which restrain individual and collective initiative; that you want to offer greater incentives; that you want to reduce interference from bureaucracy. That is good news, but one of the lessons of the world since 1945 is that greater prosperity comes to those nations which have greater freedom—to the United States, to Western Europe, and now Japan. [end p3]
Experience teaches us that you only achieve higher growth, only release enterprise, only spur people to greater effort, only obtain their full-hearted commitment to reform, when people have the dignity and enjoyment of personal and political liberty; when they have freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to form free and independent trade unions and fulfilment of all the other obligations of the Helsinki Accords.
But experience also teaches us that freedom incurs responsibility. Responsibility to greater effort; to accept the hardships and dislocations which inevitably go with far-reaching change; responsibility to make the commitment necessary to restore the nation's prosperity. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. Those who seek the one must be prepared to offer the other. That is why it is so vital that there should be a real dialogue with representatives of all sections of society, including Solidarity. People have to be involved in decisions about the way forward. They must have freedom to choose. The chances are that they will then make the right choices.
Only the Government and people of Poland herself can provide the commitment, the resolve and the perseverance to break through to success. When that happens and when that great day comes, you will find your friends ready, not just to stand and cheer, but to help in practical ways:
by supporting a programme with the IMF, by offering credits;
by rescheduling debts;
by encouraging investment;
by establishing joint ventures; and
by increasing contacts of every sort between our governments and peoples.
General Jaruzelski, Prime Minister Rakowski, Britain cares deeply about Poland and her people. We passionately want Poland to succeed. We know the glories as well as the tragedies of your past.
We welcome among us many of your fellow countrymen and are deeply grateful for their contribution to our national life.
We admire the indomitable spirit of the Polish people.
I thank you for inviting me to make this visit, for the warm reception which I have been given and for the excellent programme which has been arranged.
Ladies and Gentleman, I ask you join me in raising your glasses to the good health and success of General Jaruzelski, to peace, prosperity and fulfilment for the Polish people and to the undying friendship between our two countries (applause)