Auckland Reunion of Men of Gallipoli

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 99, 30 April 1935, Page 9

Auckland Reunion of Men of Gallipoli

ASSOCIATION TO BE FORMED Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 27. A return, soldiers’ reunion to which only Gallipoli men wcro invited was held last night in Auckland. The Town Hall Concert Chamber had been engaged, but the response to invitations far exceeded expectations and the hall was badly overcrowded and some of the men could not get in at all. The splendid spirit of comradeship of Gallipoli was rekindled. War-time rank counted for nothing, and the president of the assembly was a farrier in the Signallers.

“As a digger to diggers, I ask for order,” he said as a preliminary to remarking that the name of Auzao was held in the Lightest esteem throughout New Zealand and the world. He read apologies for absence from Major-Gen-eral Sir W. Sinclair-Burgess and a message of good wishes from General Sir Alexander Godley.

In proposing the toast of “Fallen Comrades,” the president said that there had been times when every one of them could have done a little more than they had done, and if they had done so they probably would have fallen with those they were honouring. It was only a matter of years before those who were left would go out to their rendezvous, and when that time came let (hem go out with the same courage as was shown by those who fell on the Penintula.

The lights in the hall were , extinguished white the toast was honoured. Later in the evening it was resolved that a Gallipoli Association be formed and a reunion held annually.