AUCKLAND'S ANZAC DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 95, 24 April 1939, Page 6

AUCKLAND'S ANZAC DAY.

In a grey April dawn twenty-four years .' ago the A<nzac 'Division, facing a hail of. death from the grim hills of Gallipoli, made history by forcing a landing "below cliffs ( whietb, wihen the iboats neared the shore, leapt into light as a blaze of rifle and gunfire (burst from the trenches and caverns 'dug everywhere in the slopes. They landed, and ; they " hung on," fighting ideath and disease every day of the occupation, but fighting with the tenacity of -seasoned warriors and in •& manner which won them the iopen i admiration of the enemy 'and ally alike. : That achievement will be commemorated , ■ -tOHmorrow by the first dawn patrol *b be 'held in AraMand. It is fitting that the I service of memory and of dedication should l»e held -at the break of day. In Australia, where the dawn patrol is established, it is ■ *be most moving «£- all Ajizac Day ' .observances. There is no. reason why it , should not b« the same in Auckland, fhis i Anzac Bay copies at a time when, far more tibaa. in any ether year simee 1918, people's , thoughts are tnrnexl.td questions of 'defence. There is needed now, not ttterely the strength , afforded by ike possession of -amis and munitions, and men *o use there, but ! something more of the spirit which vre rightly associate with the name of It is a sipirit which takes -no heed of discomfdrfc ' and in«onv«nie®ee and petty depravation., and feds expression in action rather th*n ! in talk. To-morrow we may spend smm time in pondering the. question of what the ~ men who fought and died ©n •Gallipoli would think <of us now, and <ot tfee defences of I our country. It will not be a comforting thought, but it may be a profitable one. j