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Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 12

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.THE SPLENDID DEAD

BY THE TOWER OF SILENCE

(By Leo Fanning.) Among the illustrations in today's "Post" there is the reproduction of a photograph of a picture painted in oils by Mr. A. T. Maylett, a returned soldier. It is a night impression of the National War Memorial —the campanile where the silent bells have their home. A print in black and white, much reduced in size, done by the rapid rotary press, cannot be expected to give the full message of the coloured original, but it will serve to stir some hearts and rouse some souls. The artist shows a resurrection of the deathless army—l7,ooo men and the nursing sisters who gave their lives for their country—and here they are in spirit by the tower of silence —the tower which was intended to keep them ever in the mind and heart of the people by the melody 'of the carillon. Such a presentation of the savers of the State is no fantastic dream. The great majority of New Zealanders believe in a life after the event which is known as death. Why should not the spirits of the soldiers meet by their monument? Mr. Maylett had a thought similar to the one in Mr. Johannes Andersen's introduction to Ms noble "Dedication Ode":— • "Thinking of the bells and what they commemorate, a vision of the past must take shape in the thought—the inevitable question following: 'Are those who quietly flit as shadows never to be seen again?' "The bells themselves answer— for do they not. now represent the ones thought of?—and have they not been named after the very places where life was given up by those still longed for?" ■ • • Then the poet gives this message of the bells: — "We are their voices; on earth again they wake notj i Lost forms and dear, that we in memory keep; Blare of trumpets shrilling their deep repose can break not; -Softer reveille has wakened them from sleep." Alas! Lack of money--has imposed a sentence of silence on the bells. CONTRASTS IN DEPRESSIONS. There is much talk in New Zealand today about "the depression." lThis country still has an average of a hundred sheep and five dairy cows per family and plenty of other material wealth—the wealth that really matters for the needs and comforts of life— and money is still about for various things. For example, the totalisator turnover of the recent race meeting at Trentham snowed an increase of £.9000, and football matches draw big "gates." One of the dictionary meanings of depression is:—"A depressed or sunken place or part; a hollow." Well, there wer.e long lines of "depressed or sunken places," known as trenches, on the warfronts in 1914-18, and there were plenty of hollows, known as shell-holes and dug-outs. They were dangerous places—not at i all. comfortable —but they had bright inhabitants, who laughed at death and jested at Ms scythe. What memories of their indomitable spirit of victory and cheerfulness many of us havel Their singing as they marched through the streets on the way to the transports! And today the bells dedicated to the splendid dead are silent. : Thousands of New Zealand graves are near the fields of fame which have given their names to the bells. Here is one: — "'Messines'—To the memory of; the members of the Government Departments in, Wellington who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-18. We aTe the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved: and now we lie In Flanders fields." Here "are others: —"Anzac," "The Somme," "Passehendaole," "Gallipoli," "Palestine," "Ypres," "Armentieres." ;■ In a very interesting souvenir booklet of the "War Memorial' Carillo n" there is a page headed ','Dates of Recitals" —dates which New Zealand should never forget One of those dates is:—"August 4—Outbreak of the Great War (1914)," In the ordinary course the carillon would be heard on that day. Will the present silence continue?' When will Wellington order the bells to fulfil their mission for the splendid dead?