Against the Tide Imperial: The Struggle for Ceylon (The Usurper's War: An Alternative World War II B by James Young (classic book list .txt) 📗

There was a pause as someone shouted something indistinct. Whatever was yelled was immediately met with calls questioning the rude individual's courage and manners. The banging of Congressman Rayburn's gavel brought the bedlam under control, at which point Queen Elizabeth continued.

"As many of you, to include the gentlemen being escorted out, have taken every opportunity to remind me, my right to speak here was revoked by the events of 1776," the Queen stated.

She has become even calmer. Resolute to the level of being frightening.

"If it pleases you and allows you to consider my words, do not think then of me as a sovereign nor an empress. Indeed, as I informed President Roosevelt just over an hour ago, the Court of St. James has renounced any and all claims to overseas colonies.”

Wait, what?

Isoro could hear that this statement had similarly shocked the Americans listening in the chamber. Giving them a moment to collect themselves, Queen Elizabeth continued.

“Instead, consider my statements those of a herald and beloved friend. If need be, think of me as someone who has suffered mightily at the hand of terrible people. A woman who is now beseeching you and your constituents to learn from the ruin that has befallen my own nation."

There was again murmuring, but the Queen's tone powered through the noise.

She has such power without seeming the least bit shrill.

"Before you today is a bill, brought by the President, seeking further loans to Great Britain so that we may continue this conflict. In opposition, many of your body have pointed out that the Atlantic and Pacific serve as natural depredations to the scourge of fascism. That despite your countrymen who have died and continue to perish alongside my own, the price is too great."

Yours are not the only people who are dying, Your Majesty.

For a brief moment his eyes burned, thinking about his dead wingmen.

"These naysayers sing to you soft songs of isolation, of an easier path than President Roosevelt has asked you to set yourselves upon. ‘Let us build up our Navy and turn to our own affairs in this hemisphere,’ Senator Lindbergh has stated, as if he himself has not flown from this land to Europe. ‘We can reach accommodation with Himmler as we have with other nations in the past,' says Senator Taft, as if the path of appeasement has not been attempted before."

On the last, Queen Elizabeth's voice briefly faltered before she regained her strength.

"I more than anyone in this room understand the sweet succor that seems to be offered by these words. As we speak, Nazi forces have laid siege to Leningrad and begun reducing that city’s defenses. The Red Army is in retreat on all fronts after the debacle in Poland and the eastern Soviet Union. Premier Stalin lies stricken by a stroke and their government appears in disarray. In the Indian Ocean, Japan has laid waste to the Royal Navy and forced Vice Admiral Fletcher to retreat to Australia."

"Hai!" Isoro shouted at the radio, the defiant call surprising even him.

"The situation is dire, the way ahead dark," Elizabeth intoned. "It would, given the circumstances, make perfect sense for your nation to deny my government additional resources and thus, by extension, seek a separate peace."

There was a long pause, enough for Isoro to wonder if the connection had failed.

“It would make perfect sense, that is, if you were not dealing with monsters. Monsters who have attempted to assassinate me, a young woman who is here as a guest, on your own soil. Men who have repeatedly brutalized unarmed women and children in every one of their conquests, then murdered prisoners with glee."

Isoro's stomach turned at those last words. Knowing it was his imagination, he still imagined everyone present was looking directly at him.

"Fascism is an ideology that will brook no remaining dissent, no further opposition, no possible threats until this entire globe is under their control," Elizabeth said. "As you look to your east and west to take comfort in the vast tracts of ocean that lay there, recall that the English Channel served as my realm’s bulwark for almost nine centuries. Varied French kings, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Kaiser were all stymied in their attempts to bring Great Britain to heel by that body of water. Ten miles of ocean backed first by wooden, then steel hulls of the finest navy in the world."

Unsurprisingly, that comment also brought some dissent, but Queen Elizabeth ignored it as she pressed her point.

"It was not only our fleet, of course. With our success in 1940, my nation grew complacent at the strength of our air force. Grudgingly, we made peace in the face of continued adversity once Herr Hitler had gone to his just reward. We had no idea of the depths of Himmler’s depravity, nor of the devastation modern airpower has made possible."

Once more there was the long pause.

"I will leave you with the thought of how quickly doom befell my nation as you consider whether to remain our ally and supporter as we fight on," Queen Elizabeth stated. "For make no mistake, regardless of the vote here today, the Commonwealth will continue to fight against the darkest manifestations of our humanity, as our dead demand this of us."

Again, the strength of her words comes through even though she is thousands of miles away. This is a woman who will not rest until she is dead or she has regained her throne.

"Although your citizens of my generation will appreciate the peace, the Commonwealth will continue to fight bravely on. Our ships will gradually fall into disrepair. Aircraft will grow obsolete. Courageous men will die. Despite this, we will continue to do our duty with the hope that we so harm Fascism that it will come for you in decades, not years. For we know that trouble exists now, in our time, and wish that all our children will know peace in theirs. Thank you, and I bid you good evening"

Ironic she speaks of us as part