OBSERVING ANZAC DAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 7

OBSERVING ANZAC DAY

“REJOICING AS WELL AS REMEMBRANCE” VTBKSS ASSOCIATION T*L*G»AK.) WELLINGTON, July 29. The annual conference of the Returned Soldiers’ Association discussed Anzac Day observance, on a proposal that the morning should be given to remembrance and the afternoon to re3°The° president, the Hon. W. Perry. M.L.C., who said he never held the view that the present observance was what it should be, said his opinion was strengthened by the returned soldiers’ visit to Sydney. There came out of Anzac a recognition of nationhood, and the Statute of Westminster, which regarded the Dominions as standing on a par with Great Britain as nations in a commonwealth, was a recognition of the sacrifices made by the Dominions. He suggested that the efforts between 1915 and 1918 which achieved nationhood were a matter for rejoicing. Time was a great healer, and after this lapse of time people felt not so much sorrow but pride that their sons died for their country. “Let them commemorate their memory in the morning and in the afternoon rejoice,” he asked. "The confer.: ace should not confuse sentiment with sentimentality.” The Matamata Association’s remit, advocating no change in the observance, provided always that arrangements for services were left to the local associations, was recommended in the report of the Anzac Day Committee, which was adopted.