It is a remarkable comment on our affairs that the former Prime Minister of a great sovereign state should thus be received as an honorary citizen of another. I say “great sovereign state” with design and emphasis, for I reject the view that Britain and the Commonwealth should now be relegated to a tame and minor role in the world. Our past is the key to our future, which I firmly trust and believe will be no less fertile and glorious. Let no man underrate our energies, our potentialities and our abiding power for good. The Atlantic community is a dream that can well be fulfilled tot he detriment of nonen and to the enduring benefit and honour of the great democracies. (Statement Winston Churchill, April 9, 1963 at the occasion of his honorary citizenship of the Unites States of America)