Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1935. ANZAC DAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 164, 24 April 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1935. ANZAC DAY.

Twenty years ago to-morrow New Zealand's citizen soldiers made themselves world-famous by the part they took in the Battle of the Landing at Anzac. Under our southern skies no anniversary has at once so general and so local an import' as Anzac Day.. It belongs to Australia and New Zealand, but to no other land washed by the Seven Seas. Ever as Armistice Day comes round we keep solemn tryst with Britons everywhere in recollection of a great deliverance, and the mightiest March Past of all history, the long procession of the Empire's and the Allies' valiant sons struck down in the Great War, goes by before our inner gaze, keeping step to the drum-taps of our hearts. That is a day to share; this, for these southern British lands, is our very own. Yet, strange to say, it is a day that unites as truly as it separates. It links us with the old and distant civilisation from which our young life sprang. By their deeds on Gallipoli, as on the Western Front, New Zealanders gained a lasting and honoured pb.ce in the history of the Empire. These deeds and the heroism and self-sacrifice that made them possible will be remembered as long as the English language endures. It is not yet possible to declare with the same firm confidence that the foundations of a better national and international future that were laid by our soldiers and by the soldiers of other nations will be worthily built upon. During the conflict it was affirmed that the war was being waged to end war and that it would not be fought in vain. To-day, only unreasoning optimism does not realise that there is yet no assurance of continuing peace and that the fate of civilised nations is still in the balance. Some nations are still obsessed by much the same fears, sy&picions and hatreds as gave rise to the last war. Needful it is now seen to be to keep the world from entering again so terrible a struggle. The war did not by any means end war. Nor, beside the horror of itself, did it bequeath much to enrich the period of peace it wrested from troubling years. To keep alive some memories of it, for the sake of the generation knowing it only from what they hear and read, and or generations following, is essential to the better understanding of human life. This can be done without morbid 01 gross speech. It can be done, too, without any foolish girding at national ideals, either others or our own. The day of rolling up the map of the world, in order to forget the boundaries of nations, has not dawned: the best as yet possible is a league respecting national differences and seeking ways to bridge without obliterating them. And tor our British lands, including the two whose names are blended in "Anzac," there is a clear call to stand together, proving our common heritage and helping each other. There is a place for sane Imperialism within the orbit of international co-operation. Anzac Day has memories inspiring that, as a means ot universal service.