“NEWS SCANTY BUT GOOD”

Southland Times, Issue 24599, 22 November 1941, Page 6

“NEWS SCANTY BUT GOOD”

BRITISH OFFENSIVE IN LIBYA

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S COMMENT (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 21. “The news we have received of the new offensive is scanty. What there is of it is good,” said the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, in an address to the combined patriotic societies of Canterbury tonight. “We have all been waiting expectantly for a move in the Middle East and now that the move has come all we do know for certain is that our sons and brothers and friends are once more engaged in r vital struggle for us and all that we live for. “Let us take this occasion, one of the most momentous of the war, to renew our pledges that we shall leave nothing undone which we could do to help them,” said Sir Cyril. “Let us strengthen our resolve to be worthy of their sacrifices. It shall never be said of us that we have failed them.”

COMPLACENCY A MENACE Speaking of the war situation today, his Excellency said it was very difficult for them, far removed as they were from the battle front, to realize how grim the struggle was. They all read the newspapers and listened to the radio, but it required a great effort of will power and keen imagination to j realize what the items of news which they read and heard clearly really meant in terms of material damage and human suffering. That effort had to be made continually by each one of them, for only by that effort would they be urged to devote to,their cause all the energy which they could muster. Comp’acency was a menace against which they had to keep an increasing watch. “Our Russian Allies are fighting magnificently; they are doing far better than anyone could have imagined,” said Sir Cyril. “But they cannot win the war for us; no one can do that. We must win it for ourselves, and we would not have it otherwise. They can help us and we can and must help them, but we must win our own war for ourselves.” DISCIPLINED FREEDOM The conviction that there could be no lasting peace in the world without a strong, healthy and contented British Empire, which presupposed a strong Royal Navy as well as a strong Royal Air Force, was expressed by the Gov-ernor-General. “The freedom which we are fighting to defend is a disciplined freedom—disciplined not by a dictator, but by ourselves,” he said. “We know that citizenship and all the priceless benefits w? derive from it entail very heavy responsibilities. Those responsibilities we are proud to shoulder.”