THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1928. THE VICTORY OF ANZAC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19929, 24 April 1928, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1928. THE VICTORY OF ANZAC.

They mistake the truth utterly who see in the keeping of Anzac Day any glorifying of war. That was neither desired nor intended when the day was set apart. Something far nobler was designed and should be for ever held in view as the years bring its successive dawns. True, it commemorates an episode of war, yet it serves to keep glowing a sacred instinct in that upward urge of the race in which war itself is but an episode. This is the instinct of sacrificial service, older far than any ancient strife upon the fields of Troy, as old, indeed, as the original goodness when man was made in the divine image. Well is it, when the day's keeping is thus appreciated, that linked with this memorial is the inevitable thought of another day, when a withdrawal as momentous as the landing closed the assault on the heights above the little cove. Not of a triumph of arms does this anniversary tell, but' of a baffled essay, an endeavour doomed to eventual defeat. Who kept it as a day of days 1 Not the Turks, who might thus have made a mock of British prowess, for they repulsed the assault and were left soon in undisputed possession. No, they keep it to whom it speaks better things than any triumph of arms. Poignant the memory is to them, full as it is of names to which their owners no longer answer. Nevertheless, assuaging and glorifying the pang is the certainty that the lives laid down were given in heroic obedience to the call of duty. That recollection is better far than any easy victory could have bequeathed. Brave sacrifice, not vainglorious achievement, is held in honour. There is a victory, then, commemorated in Anzac Day —a victory of soul over sense. It is a victory to make these southern lands greatly proud. The story of Anzac is one, not of veteran troops doing wonted deeds, but of dauntless iiyouth venturing beyond aught it had yet tried. These men to whom the name of Anzac belongs were almost all young and inexperienced in the grim arts of war. They had gone out in a spirit of daring. Courage, that old virtue of the world, came to new life in them. They knew, for all the discipline to which they had submitted and all the intense training they had undergone, that an exacting and a perilous task lay in front of them. To say that they did not shrink, that they "leaped laughing in the arms of death," is to misjudge them. They showed the courage that is highest of all, the courage that impels action in spite of fears. This was their victory. It matters little, when the precious things of Anzac Day are weighed, whether they won or lost in the struggle up the heights and along the ridges: they downed the foe lurking within their own breasts, and this is the sort of victory that marks a man. In the records of the first fateful day, and of all the days that followed, it is this that can .aj read with most certainty. The give and take of those testing weeks saw many changes of war s fortunes, but they never for a moment saw any craven yielding in resolve. This is the glory of Anzac, and it can never be taken away. Not, then, in letters of blood, but in letters of gold, let the day be indelibly written in the annals of our land.

We have no great wealth of national days such as older lands prize. Our Dominion is young, like the men who so made a name for it. There are a few that we keep, in common with other British lands, and this heritage we gladly share. Btit it iB only a heritage, a gift from others. Ere we can have a fully national life there must be wrought great deeds by our own hands. They need not be deeds of war. If so dire a necessity should arise, it is every manful heart's hope

that we shall not be found wanting; but we do not seek occasion of that kind to test our mettle. With war we would be done for ever. Yet with sacrificial service and with the courage that impels to it we cannot afford to dispense. In this respect ''peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," when values are truly set in order. There is a call for sacrifice of individual pleasure and ease for the general good, for heroic thought in the face of outworn ideas, for dauntless speech and deed against customs that debase. On this less obvious field there has always been room for those yho "laid the world away and "counted not their lives dear unto them." While the memory of Calvary lasts this way of sacrifice will not lack inspiration. It is the wav of Anzac. Beneath the tale that is to be told yet again as the anniversary recurs, that will be handed on to generations following, this deeper story can be read. Of unreckonable benefit will it be for the growing nations in these lands of the south, these twin lands represented in the name the day bears, if it be read with clear eyes and valiant hearts.