ANSWER TO HITLER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1941, Page 8

ANSWER TO HITLER

EMPIRE COMRADESHIP IN AR,MS LORD CROFT ON THE REAL NEW ORDER. I ’ GREAT RALLY LN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. February 20. Asking his audience at a London iluncheon to turn their eyes to the Middle East and Africa, where, fighting on fronts extending over 2500 miles, is gathered the most romantic fraternity in arms the world has ever witnessed. Lord Croft, join* Under-Secretary of War. said: "It was a mixed force of British and Indian troops who struck the first fateful blow at Sidi Barrani. At Bar- ; dia and Tobruk it was an Imperial I and .Australian force which had pride i of place along with the Royal Armouried Corps, and while the, armoured I corps, in its amazing forced march. ! by a southern route, cut off the dei fenders of Benghazi from their base, the Australians swept along by a coastal road and completed the job. "In this area are British Guardsmen, riflemen, and numerous units of the line—English. Highlanders, and Welsh. New Zealanders are there. Famous British cavalry regiments have added lustre to their great records of the past by showing themselves to be pastmasters of the war of speed in armoured vehicles. British artillery, engineers, and the R.A.S.C. are there. The last are aided in the supply service by Cypriots, who for the first lime fight by our side. "Go south-east to Eritrea, and there you find in the extreme north British troops advancing near the coast and threatening the Italian right flank. Hundreds of miles to the south British I and Indian troops have made dra- ' malic advances from the Sudan, cap- - luring Kassala. Biskia. and Agordat, | and are attacking an immensely strong! position at Keren. Further south., British and Indian troops have cap-' lured Barentu and are still advancing. "A fourth force of British, Imperial and Sudanese finally captured Gallabat and is advancing toward Gondar. A further 600 miles on. South .African 1 troops have advanced east of Lake. Rudolf, and are penetrating deep into ! Abyssinia, and, having with the Rho- i desians and the King's African Rifles I cleared all Kenya of the enemy, are ; thrusting north. "Finally, 600 miles further east. ; troops of the Gold Coast, with the j King’s African Rifles, have conouercd , a great area of Italian Somaliland. : and. having captured the important ; port of Kismayu, are now on the line I of the Juba River.

"This is our answer to Hitler. Magnificent troops of the self-governing Dominions, of India, and natives of the African colonies and the Sudan, all volunteers, are fighting side by side.

"Remember, also. that Canadian divisions and Now Zealanders, with

gunners from Newfoundland. arc standing here, at the very heart of the struggle, to meet the first shock of invasion. Australians and Imperial troops are reinforcing Singapore, squadrons of Dominion airmen are

sharing the honours of the heavens with the flower of the Old Country's youth, and from the great Imperial training centres in Canada thev arc coming, and will yet come, in their scores of thousands.

"Ihis is the real ’new order,’ a comradeship so close that it marches steadily through the Valley of Death so that the Empire and civilisation as

a whole may survive and triumph over the foul and evil thing which seeks to destroy the soul of man."