OUR FIGHTING MEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1943, Page 2

OUR FIGHTING MEN

NEW ZEALAND’S PRIDE & GRATITUDE EXPRESSED BY PREMIER. ADDRESS LAST EVENING. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. New Zealand’s pride in the fighting men of its own Division and the other armies of the Allied nations which took part in the successful campaign in North Africa was expressed by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in an address last night. The Allied world, he said, hailed it as one of the most complete military victories in history. The presence of the New Zealand Division on the battlefields of Tunisia, where the North African campaign was brought to such a triumphant close, was the end of a volume in the Division’s record. Whatever was in store for the Division, of this they could be certain —that whenever and wherever it was called upon it would fight as it had fought in the last three years. Mr Fraser said that New Zealanders joined in a heartfelt chorus of congratulation and thanksgiving. In their rejoicing they remembered gratefully the flgflhting men of all the nations engaged —the men from Britain and cur sister Dominions, from the United States, and from India and from Allied countries, particularly the troops representing true and Free France fighting on their own soil. “We do not forget,” said the Prime Minister, “that this campaign was won on the sea and in the air as well as on the land. It is natural, however, that we should have a special place in our hearts for the men from our own country. They have been privileged to share in this truly great victory, and it is right and fitting that at this moment we should tell them how proud we are of this and of the way they have acquitted themselves. We sent these men away with high hopes. We knew they would uphold the Anzac tradition. But what they did has surpassed all expectations.” Greece and. Crete were one chapter in the record of the New Zealand Division; Egypt and Libya another; Syria and Libya again a third, said Mr Fraser. Then came the long advance westward from El Alamein in which the division was given a place of honour. “Perhaps military history can show no parallel, in distance and continuous fighting, to the Eighth Army’s advance from El Alamein to Tunisia, and when the Army came to the end of its j'ourney it shared in the tremendous victory* that crowned the whole North African campaign,” the Prime Minister continued. “It was an honour for the New Zealand Division to be a unit in this great army. What our division has done is known to all of us. It is known to the world, and acclaimed wherever free men live and speak. Our men will carry with them our gratitude and our love. They will greet the unseen with a cheer, and we who stay at home should do the same. Meanwhile, we have an abiding memory of the glorious deeds crowned with victory.”