The Best Anzac Memorial

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 98, 26 April 1916, Page 3

The Best Anzac Memorial

BONDS OF EMPIRE

" Inseparable for All Time"

" I believe that the work commenced at Gallipoli on 25th April last will have yet to be completed. I want to tell you what I mean by that. Those little white crosses on the bleak, lone hills of Gallipoli mark the resting>places of the descendants of some of the best pioneer stock that originally settled these lands. On those rugged hillsides lie the bones of many a gallant lad, because he refused to turn his back to the enemy of his country. . . . We shall be humiliated if the feet of strangers are allowed to leave their prints on the graves of our heroic boys. Such a thing, indeed, would be nothing short of desecration. . . I hope Anzac will be preserved for the Anzacs." —The Right Hon. W. F. Massey.

. The first anniversary of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the baptism of fire of Australasians fighting in Europe, was' fittingly observed in Wellington yesterday in several ways, but in none more fitting than the two great public gatherings at the Town Hall, both afternoon and evening. Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett, the war correspondent, who saw both the best and worst on Gallipoli, no doubt voiced the estimate formed' by those in high command at the Dardanelles of the Australasian soldiers when be described them as the unknown quantity. They are not to-day, and never will be, unknown; aye, nor unfeared. A comparison has been made between them and the "Six Hundred," but Anzac furnished material for a greater, more thrilling epic than this famous charge supplied, were tliere living but another Tennyson to fitly shape it. The Memorial Service in the. afternoon was possibly the most appropriate manner in which this great day in the annals of the British Empire could be kept, arid one more in keeping, too, with the temper of the British people of both hemispheres. It was attended by 3000 people, and the hall was too small to admit all who wished to be present. Many hundreds were turned away. Half an hour before the service began the hall was crowded, many standing round the.walls, and only a few reserved seats being vacant. Well before three these were filled. Flags of Britain, Allied, and friendly neutral nations were suspended from the ceiling and galleries, but the .Union Jack was conspicuous, both as a hanging and as a drape for the reading desk, and upon it rested the Bible. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) presided, and there were also present:—Hon. G. W. Russell (Minister for Internal Affairs), General Eobin and Staff, General Henderson and Staff, Mr. Justice Hosking, Mr. Justice Cooper, members of the City Council, and ministers of religion, including those taking part in the service., which Dr. Jas. Gibb conducted. UNITY OF PURPOSE. In the great audience were relatives of those win had lost their lives in the Empire's cause on Gallipoli, some who have returned thence, with others who will presently leave New Zealand to make up what is grimly called " the wastage ''; there were also veterans present. All faiths, all views, all stations in life were represented in this great assemblage-, ■which was animated by one spirit, which had met for one purpose, and that to honour the memory of the brave who had fallen and had added a new word to our language, a word with a new and deep significance, and which will never be forgotten. A few strains from Beethoven's funeral march were played on the organ, and than the old hymn, " 0 God, Our Help in Ages Past," was sung. The effect of this simple hymn sung with reverence "by so great a choir was most moving. It was followed by the reading of the ninetieth Psalm (by- Rev. J. Dawson), described as "a prayer of Moses, the man uf God"—leader of a people, and, confessing national frailty, acknowledges Divine justice and mercy, and prays for knowledge and experience of Almighty Providence. The reading was followed by a prayer of confession and supplication (by Rev. A. M. Johnson), to which .the people responded, " 0 Lord, hear our prayer," after petitions on behalf of the King, the Navy, the Army, and the Nation at home, and for the "consecration, of •she blood shed at Anzac, and the acceptance of the sacrifice our men then made." The New Testament lesson (read by Colonel Powley, Salvation Army) was from Ist Corinthians, iv., 35-58, the exposition of the comforting hope of the Resurrection of the Dead. A comprehensive prayer (by Rev. J. Reed Glasson) was said, ending with the Lord's Prayer, in which all joined. Rev. Dr. Gibb delivered an eloquent and impassioned address on the occasion of the service. Among those, he said, who faced the hail of lead and bursting shells none were more gallant than the men who looked to New Zealand as their home. From first to last Aastralians and New Zealanders vied with each other in gallantry at Anzac; but no one would blame those there that day in chiefly commemorating those who went forth from this country and died on Anzac. These men were not veterans. A few months before they faced this grim ordeal they followed peaceful callings, but when the Call rang out the men were ready, and they rushed forward to battle and to die'for honour. AN HISTORICAL CHARGE. The charge made by'the New Zealanders at Gallipoli would go down in history as a charge no less distinguished than that of. the Sis Hundred. That day they had met. to pay a tribute of honour to the soldiers, but also a 'tribute of sorrow to those of them who had fallen.. Alas, in this young country euch were sorely needed to "Clear the land of evil, Drive the road and bridge the ford.'' But the cause of justice and freedom needed them more, and for that cause, and for the Empire they had died. The note of sorrow was, however, blent with the note of triumph, for, declaimed the doctor, "How can a man die better than for Britain and the great ideals for which Britain stands? I ask." BEING DEAD, YET SPEAK. The fallen he commended to the loving mercy of God. But they being dead yet spoke. Capt. Scott in his last dying written words bequeathed the care of his family as a sacred trust to the nation, and from their graves the departed soldiers of New Zealand spoke on mbiil o( Umm whom they had left b«<

SPEECHES AT TOWN HALL

hind. It would be a double shame to New Zealand if any wife whose husband had fallen or any aged woman whose son had died in the Empire's cause were left unprovided for and alone. The dead men on Gallipoli spoke, too, to the shirker. They said, these fallen' ones, to the shirker—ls our toil, is our going, !is our dying all in vain, for it will be all in vain if you shirkers stay at home and live in glorious ease!" FOR THE SACRED CAUSE. New Zealand, the doctor continued, was prepared to give her last man, her last coin to this sacred cause, and he described the magnificent results of the voluntary enlistment system as an astonishing spectacle to the world— incredible if not true. But, unhappily, compulsion seems to have become necessary at last at Home, and it would be the same in New Zealand. And even now compulsion ought not yet to be inevitable in New Zealand. The authorities knew best, and they would do what was their . plain duty to-day. He trusted that there would be no cause for that, but that they would be able to provide every man wlio had been promised ; yea, and more—without compulsion. There was many a man in that hall that afternoon o£ fit age who, he believed, should come out and step over the bodies of those who had fallen, and fight to the death for Britain. Again, the dead men spoke. They spoke to the nation' to realise the gravity of its position to the people of this country to become envisaged of the true posture of affairs. There was now but little ■ fear of the Germans breaking through to Paris, or to Calais, and less still of reaching Britain ; but the real danger was a patchedup peace. But if the accursed militarism of Prussia be not smashed and pulverised so that it may never again raise its ghastly head, then all will have been in vain. .They were fighting, not only for. freedom and liberty for themselves, but really for 'the emancipation of the German race from a military caste. After referring to the moral condition of the peoplee of this country at the end of 20 months of war, Dr. Gibb touched upon what he described as the continuance and increase of frivolity, gambling, and immorality (at least of diseases of immorality) ; the atmosphere of foolery associated with efforts to raise funds for patriotic purposes comparable to a clown dancing on a new made grave to raise money for a headstone to the man lying buried beneath. The dead men spoko also, directing those who remained to lift their eyes to God, and the rev. doctor quoted from a- notable sermon preached by the Archbishop of Canterbury upon the men who had fallen in battle, and asked "To whom can we lift up our hearts save to Him Who alone is the only Potentate and King of Kings?" "Brothers," he cried,, "we shall not get thfe victory until we have proved ourselves worthy of victory. We shall get the victory when we have followed the counsel of Admiral Beatty"—and the doctor quoted Admiral Beatty's famous letter on national humility and self-examina-THE LAST POST. ' The address was followed with tense interest and appeared to mak« a profound impression. But the most moving incident of all was the playing of the Dsad March in "Saul" on the organ, followed by the "Last Post," played by buglers, to which the great audience stood in reverence for the dead. There were probably but very few dry eyes when the last long sad note of the bugles went ringing through the hall. The meeting was closed by the Bene diction, pronounced by Rev. W. H. Hinton. Mr. H. S. Glaughton was the organist for the service..