REAL NEW ORDER

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 11

REAL NEW ORDER

Romantic Fraternity In Arms ANSWER TO HITLER (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 20. Asking his audience at a London luncheon to turn their eyes to the Middle East and Africa, where, fighting on fronts extending over 2500 miles, is gathered the most romantic fraternity in arms the world has ever witnessed, Lord Croft, joint Under-Secretary of 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 Imperial aud Australian force which had pride of place along with the Royal Armoured Corps, and while the armoured corps, in its amazing forced march by a southern route, cut off the defenders of Benghazi from their base, the Australians swept along by a coastal road and completed the job.

“In this area are British Guardsmen, riflemen, and numerous units of the line —English, Highlanders, and Welsh. New Zealanders are there. Famous British cavalry regiments have added lustre to their great records of the past by showing themselves to be pastmasters of the war of speed in armoured vehicles. British artillery, engineers, and the R.A.S.C. are there. The last are aided in the supply service by Cypriots, who for the first time fight by our side. Dramatic Advances.

“Go south-east to Eritrea, and there you find in the extreme north British troops advancing near the coast and threatening the Italian right flank. Hundreds of miles to the south British and Indian troops have made dramatic advances from the Sudan, capturing Kassala, Biskia, and Agordat, and are attacking an immensely strong position at Keren. Further south, British and Indian troops have captured Barentu and are still advancing. “A fourth force of British, Imperial and Sudanese finally captured GaJlabat. and is advancing toward Gondar. A further 600 miles on, South African troops have advanced east of Lake Rudolf, and are penetrating deep into Abyssinia, and, having with the Rhodesians and the King’s African Rifles cleared all Kenya of the enemy, are thrusting north. “Finally, 600 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. Magnificent troops of the self-governing Dominions, of India, and natives of the African colonies and the Sudan, all volunteers, are 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 invasion. and Imperial troops are reinforcing Singapore, squadrons 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 in Canada they are coming, and will yet come, in their scores of thousands.

“This is the real ‘new order,’ a comradeship so close that it marches steadily through the Valley of Death so that the Empire and civilization as a whole may survive and triumph over the foul and evil thing which seeks to destroy the soul of man.”