REMEMBRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 272, 16 November 1935, Page 12

REMEMBRANCE.

' ARMISTICE PAY. HOMAGE TO DEAD HEROES. i IMPRESSIVE CELEBRATIONS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 13. Armistice Day was commemorated here last Monday in tlie usual dignified and impressive fashion. On the previous Friday, which was Poppy Day, the activities of the thousands of woriien who have devoted their energies to the difficult task of raising funds for the returned soldiers had helped to concen- ; trate public interest and sympathy on "the Diggers" once more. An unusual effort in this direction was made in a rather spectacular way by Jack T rev el y an, a well-known Digger, who fought at Gallipoli and later in Palestine and Flanders, and was once a "coster" in Covent Garden. On Poppy Day, instead of adorning himself with "pearlies" after the approved "coster" tradition, lie bought poppies from all who would sell at a shilling each, till he had covered himself with them from head to foot. He-has been very successful in business for some years past, and he declared himself anxious to "give the Diggers a turn," and as he paraded Oxford Street in a blaze of scarlet he provided one of the best advertisements that the treasurer of the U.S.A. funds could desire. Governor Indisposed. But on Monday for the most part — especially during the "march past" and the ceremonial of the Cenotaph 111 the morning—the atmosphere of the city was consistently grave, serious and dignified; and the climax was reached in the Festival of Hemembrance held in the Town Hall at night. More than 5000 people crowded into the building—many more unable to gain admittance were 1 left outside —and the ceremonial in which they participated was impressive in the extreme. A concert, mostly of serious patriotic items ) provided by a number of distinguished artists, headed by Florence Austral and Ben Williams, occupied the early part of the evening. At 0 o'clock —which synchronises with 11 a.m. London time —an address was to have been delivered by Sir Alexander Gore-T\iith-ven, as representative of the King. Unfortuately his Excellency was absent through illness, but he sent to the gathering a messasre of greeting and sjood will. Then followed the "Act of Remembrance." To the sound of trumpets, the members of the Junior Legacy Club, the sons of fallen soldiers, filed into the hall wearing tlipir fathers' medals and bearing the colours of the A.I.F. 66.000 Poppy Petals. They were followed by the pipers and drummers of the 30th Battalion of the 1 Xew South Wales Scottish Regiment, j who played the infinitely pathetic 1 "Flames of the Forest" as they marched 'slowly by. Then came the "Last Post" from tiie buglers, with the lights dying down, to lx> extinguished as the Inst note was sounded. But one shaft of lifilit streamed in, to illuminate a huge white cross suspended in the air in front of the great organ and b:\aring the inscription, "Lest we forget." Then from | behind tlio scenes came the strong I Ivoice of n man reciting ."In Flanders' Fields the Poppies Blow"; and following this a boy's clear notes were heard j ' singing <k Th6' Supreme Sacrifice." Then j | the lights came slowly 011 again, and, 1 to .the beating of muffled drums, 1 thousands of poppy petals —00,000 in! all, one for each Australian who died j in the Great War —fluttered down from j tho roof upon the bowed heads of the j audience. Then was heard once more, to the | nound of the muffled drums, the man's > voice intoning Lawrence Bunyon's lines,! now .sanctified by the reverence of count- 1 less lips and hearts —"At the going down j of tho sun and in the morning, we will | remember them"—and all the people | made answer solemnly, "We will remem- ! ber them." Then came a sudden trumpet I call—the first notes" ,of the' "Reveillf;— j the hall burst into splendid light, and, j as the choir of boys sang the opening lines of "Abide With Me," the vast audience joined in. The National Anthem, sung with great power and solemnity, concluded a ceremonial which in impressivencss and dignity left nothing to be desired bv . those who hold that thegreat events of our lives deserve and demand commemoration and that it is a personal, as well as a national, duty to preserve such sacred traditions and hand them down unimpaired to the generations yet to come.