THE RED ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1943, Page 2

THE RED ARMY

RUSSIA’S GREAT FIGHT NEW ZEALAND’S TRIBUTE. ADDRESS BY MR FRASER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A tribute on behalf of New Zealand to the armed forces of the Soviet Union was paid by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in a broadcast address last night on the occasion of the twentyfifth anniversary of the Red Army, which falls on Tuesday. Reference was made by Mr Fraser to the fine Soviet soldiers, whose endurance and fortitude during long months of adversity had been rewarded in so striking a manner by their victorious progress of the past few weeks. “I am sure every citizen joins with me tonight in saluting that mighty host which has withstood so much and is now surging forward with such signal success,” said the Prime Minister. “To all peoples resisting Nazi aggression, the name of the Red Army has become of tremendous importance. In the 19 months since the treacherous German attack on the Soviet Union in June, 1941, its achievements have become' inextricably associated with our hopes and fears for our own future. “This war is being fought as never before by the common people with all their strength and will for the sake of their own security and for the preservation of those precious liberties and privileges which make life worth living. No peoples have shown in this respect a more unconquerable spirit than those of the Soviet Union, and the Red Army derives its strength from that spirit which has remained undaunted by reverses and sufferings and is firmly convinced that its just cause will be victorious. “We who are proud to be part of the British Commonwealth of Nations, whose Mother Country stood like a rock fortress of freedom after Dunkirk in her darkest and greatest hour; we who watched her standing alone courageously and defiantly amidst defeated nations prostrate around her, fighting for freedom and holding the pass for mankind, proudly risking all while the only sword wielded for righteousness was in her own hand; we who are so . proud of the outstanding achievements of our own soldiers, sailors and airmen in so many battlefields —in Greece, Crete, Libya and Tripoli, in naval conflict at the River Plate, in the Red Sea and in the Solomons, and in the air wherever blows are struck against the Nazi and Fascist cruel tyranny—we tonight in thankfulness and comradeship salute the noble achievement of the Red Army, the ■ great Russian leader, Stalin, and the peoples of the U.S.S.R. “When final victory has been won the friendship between the British peoples, the United States, and their Soviet allies will undoubtedly be one of the things that will make it possible for us to build a peace settlement worthy of the brave men of all the countries who have fought for it,” concluded the Prime Minister.