"ELECT OFROTARIANS"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 107, 7 May 1923, Page 2

"ELECT OFROTARIANS"

AN APPEAL TO THINK BACK

CITY WAR MEMORIAL.

(From the Rotary Club of Wellington.;

At a time when the public of Wellington' is being urged by tongue and pen to redeem in some tangible way its promise to honour the great dead, it should be preferable for all to think back to the time when we placed our faith in the ■ strength and magnjfpincp of tih« men who left us to fight our battle "out there." . . ' .. : . ■. : We can remember those'splendid fel. lows, can we" riot, swinging down the [ ptr^ets-T-rich:blopded m.en/yquiig,. purj poseful; men whp were qf ns ajid from 'us, and who turned their faces to the West,, the sinking sun, the end of life. We reme.mhe r , im, the great tide of emotion which swept over us as we saw them off; and how we swore to deal by them justly,' arjd never hi this'life, never, to forget th.em. ' ■" ' - Aijd now they "lie in the, rich and waste places of the earth, side by side with tneir foes; bjut foes m Jqnger. These are. t-He eleefbf' 'all Bptirians! "Service before Self," the simple great cre.ed which they Ji>vj«d to the end ! This is how they redeemed their promise to ut. ' "M

How hayjs wo kgpt our promise? Where is $iat noble flaming ardour which stirred the epulf of'u? Pl*'it as deacl as they? Ihefead of "a memorial to them, shall we rather build a "black tomb to mark the tragic death of our own enthusiasm? :

We are asked tq make ai} appeal' to the public; to export them to 40 something mors than prqyide a" pipveahle cenotaph which' can -be conveniently locked a*ay after each Aniap Day, brought "pjit again, carefully' djusipd; and used once more to witne_ss JJie.'w^y we pay tribute to . the " jrpiipnped Dead.'' So Wellipgjion has to, meade^ with before it will redeem its solemn pledge! Such is the case aiid such tjig Fliame of it all' But yr'e gdd "ourplea to "those vyhich have been spoken Wore—for some seem to have forgotten' the past and its immense sacrifice, thrpugli living: too securely ■ to-day: "'And 'our plea is: "Think' jßack." ""■ ' *"' ." " .