HONOURS OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1918, Page 6

HONOURS OF WAR

A cable message received last week stated that the War Office has approved the award of a 1914-15 star in bronze for the Army, tho awards to include the Dominion and Indian Forces and nurses. This, it, would appear, is to supersede the 19] 4 star which it wa3 announced some two years ago was to be granted to those members of tho Empirc'3 Forces,. embarked for service overseas during 1914.. oi practically the first five months of war; it may possibij be meant also to knock the proposed issue of the special Gallipoli medal on the head. The matter naturally should claim the immediate attention of all returned soldiers and of next-of-kin of the fallen who will be entitled to wear the decorations their kinsmen so isoblj won; but nothing much caD be done until the ezacC post tion is ascertained, which we hope the Zealand Government will lose no time in doing. The position regarding tho Gallipoli medal has of itself beep so unsatisfactory - that it is high time :t was settled.. Hitherto, ihe War Office,' for some undisclosed reason, has only aGsented to the issue of the medal to the colonial troops engaged, thus'ignoring tho gallant British and Indian Divisions who roughfc equallj as well, endured quite as great hardships, and rendered equally valuable service. This, oi course, is a manifest injustice which Anzacs would iike to sse rectified, If the Gallipoli medai is not to be awarded Uf all wlio participated in that great campaign, then to concede it to one section only, the Australians and New Zealanders, is but & doubtful compliment to them, because the medal cannot possess the same value. The case, however, for the issue of the Gallipoli medaJ is so clea/ that the War Office cannot very well avoid it. It is to be hoped also that >t will be accompanied by the award of special bars marking the carticular engagemenis the recipient tvas in. Regarding the issue of the 1914 or 1914-15 stars, we say quite frankly that we see little to commend the proposal. In the first ulace, it opens the door to agitations for 5.916, '17, 18, and '19 stars, quite a galaxy indeed, and we cannot see that the claim for the issue of the one can be any more justified than for that of the othei-. Thu memory of the soldier who fought and died in the decisive year of 1918 is in our opinion just ao mnch entitled to be honoured, by the- award of & star to his next-of-kin as in the case of the soldiet who fought and died in 1914. Both did their part, both made the same sacrifice, a,nci the memory of the one should receive the same recognition 4.5 the other. Similarly with the troops who survived those strenuous campaigns. They are all entitled to recognition for ' the imperishable services they rendered, but surely not' one of thero wants what is more than his due—a double decoration lor hia speciaJ year of service, -while the others, who fought a. year later and perhaps in an even more strenuous campaign, get only one. Surely the issue of the war medal itself withy the years of service inscribed thereon is sufficient. It has been so in the case of all previous wars, and should bo so in this. Another point we wish to refer to is the Announcement made by the War Office come time ago that it only proposed to issue a general service medal with clasps for eacb year. This, in other words, means that clasps for particular engagements are not to be issued, that the dreams of the fighting soldie' are to go wholly unrealised, ioi the man who served many miles in the rear and m*w <mv nw ih» firing-lint is u> «•

Such, to our mind, would be a grave abuse of the main principle in the issue of war medals, which is to honour the fighting man by showing on his ribbon the particular battles he was in. The clasp, indeed, is what he mainly cares for. The New Zealand Government, doubtless, will b6 glad to learn the views of the Returned Soldiers' Association on the subjeci, and to represent them to the Imperial Government. The time to do this is clearly now, because the War Office cannot be expected to alter its decision when it is too late.