SECOND EDITION. HEROES OF THE DARDANELLES

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 July 1915, Page 2

SECOND EDITION. HEROES OF THE DARDANELLES

SERVICE AT ST.JOHN’S CHURCH. ;; A memorial service for the heroes of the Dardanelles, with special reference to Private Ziegler, was held in St. John's Presbyterian Church last night. The members of the Druids’ Society, of which the late Private Ziegler was a Past President. were present in fuli force to tender their respect to his memory. Hymns appropriate to ' the occasion were heartily sung by the congregatio n The anthem, “Son of My ooul” was finely rec-uere dby the choir, Mrs Stewart taking the solo. In the course of his address, the Rev. W. Trotter spoke of the fitness of such a ae: \ ice. Already in London an appropri .ie memorial service had been held m Jjou .mr of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fell at the attack on the Dardanelles. The war came home to us wilh fresh power now that so many of our own men had fallen. _ Besides those heroes were making traditions for this lie,/ land worthy oi the great deeds of the Old Country, which would prove a.u inspiration to may and to sacrifice for generations to come. An honourable task, he said, had been giVcn to our men. This was no side issue like the taking of Samoa or New Guinea, or even the defence of Egypt. _ Rather, it was to determine the main racial and geographical objective of this great war. Fuat bottom the question was whether Tne Ttraton or the Slav was to be supreme at Co .stantinople. This was the meaning of Acotria’s seizure of Bosnia and Herzcgovi''i, and of her attempt to overawe Sw. via. She -was pressing eastward. This, Un, was the reason why Germany lum mr years nursed the sick man of Europe. She wished to fall heir to his estate in Alia Minor and specially in the Tigris Vc ley. The Goth entered old Rome: Was the modern Goth to enter new Rome? Russia naturally said ;• No : thus far and no further! When this question is settled against'the Teuton much will be nettled. For one thing, the Turkish regime in Europe, perhaps in the world, will have ended. In our own time tins has meant fire and sword, rape and murder, unspeakable atrocities, massacres end desolations. Many will recall Gladstone’s trumpet call to England in 1877, and the excitement over the Armenian atrocities in 1896. But all the while Gcrimfny up the unspeakable I urk for her own ultimate profit as she imped. A fin© unity of culture this! But, after all, it may turn out that the Turks have more chivalrv than the Modern Huns; their allies. ? The dragging of Turkey into the war is evidently another of G many’s political blunders., Ncj Jonhs Jhtf intention was to create trouble in Egypt. But it has enabled the Allies to attack the Dardanelles and, it is to be hoped, settle at once the question of supremacy. And this opens vast vistas m the future. The victory of the Allies will certainly mean life from the dead for Asia Minor, for Syria and Palestine, and for the great corn lands of Mesopotamia. Besides, Constantinople is one of the gieatest and most interesting cities in the world. It is as old as Athens and Rome and has a history of well nigh three ihousand years. It has had Imperial sway for nearly sixteen centuries. No city in the world has had a -record like that. London and Paris have been capital cities for only a fc wcem \ -ms, and the history of England and i'r-uce is not wholly centred in them. Madrid, Berlin, Vienna, and Petrograd are but of yesterday compared with Constantinople. And no ancientcity, not even imperial Rome, has approached her in length of imperial sway. This is due to her splendid defensive and geographical situation. With an adequate sea and laud force she is impregnable. To-day her sea power is negligible. Hence she is vulnerable. But how strong her sea gates, how short her land lines of defence ! She can never be anything else than an imperial city. She stands firmly planted in Europe, looks out upon Asia, is within call of the Levant and Egypt and the lands of the Euxine and the Aegean. This is the prize set before our soldiers. Military glory is inevitable for them. For Constantinople is a city of sieges, some of them as great as the siege of Syracuse and Jerusalem. The most noted are the repulse of the Persians in the reign of Heraclius in 616 and again in 626; the defeat of the Saracens in 673 and iiuTTTjrand the two successful sieges by tlnfL'rufaders in 1204 and by Mohammed t* Conqueror in 1455, This latter was a great event, the ending of the Eastern Roman Empire and the diffusion of classical culture over Western Europe. And if our troops lake the city now they will help to chronicle another of the world’s greatest events with issues beyond imagination. And so a great and honourable enterprise has been assigned to our Australasian troops. They arc ’ brought into th emain current of 'the worlds history, furthering the interests of justice, of freedom, and of humanity. And right noifly they are acquitting themselves. Already they have perfo.mcd imperishable deeds of valour. The landing will live in military annals. We can see the ships steal to the high shore in the dead of night; the boats fill speedily and glide softly to land to be met in the grey dawn with a torrent of shot and shell; the strong athletes spring through the wavelets and over the sands with irresistible rush; the terrible bayonet charge into the first line of trenches and then the scaling of the precipices and the holding of the heights against the most strenuous attacks. It was a surprise for Turk and Teuton alike. But a heavy price was paid. We know it in the long roll of wounded and stricken heroes. But they fell with a cheer and without a regret, leaving us an imperishable vision of valour and of sacrifice.

It- is our duty to honor these men. They

belong to all cur provinces, to all our

Churches, to all our societies. The time has not come to make up the full roll cr

honor. One would like to mention local names, and this will, no doubt, be done at the fitting time. The name of Private Ziegler is specially mentioned to-xnght, because in thi« church he called upon the name of God in prayer, and his mother and sisters worship regularly with us. tie was respected and loved by all who knew him. He enlisted from no mere love of adventure, nor from any need to cover ah ignoble past, but from a keen sense of duty and appreciation of the issues at stake. We honor him for his patriotism. And still more, that he wore the white flower of a blameless life. He was a straight,' clean man. If is much to die with a good conscience and with a hearty acceptance of God’s will. The preacher went on to say that it is our duty to see that he and others have not died in vain. We must g o I his business through at all cost. The dead heroes are calling loudly to. our young men to fill up the breaches in: the ranks. Axe they to call in vain and to die in vain? We must be prepared to-shoulder our weapons to a man ere < Ms enterprise fails. Let us trust in God’and do our part. And it is also our duty to express our sympathy, as we now try to do. with those who mourn in sad bereavement. They have this high consolation that their loved ones have died a noble death for King and country, for truth and justice, for civilisation, and true religion. ‘‘Nothing here for tears, nothing to wail, Or knock the breast; no weakness, no ' contempt, Dispraise'or blame; nothing but well and . fair, And whaf may quiet us in a death 90 noble” At, the close of the service the'organist (Mr Eric Moss) played the Dead March in Safil very impressively.