ANZAC COMMEMORATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 April 1946, Page 3

ANZAC COMMEMORATION

PRIDE AND INSPIRATION IN ACHIEVEMENTS AUSTRALIAN MESSAGE The following message regarding Anzac Day has been received from the Acting High Commissioner for Australia, Mr B. Kuskie: — “For the people of Australia, as forthe people of New Zealand, April 25 is and will always be a day of grief and of pride,—-of grief for the young manhoo*d of two generations so nobly and generously spent, and pride in the courage and high endeavour that distinguish their actions and their memory. “In the years after 1915, on the fields of France and in Palestine, the spirit of Anzac became an inspiration and an example in the hearts of many of our countrymen. The living tradition created by them has been splendidly upheld in the bearing and service of hundreds of thousands of the sons of that generation, who have fought and some of them died, as soldiers, sailors, and airmen serving our two countries on every front between Murmansk and South-East Asia.

“Anzac Day is one day in the year when we pause in our daily tasks to reflect upon and pay tribute to the sacrifice and devotion of those men whose memories we hold in honour. It is a day to be held sacred but not one only for mourning. By the comradeship and achievement of so many of our sons Australia and New Zealand have earned freedom to live their own lives and to take their place among the free nations of the world. “It is the hope of the men and women who have won through by their exertions that the spirit of association and self-regardless effort so magnificently exemplified in Gallipoli, and perpetuated through two wars, will survive these tragic conflicts for the building of a better and more peaceful world.”

SERVICES ARRANGED IN GREYMOUTH Commemoration services in Greymouth to-morrow will start with the Dawn Parade at 6 o’clock. Returned servicemen and service women will march from the Drill Hall to the Cenotaph where a brief ceremony will be held at 6.15. After the service hot coffee will be supplied to those attending. Personnel parading/ are requested by the R.S.A. to take a cup with them. Roman Catholic returned servicemen will attend a Requiem Mass at St. Patrick’s Church at 9 a.m. At 10 a.m. pupils and ex-pupils of the Grey Main School will assemble for a service organised by the school committee. The,address will be given by the Rev. T. G. Campbell. At the same time a memorial plaque will be unveiled at the Blaketown School. At 11 a.m. the United Football Club will hold a service at the pavilion. The principal Anzac Day service will be the usual combined function in the Town Hall at 2 p.m., where the occasional address will be .given by the Rev. N. Clarke, of Ahaura. The meeting will be presided over by the Rev. P. Kirkham. After the service the parade of returned servicemen will march to the Cenotaph, where wreaths will be placed. A wooden cross will be laid at the Cenotaph and citizens will be invited to place their poppies on this cross. The annual Anzac concert will be held in the Regent Theatre in the evening.