The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1923. ANZAC DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 18258, 24 April 1923, Page 6

The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1923. ANZAC DAY.

In a passage -which is as likely to be deathless as any written, in our generation, >ilr John Masefield has described the spirit of the .Anzacs as they fared fo.rth on their most desperate undertaking. They had said good-byo to home that they might, offer their lives in the cause we stand for. In a few hours at most, as they well knew, perhaps a tenth of them would have looked their last on. tho sun, and bo a part of foreign earth or dumb things that the tides push. Many of them would have disappeared for over frorh the knowledge of man, blotted from tho book of life none would know how—by a fall or chance shot in the darkness, in tho blast of a shell, or alone, like a hurt beast, in some sc mb or gullv, far from comrades and tho English speech and tho English singing. And perhaps a third of them would bo mangled, blinded, or broken, lamed, mads imbecile or disfigured, with the color and the taste of life taken from them, so that they would never more move -with comrades nor exult in the sun. And those not taken thus would he under the ground, sweating in the trench, canning sandbags up the sap, dodging death and danger, without rest or food or drink, in the blazing sun or the frost of tho Gallipoli night, till death seemed relaxation and a wound a luxury. But ns they moved out these things were but the end they asked, the reward they had come for, the unseen cross upon tho breast. All that they felt was a gladness of exultation that their young courage was to bo used. They went like kings in a pageant to the imminent death.”

Such was the sacrifice of the Anzacs. It was made for our freedom. They were —those of them whose devotion we shall commemorate more especially here in New Zealand to-morrow on the eighth anniversary of their heroic landing—men of our race in the closest, most intimate sense, men of that portion of tho British race which has found its new home in these furthest islands. They were untried men until that time, and they showed on Gallipoli how tho strongest virtues of their ancient stock, its love of freedom, its high courage, its strength to endure and not to yield, had descended undiminished to its most distant sons. Tho blood which they shed was the seal of this country’s nationhood. They were not only men of this country, hut tho flower of dt, when they left their peaceful homes for a great cause. Wo have reason to remember them, not in any spirit of vaingloriousness, w'hich would be impossible while the memory of Anzac stands for aching loss still to thousands of hearts bereaved, but with solemn pride dn their great manhood, with deep thankfulness for their devotion, and with fervent desiro that the spirit which they showed in days of warfare may bo our own and our children’s spirit in days of peace.

Them is one debt which we owe to the Anzacs, and to those who followed them and laid down their lives on the fields of Franco and Flanders and elsewhere in the war for freedom with devotion not less than theirs. They made no measure of their sacrifice, they made no delay in rendering it. Had they done so onr children might have been learning German in their schools, instead of hearing the English speech and English singing to-day. A memorial that will show tangibly how we honor them, and serve for a reminder of their great-hoartedness to all future generations, has not yet been erected by Dunedin. It is long overdue. A renewed effort is being made now to obtain the funds for it. It will cost little to any citizen compared with what they gave. Wo believe that the latest canvassers—they should not bo needed—have been more cheered than discouraged by the general response to their appeals. But a disposition is still shown, much too frequently, to find any excuse for not giving even a little. All that a man has will ho give for his life, hut for those who gavo their lives that freedom might live gifts are refused or measured. That is a spirit which reflection should make impossible. The absence of a memorial, after all these years, is a scandal incompatible with Anzac Day observances. The sum that is required to make good such an obvious default means no more than about half a crown per head fqr tho whole population of Dunedin. It can be provided, in tho shortest time, -without prejudice to any other appeal which may bo irresistible at tho present hour if the will to give is but present, as it should be.