VICTORY OR DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1942, Page 4

VICTORY OR DEATH

SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA BROADCAST BY GENERAL BLAMEY. DEMAND ON EVERY SOLDIER. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) MELBOURNE, May 13. “Our contest is to the death. There, can be no glossening over its grimness or its finality,'’ said General Sir Thomas Blarney, commander of the land forces in Australia in a broadcast to the troops throughout Australia tonight. “It is,” he said, “a personal contest for every soldier, in which his strength of body and fitness of mind will be tested to the limit. We are training to fit every officer and man to overwhelm, destroy and slay the -aggressor who would wrest from us our liberty, land, homes and womenfolk. There is no true Australian man who is not prepared to die to prevent this. The object of our training is to build up such . a spirit that we will force our way to victory or death.” After detailing the objects of various forms of training, General Blarney said: “The Australian and American peoples stand at the vanguard of civilisation. In each of our countries the freedom of the individual has reached the highest development. With that freedom gone and all our acts and ways subjected to barbarian control, life has no value. We have the strength to defeat this enemy. We must, and we will.” Today’s Allied Headquarters communique states: “North-east Sector. Weather conditions have limited air activity throughout the area. There was routine activity only in other areas.”