Anzac Day wreath

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32588, 23 April 1971, Page 8

Anzac Day wreath

Sir, —We may not like student actions but they are nevertheless a sign of sanity in a mixed-up world. Their Anzac wreath-laying is entirely consistent with the real meaning of Anzac. The R.S.A. should ask themselves how it could happen that men who saw the horror of war first hand should now be the most blind to the hell of presentday wars. If old soldiers are going to spend ail their years dwelling on the past and ignore the present need for peace then their comrades have died in vain.—Yours, etc., R. M. O’GRADY (the Rev.). April 22, 1971.

Sir, —As an old Contemptible of the First World War 1 shall be on parade at the Cathedral on Anzac Day to pay my respects to my cobbers of the Anzac forces, both to those who did not come back and to those who did; to all who will parade on that day, and to those who for health, or some other reason, will not find it possible io attend. May 1 say that I resent the intrusion of those who fail to understand, but want to be among the “metoos.” I wonder if they will help us to “cultivate, the poppies” in those other lands with their forward-thinking machinery when they grow up?—Yours, etc., F. CARPENTER. April 21. 1971.

Sir, —We support the action and right of the Canterbury Students* Association to lay a wreath with their intended wording on Anzac Day.—Yours, etc..

MICHAEL ARDLEY. CHARLES BATTERBURY. TOM BROWN. PETER DAVIS. CAROLE GRAHAM. lAN MACKIE. ALLEN NEILL. GODFREY NICHOLSON. Christchurch Anglican ordination candidates, St John’s College. Auckland, April 22, 1971.

Sir, —1 wish more prominence could be given to a letter in today’s issue, signed by a fourth-year student, who says, “To a great extent, candidates for election to the executive of the Students’ Association represent a minority faction of ‘student politicians’.” Relatives of soldiers who were students during World War II and who made the supreme sacrifice will remember the remarks made by Mr Caygill and Mr F. Baird and will vote accordingly during the forthcoming City Council elections, when Mr Caygill intends to stand as a Labour candidate. The Students’ Association would make a more favourable impression if it made a more practical contribution to the funds of the R.S.A. —Yours, etc., JEAN CAMERON. April 22, 1971.