EMPIRE AT WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 113, 22 February 1941, Page 3

EMPIRE AT WAR

AID GIVEN BY DOMINIONS. ROMANTIC FRATERNITY IN ARMS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, February 20. Asking his audience at a London lunch to turn their eyes to the Middle Elast and Africa where, fighting over, fronts extending for 2500 miles, is gathered the- most romantic fraternity in arms the World- has ever witnessed, Baron Croft (Joint Under-Secretary of State- for War), said: “It was a mixed force of British and Indian troops who struck, the first fateful blow at Sidi Barrani. At Bardia and Tobruk it was an Australian Imperial Force which had pride of place* along with the Royal Armoured •Corps, and while the Armoured Corps, in its amazing forced march by the southern route, cut the defenders of Benghazi off from their base, the Australians swept along by the coast road and completed the job. “In this area are British Guardsmen, riflemen, and numerous units of the line. English, Highlanders, Welsh, and New Zealanders are there. Famous British cavalry regiments have added lustre to the great records of the past by showing themselves past masters of a war of speed in armoured vehicles. British Artillery, Engineers and Royal Army Service Corps are there. The Royal Army Service Corps is aided in the supply service by Cypriots who, for the first time, fight by olir side. “Go south-east to Eritrea and there you will find in the extreme north British troops advancing near the coast and threatening the Italian right flank. One hundred miles southwards British and Indian troops made dramatic advances from the Sudan capturing Kassala, Biskia, and Agordat and they are attacking the immon.fffy strong position of Keren. Parallel, but further south, British and Indian troops captured Barentu and are still advancing- “ Six hundred miles on, South African troOps who advanced east of Lake Rudolf are penetrating deep into Abyssinia and having, with Rhodesians and the King’s African Rifles, cleared all Kenya of the enemy, are thrusting north.’ i “Finally, six hundred miles further east, troops of the Gold Coast, with the King’s African. Rifles, have conquered a great area of Italian Somaliland, and having captured the important port of.Kismayu, are now on the line of the Juba river. “This is our answer to Hitler. The magnificent troops of the self-govern-ing: Dominions, of India, and the natives of the African colonies and the Sudan, all volunteers, ane fighting side by side. > » “Remember, also, that Canadian divisions and New Zealanders, with gunners from Newfoundland, are standing here at the very heart of the struggle to meet the first shock of in-, vasion. Australians and Imperial troops are reinforcing Singapore. S'quadrcns of Dominion airmen are sharing the honours of the heavens With the flower of the Old Country’s youth and from the great Imperial training centres of Canada they are coming and will yet come in their scores of thousands. “This is a real ‘new order’ of a comradeship so close that it marches steadily through the valley of death so that tiiei Empire and civilisation as a whole may survive and triumph over the foul anj evil thing which, seeks to destroy the soul of man.” —British Official 'Wireless.