KILLED IN ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 December 1941, Page 6

KILLED IN ACTION

LIEUT.’COLONEL J. M. ALLEN, M.P. PREMIER’S ANNOUNCEMENT. NEWS RECEIVED WITH DEEPEST SORROW, (By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, This Day. Lieutenant-Colonel John M. Allen, M.P. for Hauraki, has been killed in action. Advice of his death was received from the Middle East on Saturday by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser. Colonel Allen, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1938, was a member of the National Party. “The distressing news of Colonel Alien’s death,” said Mr Fraser, “will be received with the deepest sorrow by every member of Parliament and by the people of New Zealand, and the widest and most sincere sympathy will be extended to his wife and family. “Colonel Allen had been in Parliament only a short time—he was elected at the 1938 election—but this period was long enough for all members to recognise his ability and to get to know and like him.

“I saw and consulted with him in Egypt and heard both from his senior officers and from his men how greatly he was esteemed. As a soldier he had indeed displayed outstanding qualities, and from my own discussions with him I found that he had a very wide grasp of military affairs. His death is a severe loss both to the Army, to Parliament and the country.”