HEROES OF GALLIPOLI

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 186, 26 April 1918, Page 6

HEROES OF GALLIPOLI

PADRE'S FIGHTING SERMON CALL OF THE DEAD THE DUTY OF THE LIVING ANZAC MEMORIAL SERVICE

Anzac Day was marked by a general holiday, special services in tue churches, a memorial seivice in the Town Hali, and addresses in the various schools. "Death Eathor Than Dishonour" was tho thome .of a stirring address delivored Toy an An?;ac chaplain, tho Eov. T. F. Taylor, at tho Anzao Memorial Service held in tho Towin Hall yesterday afternoon. There must have been 25(H) people in the big hall, and every soul in the audience was profoundly moved by the vigour and pathos and manifest sincerity -of ■:the .chaplain's message. For the . "jEbrds ■wcrev-.pre.-eminoutly the words of "a.lnan;/rather , than tho counsels of a preacher. ' . ■ - "In the minds of the men who went ashore at Anzao at that morning there was one prevalent idea,",he said. "There was only one tluug about which all tho men were certain, and they are as certain about it to-day as they were three years ago. It flas, 'We must win.; to lose is impossible.' I believe in my soul—l am speaking now to those who have not been and those who cannot gothat jf you asked a Neiv Zealander in the line to-day he would say, 'We are going to win, Imt you must give, us time/ (Applause.) . 1-eay to you menand women that the man there refuses to give in. If the n'ost pessimistic soul wore to go tbero and say to any man in the line, 'Germany is mighty, Germany &as overrun half of France/ the soldier at the front would eay, 'Germany has not won; give us time to win/ . . . The message comes from the dead to the living, from the dead at Anzac, in Egypt, ir- Palestine, in Malta, in England, in France—wheresoe'er the New Zealanders have been, the voices of tho dead call on you to follow on and take the places of those who had to givo up —because they died. The dead are calling on you arid your eons to carry on. The greatest respect you can show ti>e dead is.by finishing the work they began. My dear people, there can lie no thought of losing, no thought of a draw. There can be only one thought in the minds of all of us ,here. However long it take, however much it cost, it must be straight-out victory. (Applause.)

"It lins been my privilege to watch man after man die, and I say to you sincerely, -without running any risk at all of being contradicted, that never in my life have I knelt by tho side of a dying man who murmured at dying. Death is nothing. Dishonour is woxso than death. W<; are not brave people.' Thero ore no mock heroics about us. We don't pretend that we like shell fire or the horrid sound of machine-gun 'bullets, we' don't like to have to meet the Germans witli tho bayonet. But we are going to be in at the finish, and if some of us have to die we will not grumble. We will dio because wo must. . . . The British people will be unbeaton just so long as their hearts aro sound, and no' longer. The dead call on us to carry' on. I don't think there is any danger of New Zealand not doing her part, but I say to you very solemnly that love of life, love of ease, love of homes, love of money, love of rank, niuu not prevent us from accepting the heritage the dead have passed on to us. I can see nothing in the world to prevent us New Zealamlers as a people saying, 'We are going to carry on to the end, even if we have to, yaise the age limit to seventy-five!" (.Laughter and applause.) "There are some people foolish, enough to point out others who are not doing their duty. What care I? Because some people choose to fail, must 1 fail? If others care to leave their duty undone it is no business of mine. let them live, let them flourish on their illgotten gains if they will! I prefer death to dishonour. (Applause.) I ask not for equality of sacrifice—not at all. I care not what my neighbour does; that is his business. The dead call on every man and women here, 'Do your duty! 1 That is tho only tiling material, and do it regardless of what other people do. Lot it not bo said that the dead died in rain, that they wero nobler than we, that we refused to carry on. All that matters is that ive must wiu. "As a man, I say to you I had rather see the British race extinguished as a race by fighting than see it dishonoured. If we cannot win this war without wiping out the race, let us die—dio with our backs to tho wall. Let it at least bo said, of us as a race, 'They died fighting.' My dear people, ' the greatest things are! the things that are unseen. P-he greatest things are not material, i. . , Wo started out with a principle; Sre were going to prove that might 13 Dot right. The principle is still the fame. It has not altered or chaugedj Not for land are we lighting, not for commerce, not to keep up our namo as a nation, not to gain colonies, but to fiaintain the principle that a puny tate has rights which a giant State must not violate. For that" we fought on that twenty-fifth of April, 1915, and ior that are we fighting etill. It were better for us as a race to die than to surrender our claim. ...

If there, are returned men listening to me who are fit and able to go backwell, we are going back. There aro 3)©ople in New Zealand who toll me, 'You have dono your bit.' Men, I say l&ere is no bit. Wβ joined for the whole.Ihere is no bit about it. If we can pass a medical board-by shammiug\e 11 do it. If we can, by hook or crook, we will go back to it, not because we uke it, not beoauso we aro brave, not •because wo want patriotic speeches made about us, not becauso we want to ba thanked if iso die, but bscaueo wo are men. (Applause.) And to those of you who cannot go, I '-ay to you, 'Carry on, sacrifice everything to win/" (Applause.) Chaplain Taylor wears on his right nrm three blue chevrons and a red one, which means that he has been on service from the beginning. He has seen the New Zealanders in every action of importance in which they have been engaged, with the exception of these last battles, and- it was very evident from the reception given him by the soldicra in the audience that they thought much of him. The service w.as of the simplest-three well-known hymns, a psalm, and at the ond the Dead March and "Last Post." Che other ministers assisting -were Cbaplain Gray, Chaplain Olds, and Chaplain r.cott. The organist fnr the service was ■v? e^V"9? lonel w - ' p - Kington-Fyffe,