THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1919. WAR MEMORIALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17635, 27 May 1919, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1919. WAR MEMORIALS.

The observations offered by Sir James Allen, at the Town-planning Conference, with reference to the question of war memorials, merit the sympathetic consideration of the public. In respect of the erection of memorials on foreign fields of battle the dominion will do its part mainly through the medium of the War Graves Commission, an organisation of Imperial scope which is putting in hand such a comprehensive scheme as will not leave unhonoured the known resting-place of any soldier of the Empire who laid down his life in the good struggle. The standing of the men who are taking an active interest in this work is a sufficient guarantee that it will be well and thoroughly done, and in future years it will be the privilege of the New Zealander abroad to visit effective memorials and wellplanned cemeteries marking, upon the soil of France and Gallipoli and in other parts of the war arena, the spots where the graves of the Empire's dead, each with its identification stone, lie thickly. There remains, however, the question of the form which war memorials should take that will be erected within the dominion itself to serve as a fitting emblem of the great victory that has been won for the cause of liberty and place imperishably on record the achievement of her soldier sons. Each part of the Empire will have its own conception, no doubt, as to the character which such memorials should most fittingly assume, and it is to be expected that even in our own small dominion particular local predilections will cause a considerable diversity of opinion upon the subject. At present it suffices to regard the question of memorials within the dominion from a general standpoint, ami in this connection the views expressed by Sir James Allen are of particular interest. He expresses the opinion that memorials of a utilitarian character will not represent adequately the lessons of the war, which as a people we should wish to perpetuate. It is a sound viewthat the occasion is not one to be seized upon for the promotion of utilitarian schemes, educational or otherwise, which must, and will in any case, be sooner or later undertaken. To do that would be to reduce the whole matter to a level that would deprivo it of the depth and significance that should ever attach to it. To be worthy of the occasion our war memorials must take a form as tiplifting and impressive as possible. They can scarcely do this and be utilitarian at the same time. Nor need we wish them to be so. P Sir James Allen makes out very well the case for artistic memorials of a symbolic kind. Too much insistence cannot be placed, ever, on the necessity that the memorial of this kind must be really artistic. Unfortunately some of tho memorials in bronze and stone that are to be seen in New Zealand can scarcely be truthfully described as artistic. Any mistake m this direction in the case of a, war memorial would involve the risk of a

descent from the sublime to the ridiculous. A great British artist, Mr Frank Brangwyn, has given us his conception of the form which a memorial to tho heroic dead should take. "The task," ho has written, "calls for tho highest genius, as nothing less than a great work of art could properly express all that such a memorial ought to mean to tho British people. It should tell of tho tragedy and of the triumph, of the sorrow and of the sacrifice, of tho greatest fight for freedom history has ever known. Tho immensity of the struggle, the horrors through which our armies slowly and gallantly forced their way to victory, tho stupendous cost, and tho priceless heritage of liberty for the nations, and the enduring peace we all hope our arms will win for the generations to come, all this must in some way be embodied or suggested in the artist's work." Mr Brangwyn" expresses the view that if such a memorial is to stand as a lasting and worthy record of the greatest event in history it must be the greatest memorial art has ever created, colossal in dimensions, so that it shall never fail to arrest attention. And he suggests that its main glory should be a noble building—a sort of national Pantheon.—on some commanding hill near London, sculpture without and decoration within telling the story of tho war. While such a form of memorial is suitable only in a great city or a great country, the artist's conception, which we have only broadly indicated, expresses the spirit in which the question of war memorials should be regarded. Whatever we do in the matter must be well done. No outward symbol at all would be preferable to anything that is mean and meretricious.