ANOTHER WAR MEMORIAL

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 94, 15 January 1926, Page 10

ANOTHER WAR MEMORIAL

EGYPT, PALESTINE, SYRIA Tn addition to other war memorials, there is to be erected on the Suez Canal at Port Said one to commemorate the and New Zealand soldiers who laid down their lives in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Towards the cost of erection, the New Zealand Government has contributed £2OOO and the Australian Government £lO,OOO. According to a message received yesterday by the Minister of Defence (Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes) from the Commonwealth Defence Minister, the amount subscribed by members of the New Zealand and Australian Forces serving in Palestine, who each contributed one day’s pay, totals £5400. This makes a sum of over £17,000 available for the work. The Commonwealth Defence Minister advised that competitive designs had been invited for the structure, the first premium being awarded to Mr. C. W. Gilbert, sculptor, and Messrs. Stephenson and Meldrum, architects, and they had been entrusted with the work. Mr. Gilbert had almost completed modelling in clay one half of the statuary group, which consisted of two horsemen, one a New Zealander and the other an Australian, when he died. Arrangements were made for another sculptor, Mr. P. R. Montford, to finish in plaster the portion of the group nearly completed, and arrangements for the erection of the remainder had been held over pending the arrival in Australia of Sir Bertram Mackinnci, whose advice would be sought on the matter. Sir Heaton Rhodes lias replied expressing regret nt the sculptor’s death, and his concurrence with the action taken by Sir Nevill Howse.