WAR NOT YET WON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1944, Page 5

WAR NOT YET WON

TOO MUCH INDIFFERENCE IN NEW ZEALAND BRIGADIER INGLIS RETURNS FROM ABROAD. NAZI BLUNDER IN ATTACKING CRETE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) TIMARU, January 5. “The thing that impresses me on my return to New Zealand is the tremendous number of people who are acting as though the war was won .and finished with,” said Brigadier L. M. Inglis, D. 5.0., M.C., V.D., in an interview. “They do not realise what a grim business warfare is. The people are living more safely in this country than in any other part of the world.” The seeming indifference on the part of so many people in New Zealand was perhaps because they were so far from the scene of the war, he said. Brigadier Inglis, who is on furlough, commanded the Fourth Brigade, and was in command of the New Zealand Division, with the rank of temporary major-general during the period when General Sir Bernard Freyberg, V.C., was recovering from a wound. He has been through the campaigning in the Middle East, and before returning on furlough was with the New Zealand forces in Italy.

Emphasising the importance of the rapid delivery of mail to keep up the morale of the troops, Brigadier Inglis expressed regret that the rapid air service was not still being run to Egypt. “Before the Japanese came into the war, it was possible to get a letter in about 11 days,” he said. “The airgraph does; not altogether replace letters, as the troops are often writing under difficult conditions and not suitable for airgraph mail. In addition it means much more to the soldier to get a personal letter from those near to him.”

During his service abroad Brigadier Inglis met many famous men and had been in conversation with Mr Winston Churchill a number of times. “He is a great man, and all the time his mind is on his job,” the brigadier commented. “It was a godsend that the Germans attacked Crete and not Syria,” he stated. “When I heard that they were about to attack this island, which was of nd great value to them. I could not believe that they could make such a tactical blunder. At the time we were totally unprepared in the Middle East. The Germans hoped to take Crete in two days, but thanks to our defending troops, it took them 12 days to ge'; it. This saved the Middle East, as it gave us time to get troops there, and also meant a dispersion of the German forces.”

Referring to the conditions of postwar Europe, Brigadier Inglis said that he had talked with Yugoslavs, Hungarians. Rumanians, and Poles, arid the problems which awaited the paece were gigantic. The question of policing Europe would have to be seriously considered if anarchy and chaos were to be avoided. In Greece and Yugoslavia there were already armed conflicts between the various factions, and in other nations open conflict between rival groups was not far away. ‘Our job will not end with ,thb peace ” he added.