SINGAPORE DEFENCE

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1942, Page 7

SINGAPORE DEFENCE

LONDON, March 17. , Mr Duff Cooper paid a tribute' to the people of Singapore in his first public speech since he returned to England from the Far East. All the women worked either in hospitals or assisted the administration, he said. Even his small staff had assisted to the best of their ability. . He said that it would be useless to report now on all the details of the things that had to be done. He had reported at length to the Government, and had shown how every preparation for invasion had been made by strengthening as far as possible the civil defences of the island. He told how the garrison had hung on to the last possible moment, and how it had fallen back as slowly as possible in the hope of stemming the enemy until the arrival of reinforcements. For the first three weeks, he said, two divisions had gallantly borne the brunt of the full weight of the enemy attack in the face of vastly superior’ numbers without rest and without reinforcements.