LEST WE FORGET.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20712, 24 November 1932, Page 9

LEST WE FORGET.

- PORT SAID MEMORIAL.. ... > UNVEILING CEREMONY. MR W. .W. HUGHES'S ELOQUENCE. (CXITXD PRKsS ASSOCIATION—BV ELECTRIC TELEOEATH—COPYKIGHT.) (Received. November 23rd, 7.25 p.m.) PORT SAID, November 23. The Northampton Regiment, which was allied with the 43rd and -18 th Australian. Battalions, and also the 15tli Battalion of tbc North. Auckland Regiment, provided the guard of honour lor the unveiling ceremony at, Port Said to day of the memorial ■which has been, erected to the memory of British and Dominion soldiers who fell on. Gallipoli and in Egypt and Palestine. The ceremony was performed by Ihe Rt. Hon. W. M. Hughes, a former Prime Minister of Australia. King Fuad, of Egypt, wrs represented by his Grand Chamberlain. Principal officers of the British Army and Air Force, the Egyptian Prime Minister (Sidky Pasha), and other representatives of the Egyptian and Palestine Governments were present. Major J. X. Stubbs, formerly of Auckland, and now Director of the Lands Department in Palestine, represented New Zealand at the ceremony and plnced a wreath on tho monument. Mr Hughes, after reviewing th« chequered history of the monument, neither of whose sculptors had lived to see it completed, paid an eloquent tribute to those who were commemorated bv its erection. "To all who pass along tho Suez Canal," he said, "this monument, must make an irresistible appeal, for it tells a story no less enthralling, romantic, and wonderful than the Odyssey itself. The most sluggish imagination must be fired by the recital of the journeyings of young warriors from far-off homes to this ancient land. Heroism and Achievement. "Bred in remote countries, in an environment of perfect peace, those who nover hoard a shot fired in anger cam# to fight in tho greatest war in history. They proved themselves born fighters, facing the rigours of the stem .campaign in Palestine and Syria. Their buoyancy of spirits rose triumphant; their belief in ultimate victory never weakened. Theirs, indeed, was a deathless story." Mr Hughes also paid a tribute to tint Australian Flying Corps (which the monument also commemorates) saying that Field-Marshal Allenby's masterly strategy, culminating in the sunless battle of Armageddon, owed much to the actiou of the Australian airmen in destroyng tho enemy machines, making reconnaissance impossible. The men. who were commemorated to-day had made and changed history. Though their bones were bleached by desert suns and their bodies were covered by foreign soil, their spirits lived and their memories would remain fragrant through the- ages. EMPIRE BROADCAST. SLCCESSFI I, LOCAL RECEPTION.

The Empire broadcast of the ceremony of the unveiling of the Port Said War Memorial last evening was, technically, the biggest yet attempted, and is regarded as an epoch-marking event in the development of the proposed, linking-up of the Empire by radio. A« far as Christchurch -was concerned, the broadcast was completely successful, listeners being able to follow th© speeches almost in their entirety, while every detail of the ceremony—the commands of the officers of the guard, tht music, and the impressive bugle calls with which the, ceremony was concluded—coming over the air perfectly. The difficulties involved in the rebroadcasting in New Zealand of this particular ceremony will , be realised when it is mentioned that the actual distance covered by the radio transmission was 16,000 miles. The proceedings wore transmitted by land-line from Port Said to Cairo; thence they were broadcasted from a commercial station to the chain of English broadcasting centres. Those in turn were picked up in other parts of the Empire And rebroadcasted for the benefit 'of the thousands of listeners in each country. Re-broadcasting System. Station 3YA, -Christchurch, was i* touch, throughout the duration of tli» broadcast, with Wellington by means of the telephone toll lines. There the Government beam station, ZLW, situated on the Tinakori Hills, Wellington, was picking up the broadcast from th« short-wave commercial station, VLZ, Sydney, one of the links in the Empire radio-telephone system. However, the broadcast as received in Christchurch over the land-line from Wellington, was not entirely satisfactory, and the assistance of local receiving stations was necessary for good results. These receiving stations, situated in various parts of Chirstchureb, picked up the broadcast from a number of English short-wave stations—GßX Rugby was ono of the most successful — and passed on their receptions to th« local station, where an operator had the task of sorting out and combining them to give the best final result over the air. Speeches Heard Clearly. Both the British National Anthem and the Egyptian National Anthem, with which the proceedings opened, were perfectly clear, but unfortunately the singing of the hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," was spoilt by the close proximity of the microphone to the singers on the platform. The speech of the High Commissioner for Egypt, his Excellency Sir Percy Loraine, was audible in every detail, but the earlypart of Mr Hughes's speech was affected by strong "surging." The rattle of the rifles of the guard was heard distinctly as the soldiers presented arms while the Australian, New Zealand, Egyptian, and British Hags were broken out. . The dedication of the memorial by the Bishop of Egypt was exceptionally clear, and then the beautiful bugle notes of "Last Post" and "Reveille," incisive and clear over thousands of miles of space, provided a fitting conclusion to an exceptionally interesting and successful broadcast.