FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 112, 13 May 1940, Page 11

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

MESSAGE FIIOM MR. CHURCHILL

SHALL STRIVE TOGETHER

MR. FRASER'S REPLY

The following cablegram was received by the Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser) this afternoon from the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain:—

On accepting his Majesty's in vita-

tion to fill the office of Prime Minis-

ter, I send you my warmest greetings. A great responsibility has Eallen; to me at this critical hour, but its weight is lightened by the

sure, knowledge that I can rely on your wholehearted support and that if the other Prime" Ministers of overseas Dominions,

. The people of. the British Commonwealth of Nations are once again united in arms against tyranny and barbarism. Together we -shall suffer and strive, together we shall persevere, and the gate's shall not be shut on freedom and justice.

The responsibilities that will devolve upon you and your colleagues in this critical stage of the great struggle upon which we have entered together will be most onerous, but you may rely entirely upon our sympathetic understanding and our whole-hearted support in all measures necessary, to bring this struggle to an early and successful conclusion.

At this time particularly, when the enemy's forces have at last been fully unleashed, we can confidently rely on the determination of our people throughout the British Commonwealth, which is never stronger than in a crisis -Such as this, on the justice of our cause and on our efforts, undertaken as they are by our own free will, to release ourselves and the world for all time from the threat of domination by brutal force directed with unrelenting cruelty.

Mr. Fraser sent the following reply:

I have to .acknowledge and to thank you for" your message of May 13,/ and I most cordially reciprocate your greetings. I have rioted with great interest your assumption of the office of Prime Minister and the formation of a new Government on a wide political basis, and I wish at once to assure you of the fullest measure of co-operation from the Government and people of New Zealand, European and Maori alike.