RED ARMY DAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1943, Page 3

RED ARMY DAY

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS IN BRITAIN GREAT DEMONSTRATION AT ALBERT HALL. MESSAGE FROM M. STALIN. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.47 a.m.) RUGBY, February 21. The anniversary of the creation of the Red Army was celebrated in various parts of Britain during the weekend. In London this afternoon Mr Anthony Eden (Foreign Secretary) was the speaker at a great demonstration in Albert Hall, where a special programme had been arranged. The following message from M. Stalin was read: “On behalf of the armed forces of the Soviet Union I welcome the thanks of all citizens, men and women of Great Britain, who honour the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Red Army. This demonstration of friendly feelings on the part of the British people for the army of the Soviet people strengthens our confidence that the moment is near when the armed forces of our countries, by joining in offensive operations, will smash the common enemy.” ' Mr Eden said the Government had asked him to pay the Government’s tribute, along with that of the British people, to the valour of the Red Army. During long months of dogged retreat British admiration and sympathy had gone out to that army and they shared in the rejoicing now that the tide had turned and the Red Army was, sweeping forward in a surge of breathless victories. Never, in all its long proud history, had the German army sustained such unmitigated disaster as at Stalingrad. Hitler had been outgeneralled, outmanoeuvred and outfought It was with a feeling of deep relief that he read that Hitler was to continue to control the German war machine. The Soviet forces had forced him to stand before Germany as the man responsible for the slaughter of over a quarter of a million of his best troops. Britons were proud of their own Eighth Army and they also paid a tribute to every department of the Red Army. The spirit of the Soviet people was recognised in Britain as akin to that which had filled all Britons after Dunkirk. Mr Eden gave a warning against propaganda which was attempting to raise the bogy of Bolshevism. They were being asked to contemplate Hitler as a saviour of European civilisation. Hitler was the only begetter of this hideous war. Hitler, who having failed to subdue Britain, when that country stood between him and world domination, turned and attacked the Soviet Union, with whom he had pledged friendship less than two years before. There was only one way that this man could save mankind—by leading the monstrous Nazi machine he had created to utter destruction; by becoming such an awful monument to evildoing and evilthinking that men will be forever warned in time to combine and prevent the rise of such- another. Dealing with the Nazi claim, that Britain and Russia would later fall out, Mr Eden said that hope had been dashed already because they not only had agreed to work together for the utter destruction of the Axis but also upon collaboration in peace. The British, American and Soviet forces were comrades in arms and looked forward to the final victory which they would win together.