Allies Determined Egypt Shall Not Lose Its Freedom

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1942, Page 3

Allies Determined Egypt Shall Not Lose Its Freedom

Rec. 7.35 p.m. London, Aug. 25. "We are determined to fight for Egypt and the Nile Valley as if it were the soil of England," said Mr. Winston Churchill at Cairo. "I feel sober confidence in the future. I feel that the historic and epic struggle in the desert will come to a victorious conclusion though the road may be long," continued the Prime Minister. "Everything to drive the enemy back in such a way that his power to injure will be gone will be done. We are determined to do everything in our power to that end. I would like very much to thank the whole body of correspondents, British and Allied, on the manner they have identified themselves with the army and with the struggle that is going on. Instead of seeking cheap sensationalism they are governed by a high sense of responsibility." "You have played a magnificent part," Mr. Churchill said to the New Zealanders when he visited them in Egypt, "an inimitable and even a decisive part in stemming a retreat which might have been very serious to the British Empire. There are many eyes on*" the opposite side of the world fixed upon you, but there are more eyes still fixed upon you in Britain." Mr. Churchill also visited British arm-

oured units and infantry. Inspecting the infantrymen, he told a group of sergeants: "You have got to get your own back on those people. Great events are afoot. Everybody in England is watching you. Now all eyes are on you. Good luck." The Prime Minister motored past dozens of new gunpits and acres of new minefields. South of Ruweisak Ridge, where Mr. Churchill's convoy pulled up, anti-aircraft units stood in readiness. Watchers swept the sky with field-glasses, but the secret had been well kept and no enemy planes appeared. Mr. Churchill visited a New Zealand cernetery, where a few Britons and Germans are also buried, all recently killed in action. He Stood briefly bareheaded and then entered a "honey" tank, in which he travelled over the desert to the edge of the Quattara Depression.