GALLIPOLI TO-DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 19

GALLIPOLI TO-DAY

PEACE AND QUIET GRAVES OF THE FALLEN SPRING BLOOMS IN CEMETERIES IMPRESSIVE MEMORIALS Whore once the dend lay thick on the I fantastically weathered hills of Gallij poli stand impressive monuments that record the sacrifice of lads from New Zealand and Australia and their British comrades in the gallant adventure so dramatically begun on April 25, 1915. Three of those monuments dominate their surroundings, majestic even when viewed afar from the sea. One rises from the crest of ofiutiak Bair, where Otago men won their way and saw for the first time the blue waters of the Narrows, the winning of which meant victory. Southward of this is the huge pylon on Lone Pine, where, in August, 1915, the trenches of both Australians and Turks were choked with the dead,, and on the southern extremity of the Peninsula the third big monument stands on ground won so dearly and with such fortitude by the British 29th Division. These monuments are but part of the scheme of commemoration of the Allied dead in 32 cemeteries, beautifully designed and carefully maintained by the Imperial War Graves Commission, to which New Zealand is a contributor. A year ago Mr. J. E. Astlev, of Auckland, visited the memorials on a pilgrimage organised by the Australian Returned Soldiers' Association. All of the party, which included Mr. Astlev, were New Zealanders, except one. The Anzac Area The party crossed the Narrows by l motor-boat from Chunak, which was | its headquarters. They landed near the old fort at Killidbahr at Cape Holies. The village was much as New Zcalanders who took part in the Khrithia assault remember it —a crazy collection of huddled huts, houses and ruins in a crooked street. A road, a portion of which was originally laid down by the invaders, was followed to the Anzac area. This portion of the peninsula is only 2J miles square, but it contains 21 war cemeteries. The first visited was the majestic one at Lone Pine, the scene of the fiercest fighting in the centre of Anzac. The memorial pylon, situated at the east end of the cemetery, is a massive one, 45 feet square at "the base and 47 feet high. A large cross stands out in relief on each of the four sides, and within the pylon, approached by steps leading to it each side, is a beautiful little chapel with an altar on which the party laid wreaths. The names of the Australians whose graves could not be located are inscribed on panels let into the screen wall in front of the memorial and those of the New Zealanders officially classed as "missing" appear on similar panels on the memorial itself. The cemetery, at the head of which stands the memorial, contains the graves of hundreds of the fnllen, there being; row after row of gleaming white headstones, each containing the name, age and date of death. Like* all the cemeteries, the grounds are beautifully kept. There are enclosing walls of masonry. Inside of these are trim hedges of rosemary. The crass is kept closelv cut and flowers bloom freely. At all times of the year the cemetery is a place of beauty. Forbidding Country On Chunak Bair the pile of the New Zealand memorial is of a light coloured stone that gleams in the sunlight. It. is set among the wildest country imaginable. there being groat bluffs of rain-scoured clay at the head of rough valleys up which the New Zealanders climbed one dawn, often by the help of their bayonets, which they used to cut footholds. "Viewing the precipitous gullies immediately in front," said Mr. Astlev, "T realised what a seemingly impossible task our men were given, and that, exhausted as they were, lacking water to drink, the fact that they succeeded in scaling those torribln hills in the face of a pelting hail of bullets, was truly a feat of arms rivalled onlv by the landings at Anzac and Cape Holies." The tall memorial, at Cape Holies stands near a lighthouse and is similar in design to the one on Chunak Bair. Below it slopes run down to the famous Y beach, where the 29th Division gained a landing in the face of machinegnn fire. Even at the time of the visit, remains of trenches were in evidence, as well as wire with "the wickedest barbs" Mr. Astlev had ever soon. Close at hand is the Eronoh cemetery, in which the graves of 30,000 Frenchmen or Senegalese are enclosed b.y a high wall. Well-Kept Graves Although the land occupied by the Allied cemeteries, as well as the Anzac area, is assured, under the Treaty of Lausanne, as a perpetual resting nlace of those who lie buried there, much deof course, on the goodwill of the Turkish authorities. ,They have acted throughout in a spirit of chivalry to an honoured foe, placing no obstacles in the way of the Imperial AVar Graves Commission. Of one thing Mr. Astle.v is certain: relatives of the fallen need have no fear that graves are permitted to bocome unkompt or neglected. It is now springtime on Gallipoli, and the flowers of spring will to-day bo blooming among the rosemary that is for remembrance.