ANZAC MEMORIAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLI, Issue 9392, 14 December 1920, Page 6

ANZAC MEMORIAL.

PLANS AT GALLIPOLI.

PROGRESS OF THE WORK

(Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Dec. 13

The Minister for Defence has received detailed plans of the memorial-vo th© Ajdzacs—Australians and New Zealanders—who fell on GaJilipoli. It is to be erected at Lone Pine, the scene of what was the most determined and bloodiest fight of the whole peninsula. The Australians attacked -a. series of strongly-fortified trenches, and when they reached them they found that the I ■Turks were,'protected .by solid head cover. There were a thousand dead Australians and Turks in that very limited trench area after the, fight was won by the brave Australians, and there were no fewer than seven Victoria Crosses awarded for deeds' of gallantry in that one fight. In connection with the memorial, there is to be a small chapel, marble-paved, $nd a re; cord room. Cypress and olive trees are. to be planted about it. .The cost of th© memorial will be included in the cost of the cemeteries that are now established in various parts of , the Anzac area.

Plans of these cemeteries have aliso reached Sir Heaton Rhodes, and .an examination of them leads one to the conclusion that the work has been well done. It is understood that the concentration of the bodies in the Anzac area, agreed toby the Imperial Graves Commission, has been completed, and the report of Sir John Bui-net, R.S.A.. states' that there are no longer any isolated graves. There are in all 24 cemeteries. The smallest of these are known as the Plugges' (Plateau and the Canterbury cemeteries. The former contains nearly all Australians, and the latter all New Zealand .graves. The largest cemetery is that known as Chunuk.Bair, containing 260 graves,' nearly all of which are the graves Of -New Zealanders!." It is apparently on Rhododendron Spur, • near the apex, which is just under Chunuk Bair, and overlooking the farm, a little plateau on the hillside where there Were many English and Ghurka dead, who 'laythere unburied in a sort of: No Man's Land after the Suvla-landing.' ?There is also a cemetery -at "The Farm." Other cemeteries are dotted about, the fighting area and the beaches of An^ac. Tenders were to be issued not only for the headstones and the work entailed in their erection, but also for the Anzac memorial at Lone Pine. The tenders, which, will close in February, are to'be'called for in London, Egypt,' 'Constantinople, and Athens. - It is hoped that the work will be started in the spring of nexft year. The road construction preliminary to the' work is , now..in hand. It is being done by local j labour. *.

In the cemeteries there are to be " stones of remembrance." One of the plans shows an inscription for these, "Their name liveth for ever." .Only those who have been on Gallipoli, and who know the isolated nature of the country, can have any idea of tlie magnitude and cost of such work, or the difficulties that must be overcome in connection with it. * Apparently excellent progress has been made.