IMPERIAL ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1940, Page 4

IMPERIAL ARMY

IN THE MIDDLE EAST MR EDEN’S MESSAGE, TO RELATIVES’& FRIENDS. FUTURE FACED WITH UTMOST CONFIDENCE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 14. The War Secretary, Mr Anthony Eden, has addressed a special message to relations and friends of what he referred to as the “essentially Imperial Army’’ in the Middle Bast. The members of this army, Mr Eden said, faced the future with the utmost confidence and he was aole to report that the standard of health was good. Mr Eden recounted how he had seen volunteers from Australia. New Zealand, South Africa, India, Palestine, Cyprus, Mauritius, and Malta, all of whom had come of their own free will to play their part. “I told our (forces in a special message before 1 left,” he said, “that the future in the Middle East was safe in their hands, and 1 can tell you that there is much more reason for that confidence than there was a short time ago. For our men in that part of the world are continually growing in numbers. They have more and better weapons and they know how to use them.

“No one should under-estimate the task they are called upon to perform. It is .immensely formidable, but with every week that has passed our forces have been better trained and equipped to carry it through to victory.” Mr Edf 1 spoke of the pleasure it had given him to meet the South African Premier, General Smuts. “In the far-off days of the last war many of us from other parts of the Empire felt that there were qualities- in him which made him the leader of us all and a brave and sure guide in times of peril and difficulty. It was of the greatest value to me at Khartoum to be able to take counsel with a statesman with these rare qualities of vision, wisdom, and courage.”