FRASER CONFIDENT: New Zealanders Fight With Dash, Speed, Ruthlessness

Northern Advocate, 26 May 1941, Page 6

FRASER CONFIDENT: New Zealanders Fight With Dash, Speed, Ruthlessness

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) (Received 31 a.m.) CAIRO, May 24. “THE NEXT FEW HOURS MAY WELL PROVE DECISIVE IN THE GREAT BATTLE OF CRETE," SAID THE PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND (MR. FRASER) IN AN INTERVIEW.

“I am very confident tlrat our New Zealand troops and their gallant Australian, British, Greek and Cretan comrades will succeed in holding Crete against one of the heaviest air attacks yet launched and in circumstances which will never be repeated.

“Never have conditions been so favourable for air attack, with the enemy’s air bases so close and our men deprived of air support and otherwise handicapped, but I have great hope of the outcome.

Soldierly Virtues “I know the New Zealand troops and I know they are unequalled for co-op-eration, unity, tenacity, discipline and individual initiative. They showed their quality in Greece, fighting an heroic rearguard action, as did the Australians and Greeks, and they are giving an equally good account of themselves in Crete.

Wants To Get There

‘fEven if we have to face further reverses, it will not change the spirit qf the people of New Zealand. We are fighting for great ideals, the ideals of freedom and fair dealing between nations, which we championed at Geneva before the League of Nations. It was those ideals which led us into the war unasked by the Mother Country. “We are the smallest in area and population of all the Dominions, hut our spirit is Surpassed by none, and, come what may, even if the war zone extends, we shall continue to fight for the ideals in which we believe. , • “The Navy has given our men wonderful support in the battle, of Crete. With the Navy, and the heroic men on Shore, I feel we shall win through.”

Mr. Fraser paid a warm tribute to the people of Egypt—British and Egyptian—for the welcome they had given the New Zealand troops and for the organisations they had set up for the cultural and material welfare of the troops. “The New Zealanders, islanders themselves, are fighting not doggedly, but with dash, speed and ruthlessness,” Mr. Fraser told the special correspondent of the “Daily Mirror” in Cairo. “I want to get there, but at the moment I cannot. Aircraft are more valuable than the Prime Minister. “Our boys won’t have any mercy on Germans wearing Anzac uniforms. If anyone is going to do the job, our boys will. After Greece they know what they are up against. There isn’t one who does not know he can beat hell out of the Germans, given an equal fight.” Mr. Fraser called his secretary and dictated a message of encouragement to Major-General Freyberg and went out with Sir Archibald Wavell.