SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 29 January 1943, Page 2

SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH

GIFT FROM MR. CHURCHILL PRESENTATION TO THE R.S.A. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. In replying to congratulations and good wishes conveyed to him on January 18 by the New Zealand Returned Services' Association, Mr. Churchill has, through Sir Harry Batterbee, High Commissioner for Great Britain in New Zealand, presented the association with a signed photograph of himself. Sir Harry referred to the fact that Britain's leader had begun life as a soldier and always took a keen interest in those who had served. Sir Harry also said it was fitting that he should make the presentation just after the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force had been among the first to enter Tripoli. "In the name of the British Government," he said, "I would like to rake this opportunity to congratulate New Zealand on the great exploits of the New Zealand Division in North Africa. The name of New Zealand will for ever be associated with the campaign in the Middle East, and with the victorious advance of the Eighth Army, of which it has always been in the van from El Alamein to Tripoli." Sir Harry added that so long as the spirit of New Zealand was the same as that of the fighting services, the country would be safe.

The Dominion president, Mr. W. Perry, M.L.C., in replying, said that when the history of the war was written, Mr. Churchill would be recorded as the Empire's greatest leader.