THE PEOPLE REMEMBER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22403, 27 April 1936, Page 10

THE PEOPLE REMEMBER

Twenty-one years after the Landing, and more than 17 years after the Armistice, the Auckland public has established a new record in giving to help needy returned soldiers. That result must warm the heart of every veteran of the war. The public memory is supposed to be short and now a new generation is arising with new problems. Still the people remember and their practical reaction to the surge of memory is more generous than ever before. So the scarlet poppy, symbol of the frailty of life, is worn as the badge of that immortality conferred by courage and sacrifice, as an assertion that the public mind has not been affected by the post-war depreciation of patriotism. In Auckland alone 48,000 poppies were pinned in coats on Friday. It would be impossible to reckon up all the emotions that went with those brave little flowers. Some of these had expression in the great commemorative gathering at the Cenotaph on Anzac Day. And as the crowd turns back from the past and its honoured dead, it will hear with gratitude of the Prime Minister's care for the "living heroes." Many need help and can be helped in many ways. There is the difficult question of whether disabilities appearing these many years after can be attributed to war service. The Government should see that the answer is sympathetic and generous. There is also the problem of the disabled men, or the many whose efficiency has been impaired. They must watch anxiously the general move to speed-up industry and such provisions as the basic wage. How are they to keep their place in modern economic society? Solutions are being attempted, and it is for the Government to see that these efforts do not lack for funds, equipment and organisation.