ANZACS AND PEACE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27642, 26 April 1955, Page 14

ANZACS AND PEACE

SUPPORT FOR UNITED NATIONS URGED

ADDRESS AT CITIZENS’ SERVICE

“Today it is 40 years after. Forty years after the day when men of our expeditionary force so magnificently scaled and held the hostile ridges of Anzac. We are here today to recall that this was a feat of arms which shed lustre on the two countries of Australia and New Zealand,” said Mr W. R. Lascelles in his address at the Citizens’ Service in the King Edward Barracks yesterday afternoon. “We are here today to do more than pay a tribute to the original Anzacs. We are here to pay a tribute to those

servicemen and serivcewomen who served or suffered, or fought and died, in all places, on land, sea and in the | air, where cause or circumstance forced our country into war.” said Mr ! Lascelles.

“We are not here to glorify war. which over the centuries and in many places has time after time caused the foundations of the world to crumble. On the contrary, we are here in a I spirit that while we are willing and j anxious to accept a just and lasting peace, war should be outlawed altogether,” he said.

The world was living in troublous times, said Mr Lascelles. “In this rush period of history when we are surrounded by complexes and conflicts it is not unnatural that we should turn to see whether there is an instrument at hand to meet the situation. There is —the United Nations, if only we would use it. If only we could remind ourselves that its strength is only as great as the nations and the individuals that support it.” Mr Lascelles reviewed the attempts of the past to maintain the peace—the Hague Convention, the League of Nations and lastly the United Nations. This last organisation, he said, unlike the other two. forbade war and concerned itself with the causes of war. He spoke for some time on what United Nations stood for and what it had done and was doing to preserve the peace and raise the standard of living in other countries. Striving for Peace

“How far have we carried the torch so valiantly borne by those who died on service?” he asked. “Great men have told us for years to move quickly, to move towards sanity and away from the threat of the atomic bomb. We have been told by great men to pull our minds together. They have reminded us that we must go either up or down and cannot stay where we are. Einstein, who left this world only a few days ago was forever striving for peace. Churchill also. Both these men have warmed their hands at the fire of life and have warned us that the world peace was the urgent cause of all men.

But even the pleas of the great are small in force beside the inspiration that must spring from the sacrifice of those whom today we honour. Here on this day, while thoughts come to us from the fields of sleep in lands where poppies grow, let us redidicate ourselves and give active service to that cause to which they gave the last full measure of devotion. In this way we shall best remember them, and do °ur duty,” Mr Lascelles concluded. _'2 le Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M-P-) presided, and prominent on the platform were the members of the Australian delegation of former servicemen. The placing of wreaths on the platform opened the service. The hymn “All People that on Earth do Dwell” was followed by the prayer commemorating the fallen by the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren) and the Lord’s Prayer. An anthem was sung by the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, and the Rev. P. A. Stead read the Scripture, Psalm 118. verses 1-14 and verse 29. Two hymns sung before and after Mr Lascelles’s address were “For All the Saints” and “Lest We Forget” “Last Post” and “Reveille” were sounded by buglers of the band of the Christchurch West High School, and the Benediction was pronounced by Bishop Warren. The Woolston Brass Band, conducted by Mr T. J. Kirk-Burnnand, accompanied the singing.