Today, I would like to speak to you of the Defence League, of what it has been and what it must be today. The Defence League is a statement of pure will, the pure will to defend, a stronger statement than any army could ever be. Defence League is voluntary, and this free will to take orders and if need be, to take arms to defend our home country determines the future of Estonia. This means that your orders need not come by post, they need not come by radio that may not be functioning in the situation of crisis, they need not come on television that may also be out of order. This means that you carry your orders in your heart, and this is both our strength and our weakness. It is our weakness if you do not carry this need, this will to defend in your heart, or even if you do but are not quite sure what to do about it in the situation of crisis - because a State starts its way to the grave by losing its head.

I would like to tell you that in 1939, two contradicting phenomena clashed in Estonia. Our nations fighting morale was stronger than in most of the European countries; but the nation's political leadership could not keep up with the high level of this more. They did an honest job - I do not agree with those journalists, with those historians who point at them and ask whether high treason was involved. It was not. It was not the case with Päts, or with Laidoner, or with anyone from our military high command. Their tragedy was that the world had become more complicated, and they had not grown with the world to understand the conflicts that were inevitably leading to war. And the most moving image I can conjure from that time is our Head of State Konstantin Päts addressing the great powers of the world in midsummer. This address was filmed, and the film still exists. He turned to the great powers of the world, and it may come as news and surprise to many of you - a commentator, the only one who noticed, has pointed out: as he did not wish to use German or Russian and knew neither English nor French, he addressed the great powers of the world in ponderous and incomprehensible Latin. Let this image stay before your eyes, for this is the undoing of the Estonian political leadership. We were living such a diligent, happy, unanimous life. We rejoiced over our home country that had already recovered, had become modern, whose first major buildings were at least as good as those of Europe, whose cleanliness and health care set an example, where the level of crime was lower than in Finland, Sweden or Norway, and where the level of crime detection was one of the highest in the world. This was one of the best achievements of the pre-war Republic of Estonia, and the people appreciated it. The people knew this had been achieved with hard work and after the land reform, and were prepared to defend it.

This will to defend has been confirmed so convincingly - by all the sacrifices, that the Estonians still, despite everything had to make and all the battles they had to fight in World War II. This will to defend went to seed in the heads of politicians with little education, it also went to seed because like any other European state, we too had our leftist intellectuals. They existed in France and in England, at it was due to their pressure that Europe surrendered first to Hitler and then to the Hitler-Stalin pact; they were the undoing of the European security. Also, they were the undoing of the Republic of Estonia, for the first mistake was made when the promises of Kremlin, these hypocritical, deceptive promises were mistaken for truth. And all these promises, for God's sake, to maintain Estonia's independence. The promises that there would be temporary, small bases, and no interference with Estonia's politics. - We are simple people, we use the eau de cologne "Krasnaya Moskva". - And for God's sake, they were believed.

Our first defence task is the general security. Today's Estonia with her international relations, with her defence co-operation, is not comparable to the Estonia before World War II. And this is what we must develop, this is what we must be proud and grateful for, to all our governments with no exception, because we can thank them for this co-operation between the Estonia's still developing defence forces, our still developing Defence League, and the defence structures of the democratic world that have managed to spare Europe of wars for the last 50 years and who now have with heavy heart stepped out to defeat Europe's last Stalin. Because as long as there are Stalins, there will also be Hitlers, or vice versa, as long as there are Hitlers, there will also be Stalins. I assure you that we already have a wide choice of Molotovs; only new Ribbentrops have not been born yet.

Secondly, our will to defend is nothing theoretical. Our will to defend is something as clear as this Värska water that for some reason bears a Vichy label. It is measured and it is followed, and the more resolve, patriotism, and heart we add to our will to defend, the more will our partners give in the way of skills, arms and financial help. My second point is that when we set our feet firmly to the ground and show that we have the will to defend; when we are sufficiently trained to use properly the weapons that have been trusted to us, when we have reached the point where any military crisis threatening Estonia will face its initiators with the question what would be the price of breaking Estonia's sovereignty; and if it is clear then that the price would be too high, then we have achieved something - it is said that a tailor measures seven times before he cuts. For us, it is quite enough if he measures twice. This is today's security, this is Estonia's security policy. Do not let the fifth columnists mislead you, the fifth columnists who are paid fortunes for planting doubts in our consciousness and in our media, for ridiculing, for adding up figures to prove that our country, a country with no submarines and no tanks, is ridiculous, and so is its defence policy if it should have to stand face to face with a country having many tanks, numerous submarines and a multitude of missiles. This is not a question of arithmetics, the point is rather that for instance in the small country of Switzerland, where men hang not only guns but also much more complex weapons by the door beside their coats, there have never been any drunken firing incidents in pubs. Switzerland with its meticulous order, and strict self-discipline - which does not mean strictness not towards the ministers or the government, but first and foremost strictness towards oneself. This is part of family relations, that a child shall not play with the gunlock. The fate of Switzerland is admirable, and if you tell me - but they have the mountains, I will tell you that we too have mountains, forests and swamps. And our will to defend must rest on our knowledge of our countryside and landscape - we must know it better than anyone in the world. To make use of every hummock if necessary.

But there is a price to be paid for our will to defend and for using it. First, it takes to be consistent; we must contradict all these poison-mixers who wish us to slip from our path, they are good at their job and they are among us now, and they know that it is the easiest way to destroy the state with its own hands. Russia is not as dangerous as the Estonians who are writing venomous articles behind the corner or behind our back. So just read them, but do not waste paper to reply, just clear your minds and face them in cold blood. Face them as statesmen, keep in mind that taking defence expenditure to two per cent of the state budget is one of our tasks. What is two per cent? It is one fiftieth. This does not sound much, but how they fight it! They fight it because they do not see the wall of our security from afar and as a whole, they put their nose to the wall and see a single brick - and then they say that this would mean so and so many millions for national defence, can't you see we need school textbooks or new bus lines or something else. Well, the world would be very simple if everything could just fall into our laps. The great difficulty of a politician and a nation is in endless choices between the most important and a little less important. You know that for me, the education of Estonia is most important. But in order to attain proper education in Estonia, we need time to build the Estonian state, and the will to defend will give us the time we need. Keep in mind that in the world there are many clocks of different countries, from different makers. They all tick in the same pace on our wrists or in an older man's waistcoat pocket. And there is another kind of clocks. These are the political clocks of the states, ticking at a different pace in every country. These clocks tick much more quickly in small countries, this is one characteristic of small countries - they never get as much time as the big ones. There are many things that we must decide today, that we can not decide in ten years' time, because by postponing the decision today, we are without even noticing it, signing the verdict that in ten years we shall be no more. We must learn and teach ourselves to understand the value of time, the need to use every single day. For the sake of our will to defend, our patriotism, our skilful use of arms.

These were my three comments, ladies and gentlemen.
I wish you a lot of strength. Thank you.

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