SWORD OF HONOUR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1943, Page 4

SWORD OF HONOUR

PRESENTED TO STALINGRAD BV KING GEORGE TOKEN OF ADMIRATION. . if BRITISH EMPIRE’S TRIBUTE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m.) RUGBY, February 21. His Majesty the King, in a message to the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Socialist Republic states that he has ordered the preparation of a sword of honour to be presented to the city of Stalingrad. The telegram reads: “Today I and ■ my -peoples join with the peoples of the Soviet Union in a wholehearted tribute to the heroic qualities and magnificent leadership whereby the Red Army in the struggle against our common enemies has, by its resounding triumphs, written new pages in history. It was the great resistance at Stalingrad that turned the tide and heralded the crushing blows which struck dismay into the enemies of civilisation and freedom. To mark the profund admiration felt by myself and the peoples of the British Empire I have given commands for the preparation of a sword of honour which it would give me pleasure to present to the city of Stalingrad. My hope would be that this gift might commemorate in happier times to come the inflexible courage with which that warrior city steeled herself against the powerful and persistent'onslaughts of her assailants and that it might be a token of admiration not only of the British peoples but of the whole civilised world.”