Text of speech by Louis Marin at the opening of the Resistance Exhibition, Warrington

              M. Louis MARIN's speech at the opening of the Resistance Exhibition (Warrington, Jul 14th, 1944)
It seems to me a very happy combination of circumstances that July 14th should see the opening of this exhibition, which unfortunately is only for a few days.  It is an exhibition which all your citizens must come and see, and one which will give them food for thought.   This morning, when I was with you at your War Memorial, remembering the youth of your City who died twenty-five years ago,  we were forcibly reminded that all the young men we see in uniform today, going out to fight, are the sons of those who died or the children of that generation.
Looking at the British soldiers there, the Americans, Canadians and Australians, like those I saw twenty-five years ago fighting and dying in France, hundreds of thousands of whom lie buried in our soil, I said to myself:   "We must all consider the sufferings of those who Resist, the sufferings of the oppressed countries, and ask ourselves how it is that, although their fathers died a quarter of a century ago,  we are faced with a conflict even more brutal,  violent and destructive, in which there is more bereavement and ruin  throughout the world than there was in the 1914-19l8 war... "
What have the politicians, the various leaders of all our countries been about ?    Did they not see the storm-clouds gathering?   Did Germany conceal her hand?   Did she mask her preparations for the new war?   Ten years ago when her politicians said "We  prefer guns to butter", when we saw that monstrous machine, the Wehrmacht, set up, and the still more monstrous instrument, the German mentality -