Anzac Day

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27641, 23 April 1955, Page 6

Anzac Day

The events that Anzac Day principally commemorates are now 40 years distant, which means that to most persons they are a legend rather than a memory. Yet Anzac Day is observed, year after year, in cities, towns, and villages

throughout Australia and New Zealand and in many other parts of the British Commonwealth, with a reverence undiminished by the

passage of time. And it is good that this should be so. For the day is much more than a monument to a military feat of daring and devotion and sacrifice that earned the admiration of the world. In an age of increasing materialism, not to say cynicism, it is a reminder that in adversity the spirit of man rises above material claims and interests. Those who sacrificed their lives or their health in the four wars in which New Zealanders have fought in this century did so for an ideal; and no-one now living in the comfort and serenity that their sacrifice secured can say that this was in vain. Thanks to them, there is still freedom as well as peace in the world—and some reason to hope that both may yet be preserved against the dangers that threaten them, as they did in 1914 and 1939.