The Press. Friday, April 25, 1919. "Their Name Liveth for Evermore."

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16506, 25 April 1919, Page 6

The Press. Friday, April 25, 1919. "Their Name Liveth for Evermore."

Xess than six months has passed slnco tho laat shots of tho war were fired, find already, in tho memory of most people, tho crowded sequence of events in that long strugglo is becoming dim and clouded. That is, perhaps, natural. • AVhile tho war was in progress, it claimed our first thoughts, almost to tho exclusion of matters of only local concern, but events followed so rapidly and fortuno changed so frequently from side to side that only the great, outstanding incidents remain fixed in our minds. That is, of course, as a people; ati individuals there are probably very few in New Zealand with, whom some date, some circumstanco of the war, is not unforgettable, by reason of the personal loss and sorrow with whi,ch it is connected. But in the glory and tho sorrow of the great deed that four years ago made this day memorable 'in our history, and in tho history of tho British Imul 1 ' 10 ) l ' lo whole Dominion shares. No UDL ' i u New Zealand and Australia needs to of what it .thataeta .thi*

day apart in our calendar as one to be commemorated with prido and gladness. "Their name liveth. for evermore." Of whom can these words, which are to be the common epitaph of all soldiers of the British race who fell on foreign fields, be more worthily uttered than of those who won immortal fame at tho landing on Oall'poli? Time will not dim, nor r?peiition of the story tarnish, tl'.v heroism of that great adventure. Had it happened a thousand years ago, v.'o should still bo thrilled by its splendour, as wo iiio thrilled to-day by the talo of the Threo Hundred at Thermopylae, and for generations to come, unless ti;.-' British character changes for ?ho v.'or.w:, ii, will remain an inspiration lo our rare. Thu mere diuiculiies of '.he cannot bo understood, except by tho-io v.lio carried it out, and even v> tliri.i !:i::-1 Jutvo appeared all but : n:r;b 1 c. They had to land from boats and lighters'at the base of a cliiT on a country which provided no lood, and even no water, so that everything needed lor their maintenance as a fight in lorce had to bo taken with them. In duinr; this, they had to withstand tho incessant attacks of an enemy numerically very strong, we!loquipped, and holding positions whicn

commanded every inch of the beach on which our troops had to land, so 'hat numbers of these never landed at all, but, ■wounded or dead, were taken back to the transports in Iho boats in which they had set forth. Having won thoir landing, they had to hold it against the novor-ceasing assaults of constantly rcinforcod hordes of the enemy. In heat and cold and rain, with littlo food, and in some cases no water, and exposed to a furious fire, they had not only to fight off the Turkish attack, but to dig shelters and trenches land stores and munitions, and carry supplies to the trenches, and all this practically v.-ithoiit rest, until men almost died of shoer exhaustion. The Anzacs fought continuously in their trenches flay and night for four days with little or no sleep.

And of what avail was this martyrj'dom? "What purpose was served by all tho expenditure of effort and of life that marked the Gallipoli campaign? The expedition, so far as tho acliicvonient of its direct object was .concerned, was a failure —a glorious failure that reflected high honour on those who attempted it, but not the less a failure. We were to have struck at tho lioarfc of Turkey by capturing Constantinople; had wo done so, tho wholo course of tho war, and of history, would have bco:i changed, and there is only too much ground for belief that if the troops and their Jeadors had been backed up as they should have been, their courage and endurance would have been crowned with deserved success. ' 'It "will bo the wonder of posterity," said Mr Winston Churchill, in London, a few months ago, "that when an oper- " ation of that kind was launched and "undertaken, thero was not from ' " every part of the Allied world a " universal movement to carry it " through to a triumphant conclusion." But. though tho enterprise failed—wo might say, was allowed to fail —it still achieved much. It not only held for eight months tho greater portion of tho Turkish army, but it was on Gallipoli that, as Birdwood has said, tho flower of that army was well-nigh annihilated. It prevented Bulgaria joining the Contral Powers until six months later than would otherwise hate been the case, and it was not without effect in inducing Italy to join hands with the Allies. There havo been, great victories which have yielded loss solid results than this most glorious of military failures. It had a definite share in giving the Allies the victory in the war, and it conferred upon those who took part in it distinction which, will outlast their lives.