LORD CORT RETURNS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1940, Page 5

LORD CORT RETURNS

DECORATED BY THE KING STATEMENT ON LANDING. “WE SHALL MEET THEM AGAIN.” By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, June 2. The British Gommander-in-Chief, General Lord Gort, has returned to London. A War Office communique states that Lord Gort handed over the command of the remaining troops on the orders of the Government as a result of the good progress made in the evacuation of the B.E.F. Lord Gort was received by the King, who conferred on him the order of Grand Commander of the Bath, the oldest and most distinguished of the British orders of chivalry. When he arrived in London early today Lord Gort was met at the station by Mr Anthony Eden, Secretary of War. He was subsequently in conference at the War Office. “It is not the arrival of myself that matters. It is the arrival of my army,” said Lord Gort to one officer who welcomed him when he left a small vessel accompanied by only two officers. Lord Gort also said: “We shall meet them again, and next time the victory will be with us.” His remarks were made to an officer who said that if the decision had been left to Lord Gort he would not have taken even the last ship from devastated Dunkirk, but the first of the country’s soldiers had to obey the orders of his Majesty's Government. Lord Gort stood on the beach, reluctant to leave. He often looked back toward where the men were fighting. It was hard to get him away, said those who stood on the beach with him, but eventually when the tiny craft bobbed shoreward he boarded it. To the senior naval officer he expressed appreciation of the Navy’ superb service.

UNBROKEN STREAM BRITISH & FRENCH TROOPS. SMALL CRAFT OPEATING IN CALM WEATHER. (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, June 2. The ' stream of British and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk is still unbroken. An extraordinary break in the weather, transforming the notoriously rough English Channel into calm, smooth waters, has made possible the use of mosquito fleets. ENEMY TRIBUTES PAID TO DEFENDERS OF CALAIS. AND TO OTHER BRITISH FORCES. (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, June 2. “The answer is: ‘No,’ ” was the reply the British commandant in the Calais Citadel made to the German demand to surrender, according to the German Press which surprisingly pays a tribute to the B.E.F. The "Hamburger Fremdenblatt” says the last remnants of the B.E.F. are fighting with the proven tenacity of the Anglo-Saxon race. They fought at Calais with courage and desperation. They made every house a fortress and fired from every window. NEW ZEALAND TRIBUTE MESSAGE TO MR CHURCHILL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The following message has been dispatched by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr Churchill: “His Majesty’s Government in New Zealand have been following the successive accounts of the fighting in. Belgium and Northern France and the evacuation of the British and Allied forces from the Dunkirk area with extreme anxiety and with the most intense admiration of the heroism, unsurpassed in history, shown by those men upon whom have fallen the rigours of the rearguard action and the march to the coast, and by all concerned —Navy, Army, Air Force, mercantile marine and others —in the evacuation itself. In their opinion the firmness and courage displayed in the operations and the efficiency of the organisation involved in a movement of such unprecedented difficulty and magnitude offer a most hopeful augury for the future success of the Allied arms. They feel impelled at once to offer this tribute of their admiration and their warmest congratulations on this wonderful achievement.’’