A-N-Z-A-C.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1928, Page 11

A-N-Z-A-C.

A TIE THAT BINDS.

LINKING THE EMPIRE.

PROUD AND BITTER MEMORIES

(By H.A.8.)

To-morrow will be Anzac Day, and the mind of many a soldier will go back over the years, to the dark day 3 of war. Those whose memory we keep green by a day of abstinence and prayei are sleeping a long, long sleep; those whose battles are yet to come do not realise their present security and those who fought and came back are realising, alas, only too often, that Anzac Day means a day's less pay, and harder work next week.

"Anzac" Day. All that Britain knew—or needed to know, between 1914 and 1918 was that her sons were needed, and that they came at her call. The word Anzac meant to her—as it still means—the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Little do the "street-bred people" who were indicted so venomously by Kipling but who, curiously enough, filled the ranks of her regiments and made heroic "cannonfodder" for German and Turkish guns, realise that Australia and New Zealand are two widely severed and vastly different peoples, working out their destinies on the lines of different nationality, and united solely by the brotherhood of empire.

To the teeming millions at Home such an occasion as Anzac Day would come as a big surprise. Why, they would ask, should a country spend a whole day in mourning, and why should a mantle of gloom 'be permitted to envelop its inhabitants from dawn till dark? The dead of the Old Country are not forgotten; Armistice Day is observed with unfailing reverence and poignancy, but after the great silence the heart of the Empire beats as vigorously, nay, as gaily, as ever, and the rest of the day is one of rejoicing. Surely it is some strong strain of self-repres-sion, drawn from a stern and Puritan ancestry, which impels New Zealand to honour her valiant dead by a day of tears and woe.

Anzac Day is a link in the chain of Empire and a tie, even though it be a tie of grief, which binds together the nations of the British Commonwealth. Let not such ties be broken; "Remembering these dead, let the living be humble," and long may the memory of those who died unite the peoples of Greater Britain. Surely it is not too much to hope that the commemoration of Anzac Day will bring Australia and New Zealand into closer union. Some cynic once remarked that there were 1200 reasons why the two countries were different; surely there are 12,000 reasons why they should be united in bonds of friendship and co-operation. Not all the sacrifices were made on the Peninsula or at Passdhendale; peace hath her victories not less renouned than war, and the daily round of work enables all of us to make our land ■& better and happier place.

A few days ago we bought Flanders poppies in memory of the dead, to help the living, and this article may well conclude with the inspired and inspiring lines:—

"To you from failing hands we throw The torch ; b<> yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us, who die We shall not sleep, although we lie In Flander's flelds."