ADMIRATION BY NEUTRALS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23036, 3 June 1940, Page 7

ADMIRATION BY NEUTRALS

Heroism of Allied Soldiers PRESS COMMENT ABROAD (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received June 2, 8.30 p.m.) ■RUGBY, June 1. Extracts from the • foreign press reaching London reflect the profound admiration aroused abroad by the news of the disciplined withdrawal in large numbers of the Allied troops cut off In Belgium and northern France. The military correlpondent of the “Courrier de Geneve” writes: “General Blanchard and General Lord Gort and General Prioux have been writing for days on the new Yser battlefield one of the finest pages of military history of our times." Another Swiss paper, the “Tribune de Lausanne” says: “V/e bow before the heroism of the soldiers, before the calmness <x£ the officers who faced so resolutely the tragic situation created in the midst of battle by the commander of the Belgian A-rmy.” The military correspondent of the “New York Times” comments: “The heroic resistance of the- Allied troops has given General Weygand time to bolster and strengthen his defensive line on the Somme and the Aisne. The fight to the death in the pocket in Flanders has not been wasted. Britain has been prepared against the threat of invasion, the morale of France has been buttressed, an old system has been scrapped, an army has been reorganised, a defensive line has been established, and the Germans have suffered heavy losses.”

This newspaper writes editorially: “So long as the English tongue survives. the work at Dunkirk will be spoken of with reverence. The rags and blemishes which have hidden the soul of democracy fell away there. Beaten but unconquered, in shining triumph she has faced the enemy. It was the common man of the free countries rising in all his glory out of mill, office, factory, mine, farm, and shop. This shining thing is the soul of free men.” The “New York Herald Tribune” also pays eloquent tribute to the Allied treops. “There have been terrible retreats, perilous embarkations, and heroic rearguard actions in the past,” it says, “but no combination of all of them on a scale like this. Many will be saved through the courage of all and every man who may be lest in that blazing coast will only nerve those armies to greater efforts, speed the training of his successors and force the country to more furious production of aeroplanes, tanks, and guns. These are the soldiers of civilisation who will save by their suffering everything which makes civilised life of value.”