TASK REVEALED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 29 November 1945, Page 5

TASK REVEALED

N.Z. FORCES IN BRITAIN LORD ALANBROOKE’S TRIBUTE ; Wellingto This Day j How the New Zealand forces in Eng. . land at the time following Dunkirk were 2 disposed on the Downs to meet a threat . of airborne invasion as part of the plan - for the defence of Britain was revealed ; by Lord Alanbrooke, when replying ID • the toast in his honour at a luncheon i at Parliament House yesterday. - Lord Alanbrooke said that he had ? ordered large-scale manoeuvres by the 1 New Zealand forces on the Downs and : had been amazed with their speed of movement. He had decided for that reason to allot them the task of defendj ing the area. Since Germany’s capitulaj tion captured plans of the High Com- , mand had shown that the landing of l airborne forces in exactly that area had ■ been part of the invasion plans. "Those r forces would have had a very hot ■ reception,” said Lord Alanbrooke. I It could now be seen what the Empire owed to the New Zealand forces. ; They had fought victoriously from i Egypt through to the end in Northern | Italy. , He was often asked what had played the greatest part in winning the war—- . Russia, the United States, the Navy, the Army, or the Air Force, or the civilian effort behind them all. “It was the spirit of co-operation which existed throughout," he declared. "We did achieve a very high standard | of co-operation, and that achieved the major part of the victory. ■“Peace in the future world will depend on the same kind of co-operation, though not that produced by war. If we have that we may achieve the peace. “There are some very delicate plants in the garden of the world just now, and they will need very careful tending, but there is also in the same gar- . den a sturdy oak tree —the oak tree of ; the Empire. It has the same ideals as the delicate plants, and it will go a , long way in helping to foster the peace. “During a long tour—Greece, Italy, i India, Burma, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and then down to Australia and here, and I shall shortly be going back by Singapore, places in northern Africa, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and so on— I have found sufficient cause for anxiety in many places. The path ahead is rugged, but if we realise it is rugged and tackle it in the right way, we shall be all right. We shall win the peace as we won the war,” said Lord Alanbrooke. NAVAL MEN PRAISED When he replied to the toast of his health, Vice-Admiral Vian said that in the Pacific Fleet, and in the Navy generally, there was a great desire to visit New Zealand. Normally when ships of the fleet left port there were one or two of their complement missing. On this occasion, when they left 6ydney, not a man was left behind. It was not till he cam- 3 to the Pacific that he had come in contact with the men of the New Zealand naval air units. Then he had met a high percentage of them, and had been very glad, fo they had qualities as pilots unsurpassed by the Royal Navy’s own men. They were pre-eminent, and it was a sad aspect of the peace that they had lost them. “Perhaps, in the future, we shall have them beside us again in their own carriers,” said the adrnral