ANZAC FRATERNITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23021, 26 April 1938, Page 10

ANZAC FRATERNITY

Throughout New Zealand a responsive sympathy greets the plea of Australia's Prime Minister that the commemorative union manifest on Anzac Day should be given reference to the future as well. Mr. Lyons rightly exalts the spirit of comradeship between Australia and New Zealand that annually has expression in combined recall of service in the Great War. This fraternal sentiment is real and deep. Once more it has united the two countries in their memories of an inspiring past. In itself this is a renewed pledge of fellowship. But it is well that Mr. Lyons has so impressively voiced the desire of its application, by definite purpose, to new occasions that may lie ahead. Only thus can the past find adequate fulfdment. Nobody can tell with precision and certainty what those occasions will be. But no elaborate prescience is required to foresee the arising of circumstances requiring a union of aim and spirit. The woi-ld is troubled. Peace is insecure. In the Pacific, to look no further, are ominous possibilities. If it were not so, there would still be need for mutual care of national interests; a risk of international conflict affecting this region of the world makes this care imperative. To cultivate it is a plain duty, whatever the contingencies, and the cultivation of it can be pursued, naturally and easily, by maintenance of the ideals associated with Anzac Day. These two British countries a,re not identical in all respects; even the multiplying and accelerating of communications cannot make them so. Yet they are so much akin in needs, and so palpably made for neighbourliness, that to neglect co-operation would be wrong. Especially should their sharing of exposure to need of defence be kept in mind, and considered in the spirit of Anzac.