PEACE IN ANZAC.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17645, 23 December 1922, Page 14

PEACE IN ANZAC.

j WITH JHE WOODEN CROSSES. news of gat.t.tpoij graves. (By Allan Box in "Sydney Sun.") The afternoon sun glows golden on the shores of Gallipoli. There is peaoe in Anzac. .Seven years have passed, and there afi-e still instances in plenty of the mighty struggle in the ravines and shell-torn ridges. Nature lags tardy, with her reconstruction in this dry country. Wild game ®6re less timid. The whirr of partridges in Koja Dere by day, the lone call of the jackal in Legge Valley by nigut, oniy emphasise the loneliness or the 6ceue. There is action enough around Chanak, wiiere a thm British line is digging in for its life before the advance of Mustapha Kemal. But, steaming away past liubros, with the hills of the famous Peninsula fading in tile'purple distances of _ this mystic land, • one's lirst thought is of the thousands of Australians and New Zealanders, the very tfower of Australasia, resting there so impressively under their very white crosses. Of all the battlefields, Anzac impresses most. The sloping Plain of Helles is seamed and torn with the ebb and flow of battle. To me Helles always looked a forlorn hope. Inland, the natural fortress of Achj Baba, to seaward the : frowning plateau of Kilid Bahr, look impassible. The Plain of Suvla shows few traces of that brief blasting of high hopes. But, Anzac-nts mountain ridges riven into fantastic shapes, its dark, tortuous ravines, its precipitous cliffs lifting sheer from the beaches; —seems always as though Nature in her last convulsion ima . ed a battle-ground for heroes. _ Who knows what heroes of antiquity have fought on these tangled hills? I know of one stone sarcophagus that might have been belonged to a legionary of Zenophon. It now serves as a cattle-trough. For -the Turk is no respecter of persons. And, in these very surroundings rest the bodies of those Australians and New Zealanders who in a night's venture made their countries' nameß ring throughout the world. ■- Permanent Restoration. Fittingly, the permanent restoration and memorialisation of the graves of these men was placed in the hands - of| their comrades. I remember well the genesis of' this work. The • Imperial War Graves Commission was charged with the work of restoring and keeping all British graves throughout tue several theatres of war. Soon atfer the surrender of the Turks in 1918 an Australian mission had landed on thei Peninsula to report on the state of the graves. This report, cabled to London and placed before the commission, left no doubt that action was necessary, and that urgently.' Three years had passed since the evacuation. Fearful of another landing, the Turks had left nothing undone make the Peninsula impregnable. ifNew trenches had been dug, and old trenches had been converted. At Anzac, at any rate, part of the old trench system had been At Suvla, at Helles, the "scattered farmers hap returned. There are bitter winters in the Dardanelles; there is little firewopd. The Turk is a casual person. Most • of the, wooden crosses previously erected Under fire had disappeared. Many were buried on the beaches, where drifting aaild soon obliterated the marks. Identification looked impossile. The preliminary work of re-iden-tification of graves had been entrusted by the "War Offioe to unsympathetic and. careless hands. The' Graves Registration Sections apparently never left the beaches. -Anything would do so long as some kind of a report was m&deWhat was to be done? The Australian authorities in London pressed~Tn•sistpntly for action. Action required a man to lead. Him and his helpers Australia offered to find, if the control of the work on the Peninsula (both and Overseas) were left entirely to Australia. And, as ever, the occasion provided a leader who not only embodied the youthful spirit of the Anzao Corps, but brought to bear on his task x the technical efficiency and rare energy for whioh they are so famous.

Lieut.-Colonel Qyril Hughes, A.1.F., is a likeable man. His people own broad acres in Northern Tasmania. H<* ( is a typical Lighthorsemanhe had fought at Anzac, and had oeen in Palestine with the Desert Column. Onlj a man of his ektraordinary optimism and cheerfulness could have successfully taokled the job. At his first meeting with the War Office' "Brass Hats," Hughes routed all opposition with his close, detailed grip of tiie situation andj its requirements. He knew the work" that had to be done. He had ready replies as to how he was to do it. He was not a man to stand interference. The chairman 6f the War Office. Committee was Sir Alfred Mond, thetn First-Commissioner of Works, certainly one of London's richest men, and reputedly one of her best business brains. Five) minutes with Hughes satisfied Mond. The tall Australian walked into the War Office a lieutenant —he walked out an hour later a lieutenant-colonel; The conditions were not easy. Hughes and his men had flr.st of all to a base where there was not even a jetty. They had to. procure | and improvise machinery in a country | ■where such resources were almost unobtainable. They had to secure labour where the whole, population was prac: ; tically hostile. Thoy had to train thatx labour to be workers of stone/ constructors of roads, masons, carpenters, engineers, and so forth. In the compound you get the-most weird polyglot of men. Turk rubs shoulders -frith 'Greek; Russian, Albanian are common tongues. But, everybody works at Kelia. Australians have a short method with the Bolshevik. The work of search is daily continued in the remote hills beyond Suvla. Every day even now remote graves, and even unburied bodies, are discovered. Often a disc, or even a shoulder strap, gives the clue to an identity which has been sought for years. Placent, unexciting work this, but carried out with a thoroughness for which Australian soldiers are famous. It is impossible to leave these bpdies where they are in this wild and largely untamed country. A moment's reflection on the spot convinces that if they are ,to be looked after at all they must be concentrated in the cemeteries which have been established throughout the battlefields as near as possible to the famous positions whose names are now household words in British history. So it is, that as you go round the lonely cliffs you find all chj old" .trench names retained —"V Beach," "Lancashire Landing," "Pink Farm," "Shell Green," "Shrppnel Valley," "Lone Pine," "Johnson's Jolly," "Baby 400," "Lala Baba," "Scimf itar Hill" —to name a few. All have their plots, commemorating in excellent and indestructible stonework not only the burial places of the men who fell, but also the glorious exploits of British and Australian .troops on the historic Peninsula. Impressions of Turkey. The methods of treatment dictated by actual considerations of ' ground, climate and locality are undoubtedlywise. The first consideration was permanence. Throughout the lands of Turkey one reflection above all strikes yon—crumbling mosques, desecrated

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graveyards, broken-down walls. If anything fall, let it stay—it 13' the Will of Allah. Nothing, . therefore could be left to chance m dealing with tho memorial works. They must be of such permanence as to withstand not merely the dessicating influence oi time and weather, but also the rank carelessness of the Turkish inhabitants. For it is too much to hope that vou can have people living permanently at Helles, Suvla, or Anzac, wlio could give adequate attention to the scores of small ravine cemeteries. Considerations of expense alone would render that impossible. So the work had to be of . such durability and permanence as to render the graves and ceineterigs practically indestructible. The second consideration was expense. No Australian soldier would uslc for an unpractical expenditure on the treatment of his comrades graves. The whole attitude of the Anzac Corps surely would favour simplicity of treat'"ment with the best materials that lay 10 hand. Simple these graves undoubtedly are, but' their very simplicity and severity of outline mako them all tlib moro noticeable and striking in a countrf which substi- : tuted harsh sky-linos for rounded curves, and which reflects with pitiless severity every mark and feature of the landscape. So it came about that local stoiffe only could be used for tho construction of stout retaining walls surrounded by deep ditches completely enclosing each plot. In each of these bits of Australian ground every sleeper has his stone —no gorgeous, gilded headstone, but a simple block of concrete lifted two feet clear of the green couch grass, and bearing recessed on its bevel face the name, tho rank, and tho description ol ,/him who, after days of incredible straggle, has surely earned safe lodging* and quiet repose at last. Australian trees should grow on Gallipoli. They will be freely planted round the cemeteries, and if fortune favours them the graceful fronds of the acacia will relieve the. darkness o± the stately cypress, which from time immemorial has marked the graves of the heroes of the Hellespont. The work is being well done. It is well on the way to completion. Another year should see the greater part finished. The pilgrim from Australasia approaching the famous entrance to the Dardanelles will turn his eyes from the "plains of*windy Troy" to the great British memorial which lifts itself from the sea at frowning Helles. It will be at once a .guide-post-and a landmark for all who • pass .by, and not least will it remind- the races of the East of that North Sea people who so curiously aje the greatest power in the Mahometan world. And, away to the North, lifting .itself like a white pencil from the dark ridge of Sari Bair will shine the-tall shaft of the Australian memorial at Lone Pine, recalling the deeds of a race of men unknown before,' but now remembered with profound respect, and a lively appreciation by every Turk. Saloniquo, September, 1922.'