PILGRIMAGE HAS ENDED

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30736, 28 April 1965, Page 17

PILGRIMAGE HAS ENDED

Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) GELIBOLU (Turkey), April 27. The Anzac pilgrimage to Turkey and the battlefields of Gallipoli ended today when the party sailed back to Greece.

The party is due in Athens aboard the cruise ship Karadeniz tonight Some of the pilgrims will return to Australia by air tomorrow night. Others will continue their pilgrimage with visits to Britain, France, Belgium and other places. Yesterday the pilgrims visited the Anzac beach area for tours and walks over the battlefields and private visits to the graves of long-dead mates. They picked up rusted pieces of shrapnel and walked along the beach where there were still remains of an old water-distilling boiler. This appears to be the only remaining remnant of a campaign that saw the environs of the landing as a maze of tents, piers and other war materials. Some old soldiers walked up valleys leading from the beach and among sweet-smell-ing herbs and prickly scrub, now brightening with spring flowers Some picked flowers and laid them on the graves of comrades killed in the campaign. “This is what 1 spent my

money for,” several old diggers said as they wandered around the hills.

New Zealand’s Gallipoli veterans turned on a moving service of remembrance when they honoured dead comrades at Chunuk Bair war cemetery. The service was held at the New Zealand obelisk on the dominating heights of Chunuk Bair with almost the whole of the Gallipoli peninsular laid out below.

A slight breeze shivered the pine trees surrounding the beautifully-kept cemetery.