Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1949. Price Of Freedom

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 April 1949, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1949. Price Of Freedom

EMORIES of 1914-18 'and 1939-45 *** were once again stirred to painful life yesterday. It was well that it should have been so. It is, indeed, fitting that we should remember the 27,000 New Zealand war dead and should pay tribute^ also to the thousands of maimed and broken who paid the price of victory, the price that has preserved for us the liberty and privileges we enjoy today. The men of Gallipoli faced the first test of steel and fire after four generations of unexampled peace, a century of ordered government, of freedom from fear, and of mounting prosperity. They hoped to be the last to face such "ordeal, but in frustration. of that prayer the dates 1939-45 now stand carved in history, and the sons of Anzac march with their fathers, bringing new memories of smoking guns on Mount Olympus, of parachutes fantastic over Crete, of Rommel’s tanks through the dust at Alamein, and broken walls on Cassino.Hill. But the Anzac anniversary is not only a time of memory; it is also a time of resolution; It behoves New Zealanders toask themselves, in the light of the mighty experiences in which two generations in the Dominion have lived, whether the high standards of duty and responsibility set bv the original Anzacs and reaffirmed by their successors, shall be faithfully carried on. The years that have passed since the end of the Second World War have seen frustration after frustration, deadlock after deadlock'. The human rights which we fought to preserve and which are essential to the establishment and maintenance of peace oiv the true basis of charity and justice, have ’been extinguished in one country after another. Crimes are< today being committed in the name of “democracy” that have no parallel in history. The* individual has ceased to count; the dignity of man has been trampled in the dust. "lie must bow to the almighty State. A bid is being made to replace the life we have known and know with a system diabolical in conception' and inhuman in practice. And, in support of that bid, invidious forces arc at work in every land. The world today is face to face with the challenge of a new tyranny. It is no use deceiving ourselves. Peace hangs by a few slender threads. In the present delicate international situation, the paramount need is security. For all her industry,' Great Britain alone cannot maintain equality with world Powers vastly superior in human and material resources. It is up to the other partners in the British Commonwealth and Empire to shoulder a greater share of the burden. This Australia and New Zealand are not doing. They lack the leadership strong enough to refuse to be intimidated by internal forces working in the interests of a foreign Power. . As the president of the New Zealand Returned Services’ AssociatiomJSir Howard Kippenberger, said in his Anzac Day broadcast: . “Their sacrifice was not in vain, imiess later generations make it so. We can justly claim that those who served New Zealand in arms did so valorously and with effect; that they made a great contribution to the victories that have for a while saved, the world from tyranny and false gods. “This is the lesson of history—that only when there is freedom of thought and communication can mankind progress; and that such freedom can only be maintained where there is readiness at any time to die for it and virility to struggle for it. Thanks to those whom we remember today we have twice passed the test that until now has unhappily been required of mankind for a people fit to be free, and we have a precedent and tradition which we may forget at our peril. The principles for which brave men died will be abandoned only with peril to the race. No craven fear and no-selfishness, fugitive of work and grudging of service. set the name of Anzac on the scroll.