HALLOWED LAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 179, 13 May 1935, Page 5

HALLOWED LAND.

GALLIPOL I VISITED.

PEACEFUL ATMOSPHERE. 7. 1 ISTANBUL, April 20,,, The years have' healed ' the ' war wounds of trench and shell-hole on - Galljipioli, a|nd the wreckage ' which , j dotted the coastline has almost yafin"/' ished. ' Apart from Turks who are again developing agriculture, Anzac has become a hallowed land of cemeteries amid the beauty of peace. The visitor standing on the sandy beach beneath a blue sky -turns from the deeper blue of the unruffled sea to the reddish-brown cliffs splashed vri,th gay wild flowers, shrubs and grasses, and again experiences a'calm as "deep as that* which was first, shattered: by. the rattle of. machine-rguns 20 years ago. •'•,-■ ' '•'. :•:... •■ .-•--■ «*~ ; vsv

The beach below the amphitheatre of crumbling sandstone, which once formed a theatre of death, is still marked by a ground lighter and three water-condensers; but most of the litter of the evacuation has disappeared, except for an occasional broken .pile indicating the site of "an embarkation pier. ... ... The wrecked'cutters which their dead steersmen ran ashore and the sunken vessels have been mostly salvaged or have disintegrated. Instead of an armada of warships, transports, trawlers and picket-boats swarming the seas about the peninsula, cruising liners and tramps peacefully enter and leave the Dardanelles.

- To-day's Anzac's chief interest is in the burial grounds, some practically on the. beach, including Embarkation.: Pier Cemetery,. No. 2, Outpost and Field Ambulance, Cemetery, All ,are carpeted with myriad's of many*ued anemones among long lines .of low headstones and white stone walls above which rises,a memorial to sacrifice in simple stone. By these symbols- man remembers while Nature forgets in the'perpetual new birth of her glories! " _"', Gardeners; are constantly and lovingly working in the springtime sunshine amid fragrant wallflowers and clumps of rosemary, contrasting with- the sombre pines arid cypresses lining-the walls interspersed! with old, English garden flowers such as mangolds, stocks, phlox and snapdragons. The winter just past was the worst since 1928, with washaways, heavy rains and front' damage which delayed many of the blooms and kept the gardenerts busy restoring beds, and borders and reconditioning the •'local roads, whose .repair falls upon the War Graves Commission. The Turks are not interested in O-al-lipoli except to meet the pilgrimages in order to charge customs duty on the wreaths. Turkish- women vacantly watch the tourists and the police drive ofr ' small boys with, eaivcuffS. ~ . . The New Zealand and : : Australian memorials are now visible miles .across the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles. Thev and the cemeteries, are the only emphatic marks of man's ,occupation, although rusted shell fragments, scraps of equipment, barbed wire and bones litter the ground. ... , Aoart from them most of Anzae is reminiscent of a pleasant Aegean island the sweetness of the flowers Sling with the breath of the sea Sia completing a charm in which tourists picnic and drink pilsener where onee P men were crazy with thirst and sick with the horrors of war and death.