TRIBUTE TO DEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 92, 20 April 1938, Page 17

TRIBUTE TO DEAD

CENOTAPH CEREMONY-

WREATHS DEPOSITED

Yesterday Wellington capped weeks of mental sweat and physical labour in preparing for the pilgrimage to' a sister Dominion by providing glorious sunshine. "Diggers"' from all over New Zealand congregated in the Capital and men who forged bonds of brotherhood in misery and mud met once more on a happier footing. They could be forgiven if they celebrated the renewal of oW-friendships in the cup that cheers, hvn when 4.15 p.m. arrived all were fit for service and anxious to take part in the parade that was to give them a little practice for marching next Monday, when they will proudly lead the Anzac Day parade in Sydney.

Promptly at 4.15 they moved off from their assembly ground near the Railway Station, and, having "marched round the block," paid tribute to departed comrades at the Wellington Citizens' War Memorial. Some five thousand citi?ieris".jpf^Wellington assembled at jvahfage*. poirits" to witness the parade, andione/and;all.must have been struck by the ■ splendid^ bearing of the men who ''went overi-the top" twenty and ;more .years ago. The president of the Christchurch Returned Soldiers' Associatiorv (Mr. W. E. Leadley) assemb!leS\ the -parade and then handed.it.,over.t6;(iolonel R. F, Gambull, who led it .to'L'ambtbnQuay, where, the men, Vho,were marching twelve abreast, turned! left in-ftle and faced the Cenotaph while they paid tribute to many good comrades who sleep overseas. First the two Australians who have journeyed to New Zealand to accompany, their Ne\y.,Zealand' cojnrades n on\i the" Maunganui* and Monowai (Messrs. R. Stanley, and C.J. Burton)'.placed a wreath as a tribute from, members of the Returned Sailors' ¥nd Soldiers.' Imperial League of, Ailsttalia, thentwp of the twelve nurses, /accompanying the contingent placed1 one,-and last, Messrs. G. A.' Hayden f a(nd H. B. Burdekin, two members ,oi- headquarters executive of the Nev/:Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, placed a wreath/.on behalf -'of; the- contingent.