HEROES OF 1914-18

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 272, 17 November 1941, Page 5

HEROES OF 1914-18

£250,000 MEMORIAL I HOPES NOT FULFILLED (0.C.) SYDNEY, November 12. There was a grim irony in the opening at Canberra yesterday (Armistice Day), in the middle of the Second World War, of Australia's £250,000 National Memorial to the dead of the last war—the one that was to "end war," "make the world safe for democracy," "a land fit for heroes to live in." The memorial was unveiled at a simple but impressive ceremony at which one of the outstanding sights was the group of 17 Australian V.C.'s of the last war. In his address before he declared the memorial open, the GovernorGeneral, Lord Gowrie, said:—

"The last war was responsible for the death of 8,000,000 men and the wounding of 16 million more. It caused universal desolation and distress without bringing any compensating advantages to any one of thel belligerents. It was a war which settled nothing, and in which all concerned came out losers.

"For four years the hymn of hate, though called by different names, was sung with fervour throughout the world. For four years all the most barbarous and inhuman instincts in man were aroused and stimulated. To cause pain and suffering, to hate and destroy, was the goal to which all men's activities were directed.

"But from the moment the 'cease fire' sounded it was hoped that our mental outlook would undergo a change—that we should rebuild what we had so wantonly destroyed, and out of the ruins of the past erect an impregnable barrier against men's madness in the future. So when it was decided to erect this memorial it was hoped that the story it would not only be a record

of the heroic deeds of those who fought and fell in the last war, but would also be a reminder for future generations of the brutality and the utter futility of modern war. and that of the fact that if civilisation was to be saved we must devise some better, some less savage, some less inhuman method of settling our international disputes than by international slaughter. One Wesson Not Enough "But, alas, these hopes have not been fulfilled. One lesson was not enough; a second and sterner lesson was required, and we are now engaged in the most deadly contest that the world has ever known. Human life, money, and material are being poured out like water, and every instrument that human ingenuity can demise, that human skill can construct, is being utilised for the slaughter of our fellow-men. Whole populations are being exposed to methods of destruction hitherto unheard of, and which, once launched, are well nigh impossible to control.

"The flower of our young manhood are once again giving their lives for our freedom, and for the freedom of those that come after us. We are fighting for our very existence, and for all the things that make life worth while. It is in this atmosphere we are opening this memorial to-day. When we read the names inscribed on the walls of this monument— when we read those casualty lists .which are published once again from day to day, let us ask ourselves 'What can we do for those who did so much; what can we give to those who gave us all? Our answer will be that we are determined that those heroes shall not have died in vain— that we are prepared to make any sacrifice to put an end, once and for all, to this diabolical menace to mankind, and ensure the peace of the world for generations to come."