MR CHURCHILL IS HONOURED BY KING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 250, 22 October 1945, Page 5

MR CHURCHILL IS HONOURED BY KING

MEDALS PRESENTED Incident Believed Without Precedent N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 21. With his expressed wish "that Mr. Churchill should have these medals," the King has had delivered to Mr. Churchill personally the ribbons of the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star and the Defence Medal, says the Daily Telegraph. It is believed this is the first time a British Prime Minister as a service officer has been awarded campaign medals. Mr. Churchill is a colonel in the Fourth Hussars. "It was not without a pang that I found myself dismissed at the genera! election from the honourable task of guiding our country," said Mr. Churchill, when receiving the honorary freedom of the borough of Wanstead, in his constituency of Woodford.

"I had hoped mat the position I gained in the world, the experience and knowledge which I acquired, and the links which had been forged in the fires of war with other lands and leaders might have been of service in this critical time of transition, and in. the fateful work of trying to revive .the life and glory of Europe within the circle jof assured world . peace." . Mr. Churchill said he was. also disappointed that he was unable to throw air his personal strength,,and that of his colleagues into demobilisation, housing and the switch-oyer of wartime industries to peacetime production. However, he would not waste time in repining. '.1 share with many people deep anxiety about - the future," he said. "It seems to me .that the next few years may well decide our place in the world. It is a place which, if once lost, may never be regained; _ The break-up of the famous. Coalition Government inevitably led to a wider rift between the parties. However, he could not conclude without reaffirming his confidence that the qualities which had carried their island race to the vanguard of mankind would not desert them now.