JUSTICE TO BRITISH TROOPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 63, 15 March 1945, Page 6

JUSTICE TO BRITISH TROOPS

In urging more publicity for the exploits of the British Army, a Labour member of the House of Commons declared: "It is strange that news had to come from Canada that the greater part of the Canadian First Army were troops from the United Kingdom." This is by no means the first time during the present war that the part played by the troops of Great Britain has been played down and the spotlight turned on the troops of the Dominions and of Allied countries. During the North African campaigns, and particularly in the early stages, so much publicity was given to the contribution of men from the Dominions that British newspapers found it necessary to point out, without in any way detracting from the gallantry of Australians, New Zealanders, and South Africans, that there were troops from Great Britain in action as well. They could, indeed, have gone much further and shown that men from the British Isles constituted the greater part of the forces engaged. This lack of publicity for the forces of Great Britain has probably arisen from a desire on the part of correspondents, most of them British themselves, to deal as generously as possible with the troops of the Dominions and Allied countries, but such generosity can be overdone. It is not fair either to those who are the subjects of it or those whose gallant deeds in practically every theatre of war have contributed so magnificently to the victory now drawing near.