THE LEANDER’S SUCCESS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4402, 14 March 1941, Page 4

THE LEANDER’S SUCCESS

IT had been known, although never officially announced, that H-M.S. Leander, was “ somewhere ” in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa, and many people had wondered if the cruiser was co-operating with the land forces that are so rapidly invading Italian Somaliland. There had been reports that naval, land, and air forces were working in the closest touch, and it was taken for granted that the Leander would be in it. Just what duties fall to the warships are not known—the Navy is the silent service—-but it fell to the Leander to deal lately with an Italian raider, and the work was done most efficiently. It is a far cry from the Dominion to the Indian Ocean, but that makes no difference. Wherever the ship may go the people of New Zealand are with her in spirit, satisfied that, like the Achilles, she has upheld the renown of British naval forces and brought further credit to the New Zealand Squadron. The sinking of the Italian raider will rank with many other such incidents in a great war, but, nevertheless, there is added interest, something personal, in this success, if only because H.M.S. Leander is “of the New Zealand Squadron.”