"MIGHTY BATTLE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 133, 7 June 1944, Page 4

"MIGHTY BATTLE"

LIBERATING EUROPE

MR. SULLIVAN'S STATEMENT

After the announcement of the Allied landing last night, the following statement was issued by the Acting Prime Minister (Mr. Sullivan): — "Today the fateful news has been received that the invasion of the fortress of Europe has been launched and that operations are under way in which the Allied Forces are engaged. We have waited patiently for this event. We know that the operation is undertaken tin the fullness of our power and that with God's help it will be fully successful. "The announcement which has just been made is necessarily brief, and some hours may pass before any further definite news is available from Allied headquarters as to the progress of operations. Past experience indicates that the German news services may make claims that the landings have not succeeded in achieving their object. These should be entirely disregarded since it will be necessary, in the initial stages, to observe reticence, and to ensure that vital information is not given to the enemy. It is to this day that the people of the occupied countries of Europe have looked with patience and with hope. They have suffered long and grievously under the heel of the Nazi oppressor, but they have now the certain assurance that the armies from the west, joined with the forces of Soviet Russia from the east, will assuredly drive the oppressor from their lands. BITTER FIGHTING AHEAD. "Much bitter fighting lies ahead for those engaged in these mighty .pperations. Valuable lives will be lost and many men will be wounded, but their sacrifices shall not have been in vain if their victory is secured through the stern endeavour of the men and women of all freedom-loving countries of the world by a right and just peace. "We here in New Zealand can help in this great struggle by bending 'our wills and our energies to the production of those foodstuffs and other supplies which are needed so urgently to support the men and women of Britain and the Allied armies in the field. "Let nothing divide us in this stern endeavour, and let us humbly petition God in the homes of our people and in their churches that this mighty battle shall be won and secured to the enduring good of all men."