ANZAC DAY IN SYDNEY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 10 May 1921, Page 3

ANZAC DAY IN SYDNEY

NO FLAGS ON THE TOWN HALL

TILL DIGGERS INTERVENE

People who flocked into the Town Hall yesterday morning for the principal Anzac Day service expected on such

an occasion to see it brightly radiant outside with flags, says the Sydney | Morning Herald of April 2£. But , wherever the eye turned it looked on , bare flagpoles. When the service was over thousands of eyes turned upwards to the clock tower. There a lonely Union Jack, ,• diminutive enough; but looking even | smaller from that pinnacle of the chief ] civic hall, fluttered and coiled into picturesque folds in the sunshine and the breeze. One of the Diggers j had climbed up the stairs into the tower and placed it there. I The spectacle of the Town Hall standj ing bare on Anzac Day, and in strikj ing contrast with the hall inside, poly- ! chrome with all the Allied flags and . the regimental banners and flags of { battalions of glorious memory, aroused I such a storm of feeling among the large audience as to make the walls figuratively resound. The service had not commenced when a Digger,, representing, he "pointed out the Digger^' Vigilance Society,- stepped j dramatically into ,the draped and improvised pulpit with a small Union Jack in his hand.

"It has," he said, in a voice which, penetrated every part of the building,, "come under our notice that there is not a flag flying outside the building. 7* The vast audience cheered its acknowledgment of the truth of the statement. But, ' the young Digger added, "we intend to fly this flag, 'no matter how ' Another wave of cheers swept the hall and drowned the end 6f the sentence.

He went on to say that they were having a great deal of trouble in getting the flag on top of the.building. Out of the black mass itt^-the Vallery on the right of the organ rose a khaki hsure. He volunteered to koist the chS. Olt Agahl the CrOwd

cMii. S' flushed with excitement^ said they did not desire to cause any | rSr or -to do any dan^geThe audience, recognising that there was no desire to violate the sanctity ot the occasion and the day, but that +wV WaS a^ molt emphatic determinaSi see the TJnion Jack gracing the Mr. Henley, still gripping the flag, appeared to be'waiting for authoritative the?.™ m f °Unt the, tower, and after ea out that if there was no one in charge wiio would give them authority £o£/t° the to; vT' th6n the-v ™& theSvS. " °rderly Way te hoist *

He stepped back, and another Digger an elderly man, took his place. ' . 1 think it is a disgrace, 3 ' he said m stentorian voice, "to our dead boys, who were as true unionists as ever lived They have fought f Or their country and to^ay they are lying in honoured graves. I say emphatically that we will have the flag up." In these sentiments the vast crowd —so great that hundreds had to stand —evidently concurred. Echoing cheers again broke over the hall. With the flag in his hand, and with a heavy support of protesting Diggers. Mr. Henley left the platform and raced down the platform j outside. The threat to hoist the flag at all costs was being put into- execution.

There were still some minutes to go before the commencement of the service, and there was only the steady tramp of sailors anrl soldiers to disturb the quiet, when.Mr. Henley, breaking triumphantly through the crowd, again, mounted the improvised pulpit.

"The flag is flying/ he said. The cheers that accompanied the announcement were almost deafening. Mingled with the cheering was a chorus of boo-hooing, which reflected unmistakably the feelings of the audience. Mr. Martin Carrick, the Town Hall orderly, handed over the key of~"the tower, according to'Mr. Henley. The rest was easy. . Subsequently it was felt that the one flag did not make a sufficiently imposing appearance, and a number of returned men visited the Soldiers' Club, and there secured a large TJnion Jack and Australian flag. These they later hoisted on two of the flagpoles outside the hall, to the accompaniment of reverberating cheers. This is the story of how the Union Jack and the Australian flag flew triumphantly from the tower and two of the flagpoles of the Town Hall on Anzac Day.