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Remembrance/Veterans Day

From a former employee of Shell Oil USA

John,

I noticed that your article regarding the Nazi connection with Deterding and Royal Dutch Shell came out about the time of Remembrance/Veterans Day. I don’t know if that was deliberate or serendipitous, but given the nature of that article and some of the comments you have received I thought it might be appropriate to write something about the men to whom we all owe so much for the world and freedoms we have today.

I am a few days late, but had some trouble writing this. Unfortunately, I am no poet so after much thought I decided that I could not better the words of the ‘Great Bard Himself’. His famous ‘St. Crispian’s Day Speech’ (paraphrased) is more than adequate to lead with:

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words…..
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; …….

And gentlemen ….. now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

W. Shakespeare (Henry V)

It is hard to express in words what we owe those men who fought in WW2 and brought an end to two brutally repressive regimes – Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Those were terribly desperate times, and victory was by no means guaranteed.

Yet those young men, mostly, met that challenge, and those that returned home rebuilt a shattered world. This was not an easy task given all that they had experienced. But in the process they also kept another one of the most evil of regimes contained until it collapsed from its own internal rot and decay. Today we often call them them: ‘The Greatest Generation’, and with good cause.

These good men, these brave men, these lions among men are our fathers, our grandfathers and our great grandfathers, and time is passing. Nobody escapes the ‘artillery of time’ and their ranks have been decimated by the years. While we still can we should honor them, cherish them, and above all, never forget them and what they have done for us all. Time is short and if you listen carefully you will hear the distant refrain of Taps or Last Post gently recalling them one by one for one final march ….

The lesson here is that History does matter, and as always that ‘the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for men of good will to do nothing.’

The Nazis came to power in great measure because men of good will did not take Sir Henri Deterding and Royal Dutch Shell to task on their relationship with the Nazis. Had they been taken to task on the matter history might have been radically different.

Royal Dutch Shell management is as amoral today as they were in the days of Hitler and his gang of perverted thugs. The task today is for men of good will to hold Shell management accountable for their conduct.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

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