FIRST-CLASS JOB

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1941, Page 5

FIRST-CLASS JOB

GENERAL WAVELL PRAISES AUSTRALIANS FEDERAL ARMY MINISTER'S COMMENT. ANTICIPATION OF ITALIAN COLLAPSE. I (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright i ! LONDON. January 4. The Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the Middle East, General Sir Archibald Wavell. is enthusiastic about the Australians, states a message from Cairo. He told the Australian Minister of the Army, Mr Spender, that they had done a first-class job and were not finished yet. Mr Spender has newly arrived in Cairo, accompanied by the Chief of the i Australian General Staff. Lieutenant- ! General Sir Thomas Blarney. \ General Blarney, when interviewed ■by the “Sunday Dispatch's” special ' correspondent, said: “My men came up Ito the highest expectations. Much of ! their success is due to their long train- ! ing in night-patrol work and individual fighting, but it is their keenness and confidence which took them through Bardia’s defences like a whirlwind.” ■ "The Australian troops had been I waiting for this moment.” declared Mr Spender in another interview. “Knowing the men as I do, I expected that once they were given the opportunity they would sweep through to victory. What has been accomplished is. in my opinion but the forerunner of coming events. “Bardia will assuredly fall, and bit by bit the Italian resistance in Africa | will be smashed. The time for Italy’s i collapse will not be long postponed.”