WAR TROPHIES IN PARKS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 May 1920, Page 4

WAR TROPHIES IN PARKS.

WHAT DO THE SO I, DIKIIS THINK? SYDNEY, April 20.

New Zealand, like Australia, is by now, no doubt, in receipt of large numbers of war trophies in the shape of captured guns, and is wondering what to do with them. Australia, after a good deal of debate, lias scattered the captured guns over the whole Commonwealth on a basis of population. Each area receives a certain number, and then tlie public bodies concerned are invited to get together and say what shall be done with the trophies.

Sydney’s main trophy is the great 15-inch gun which the Australian troops captured in the last Somme offensive. It was being used to shell Amiens, 20 miles away, and the Australians advanced so rapidly on the memorable August Bth that the Huns could not get the great machine away in time. It is the Australians’ most notable trophy, and, of course, every city hoped to hold it. It came to Sydney because the New South Wales railway gauge was the only Australian gauge which would take tlie gifti’s ' great under-carriage. Sydney accepted the gun complacently —it was right that the biggest trophy should come to the biggest city—and stretched an ear to hear Melbourne’s howl of protest. But Melbourne was silent. Tlie railway gauge seemed to settle the matter. The gun, strongly mounted, is now a conspicuous object in Eddy avenue, near the Central railway station., > The other trophies allotted to Sydney comprise 20 big guns, 40 machine guns, and ten trench mortars, and mayors are being invited to a conference to decide what parks and public places shall be selected for their display. Antiwar cranks on the councils are seizing the opportunity to protest against this “glorification of war,” which they think will “have a bad effect on the minds'of growing children, and inculcate the militaristic spirit.” They may be ignored ; but what sahll wo say about tlie man the other night who protested against the display of guns in public places because they are regarded by returned soldiers as “unsightly reminders of the horrors of war ?” These trophies, said this gentleman, were not regarded as tangible evidence of the victory of our soldiers, but were looked upon by the returned men as “monuments to men’s savagery, and, while they would he quite willing to have another go at the Germans should the necessity arise, they wanted to try and forget their awful experiences in the trenches.”