SPIRIT OF ANZAC DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19620, 26 April 1927, Page 15

SPIRIT OF ANZAC DAY.

DIGNIFIED OBSERVANCE. NIOBLE TRADITION FOUNDED. ATTITUDE OF THE SOLDIER. SOBER SENSE OF DUTY. Anzac Day is still Annac Day, The spirit which made it the Dominion's day of remembrance carries it on. Its sanctity has not been assailed." Thousands of people may take outings, but such is the public mind on the question, such the common attitude as to what is becoming on the day, that its. general character has been preserved in a manner that would have been considered' remarkab'.e a dozen years ago. The legislature took the first essential step in founding its character by making it a statutory holiday. Upon that wise foundation the public mind has built what is already a tradition. The official observance of the day seems to become purer in quality as the years move on. It is entirely free of war fervour and military swagger, which once were associated with it in a minor degree, and its purpose shines more brightly. It has attained a high dignity. Service men who. parade still retain their old attitude of mind toward death and absent comrades, which is not that of the civilian public, but they deem it their duty fco the fallen and to the kin of the fallen fco make their gathering the simplest and quietest ceremonial. There is no desire whatever to use the occasion as one for regimental reunions. Units make their own arrangements for reunions at other times. As the Spirit Moves Them. Actually, the great majority of the men who parade are strangers to one another. They did not serve at the same time or iin the same places. The infantryman of itlie Landing probably has not met his next-number who went over the HindenGurg line. The Mounted Rifleman who reached ithe Apex above the Narrows in 1915 is not acquainted with the neighbour who was in the ride ito Beersheiba. There is no planning ior the parade by units or groups of old comrades. They have no personal pleasure in parading. Any boyish pride they once might have felt in swinging along behind a band has long ago departed. Family mem for the most, part, and conscious of the fast that they are knocking at the door of the "forties," if they are not through already, they, to say nothing of those brethren who, with the aid of hair-dye, found themselves in the ranks at quite a ripe age, do not relish a Queen Street march. But they think it is "up" to them to parade. Tha man who missed last year turns out this. He pins his medals to his civilian coat and in the tramcar finds there a score of strangers who have been of similar mind. The Unseen Company. What a friendly, familiar atmosphere Ihe enters! But there is no falling on each other's necks —the "silent" Division and the equally silent Mounted Rifles Brigade were not given to that sort of thing. They remain reticent "blokes." They do not ask their neighbour where he served, or went -lo hospital. Their demeanour calls to mind the platoon that was paraded on a cobble-stone street to be informed by a lientenant that the war was over. There was not a cheer nor a ripple of excitement. All that happened was that the platoon comedian wriggled out of his pack and threw it down, to the accompaniment of " High-bloomin"-itime-too." There a few men shake hands and inform each other that they are putting on flesh, and that is about the end of it. As a matter of fact, they have no desire to fight battles over again or to recite a roll of honour. It isi a case of each man to his own thoughts. Be sure that many a dead man marches and many a dead man's laugh is heard by living comrades. Probably the most satisfactory feature of the whole ceremony iij the tone of the Town Hall service. Certainly one hears a few terse comments about the inclusion of a hymn called "The Nameless Graves." but the beauty of the service makes general appeal, and the addresses such as are given by His Grace Archbishop Averill and the Rev. D. C. Hefron, M.C., always have the note whiclv pleases the mind' of the serviceman.