STORY OF GALLIPOLI

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 180, 27 April 1929, Page 9

STORY OF GALLIPOLI

SLOWLY ESCAPING FROM CENSOR’S CLUTCHES GENERAL HAMILTON EXTOLS INCOMPARABLE 29th MEMORY OF LANDING STANDS ALONE Sir lan Hamilton, at the Gallipoli Day dinner in London, extolled the 29th Division, and 'said the'complete story of Gallipoli was' slowly escaping from tlie censor’s clutches. There was priceless information, however, in the evidence from (lie commission, and he hoped it might be allowed to see the ligb‘ (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) iAustralian Press Assn.—United Service.) London, April 25. General Sir lan Hamilton, proposing the toast of the 29th Division at the Gallipoli Day dinner, said that he hoped the evidence taken by the Dardanelles Commission would soon be published. “Only very slowly,” he said, “is the complete story of Gallipoli escaping from the Censor’s clutches. However, the first volume of the Official History, published to-day. looks well, and, encouraged thereby, we may hope that the evidence before the Commission may be allowed to see the light. The public imagine they have seen the evidence because they have read the Commission’s report. They have not. ’ It gives us priceless information of a character unobtainable elsewhere.” Sir lan Hamilton contrasted his dining, amid all the refinements of civilisation, beside the survivors of the incomparable 29th with the circumstances of the landing. He cited desperate moments in his long military career, and said that, nevertheless, the landing stood alone as something quite different. “The date is April 24, and the 29th Division not only defy, but thrive upon time’s passage.' This is all the stranger because from the outset forces, political and otherwise, were interested. in keeping the landing in the Shadow, while it turned the limelight ' from the gallantry on to skill, and from attack on to evasion, from April 25, 1915, to January 16, 1916.”

Sir lan Hamilton continued :' “Yet even while I speak of. the war adventure. I may be singing the swan song of that side of existence: The static wars of trenches, barbed wire', flamethrowers,' and poison gas will never more poison civilisation.-' Ex-service men won’t have it. . Remarque’s work, ‘All quiet on the. Western-Front,’ has definitely killed it.? The author deserves the Nobel Peace ten years in succession. When all this immense war literature has. been shaken sufficiently iu the sieve of time, there will remain one big, soft-shining ruby, caught in the meshes, namely, the landings on Gallipoli.” -

REMARQUE’S BOOK AGONIES OF SOLDIER’S TRENCH LIFE < : ■■ ;■ .. ?■ AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RECORD (United Service.) ... (Rec. April 26, 5.55 p.m.). , ' London, April 26. Herr Erich Maria Remarque’s book, to which Sir lan Hamilton referred, had a'remarkable run, quarter of a million copies being sold in Germany iu six weeks. Au admirable ■ English translation, by :an Australian. Mr. A. 11. Wheen, has been widely read and reviewed in' Britain. Herr Remarque was an eighteen-yepr-old schoolboy who volunteered with his entire class and served for the duration of the war. He saw his schoolmates slain one by one. The book is a stark yet gripping autobiographical record of the agonies of a German private soldier’"- treneh life. It sometimes is revolting, and coarse, its simplicity carrying the stamp of truth in every line.