MEMORIAL TO COLONIAL WARRIORS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 25 January 1901, Page 2

MEMORIAL TO COLONIAL WARRIORS.

Tlie Royal Colonial Institute contemplates at the close of the war raising a fund, to which it has already the offer of a handsome contribution, for the purpose of erecting, in a prominent position in London, a memorial to commemorate the colonials who have fallen in the present war. The Fellows of the Institute have been asked to express their views, and have made the followingsuggestions: 1. That a yiermanent memorial should be erected in the neighbourhood of the Albert Memorial, the Thames Embankment or Westminster Abbey, with typical groups of statuary, and the names of ' those who have fallen inscribed on the base. One correspondent recommends that four bronze groups should be placed on the unoccupied granite pedestals at either end of London Bridge: and another that at least £25,000 should be acquired before anything is decided Oil.

2. That a statue of H.M. the Queen, with groups of statuary at each corner, should be placed in the capital of each colony, the names of those who have fallen being- inscribed on the base.

3. That instead of spending money on masonry or statuary it would be preferable to supplement any State pension or other pension for wounded officers or men, or to assist the nearest of kin to those who have fallen.

! Personally I should have thought that the memorial wanted is a simple, vigorous figure or group of figi ures in the most, central and busy ■ spot in London, to serve as a, perpetual reminder to the millions passingl it of the service rendered to the Mother Country by the colonies. Instead of a list of names, which would to the passer-by convey no impression of the. identity of the dead soldiers, there should be a simple and direct inscription of a couple of lines with possibly the briefest of quotations, that would by its appositeness attract the attention of the man in the street and remain in his memory. Each colony will no doubt commemorate its own valiant deeds in its own way. What;, we want to do in 01(1 England is'to commemorate them worthily in the heart of the Empire. A really vigorous and artistic Rough Hider on horseback would, to my mind, most accurately typify the colonial warrior, ceaselessly call the attention of the British public to the necessity for a strong force of Imperial mounted infantry, and at the same time by its deviation from the conventional military attire of our military statues, strike the public eve.