LAST STAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 April 1941, Page 5

LAST STAGES

A OF GALLANT REARGUARD ACTION NO HOPE OF BETTER TURN IN GREECE. FEDERAL ACTING-PREMIER’S STATEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright? SYDNEY, April 25. “In spite of the heroism of the new Anzacs, and in spite of the heavy losses that have been inflicted on the enemy, there is no ground for hoping that the fighting in Greece can or will take any turn to our advantage,” said the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Fadden. "We are now seeing the last stages of a most gallant rearguard action, but it is a rearguard action and it would be foolish to regard it as anything else.” Mr Fadden said the German advance in Libya had been stopped and Egypt at the moment was secure. Nevertheless, Australia never before had faced a position that was fraught with so much danger. "If Australians, either at home or on the battlefield, are content to give anything but their best, we will fail,” he said. The Federal Government’s invitation to Labour to join a national allparty- Administration, which was first made in the middle of last year and repeated several times since, was officially renewed by Mr Fadden yesterday. Mr Fadden said: "Now is the time for all of us to sink any political differences and to dispose our forces and our strength in such a way as to provide the maximum war effort. No single party can win this war. If we do not all take our full share of responsibility we must go down.” No official answer from Labour is expected till the Leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr Curtin, reaches Melbourne next week and confers with other Labour Party supporters.