"REMEMBER THE LIVING."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 10

"REMEMBER THE LIVING."

"SO MUCH WAS PROMISED."

CANON GRANT COWEN'S MOVING APPEAL

DUTY OF ALL CITIZENS. A moving appeal to all who honoured the dead on Anzac Day, not to forget the living, wag made by Canon Grant Cowen when preaching at St. Matthew's Church yesterday morning. The appeal was typical of a number made by speakers at many other religious and civic services. "They went out with the song of battle, and they gave their lives, their all, for the freedom of this land of ours," he said. "Many men of 'three score and t«u' ifave not accomplished what these boy 6 did." Many had come back broken in health —nervous wrecks. A' great many were only now feeling the ell'ects of the war. In many a home there were men living under a terrific nervous strain, many not quite normal. No man could come back as he went. They had come back smiling, and had tried to take up life here as they had left it, but they had found it hard, and they would find it harder as they grew older. We must not forget the debt we owe to those who came back*, as well as our debt to those who fell. Their wives and mothers, who had to remain behind, had also played a part quite as big as the men during the years of the war. Wc had promised—and the Government had promised —to do so much, for those men who liad given their lives and risked their lives for the country and for the Empire, and they should be a first charge on this Dominion. It wiis difficult now for war-worn men to obtain pensions, yet many of them were suffering under disabilities which were asserting themselves after a number of years. No man who fought and suffered "should be in danger of starvation. Thecare of these men should be a debt of honour we were bound to pay; it wa3 the duty of the Government to maks provision for them. During the service the choir sang the Anzac Anthem, composed by Mr. Harry Hemus, the veteran Auckland musician, who is at present ill.