THE WAR MEMORIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27510, 3 October 1950, Page 6

THE WAR MEMORIAL

Sir,—There have been quite a few suggestions as to what form the war memorial should take and I for one do not think any of them worthy of any consideration. Why should the public be asked to subscribe to community centres, parks or sports grounds for pleasure and enjoyment? The Caledonian Ground proposal, if carried out, would be, to my mind, like building a cabaret dance hall in a cemetery as far as a memorial is concerned.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent in cenotaphs and memorials throughout New Zealand, where the Anzac Day services are held, where we hear about the glorious dead, lest we forget, greater love hath no man, etc., but what about the living? Those who paid the supreme sacrifice will be always remembered, while those who still live seem to be forgotten. There are thousands of the old diggers of 1914-18 and the Kiwis of World War II totally disabled or partially disabled existing in many cases on miserable pensions, and hundreds of them living in miserable rooms and “ baches,” no longer wanted, consigned to the scrap heap, the forgotten legion. If we are to have a war memorial, let it be one in the true sense of the word, one that would be a tribute to the dead and also a benefit to the living. If I remember rightly one of the first war memorials in England was a street of small flats for disabled ex-servicemen In London, dedicated to those who paid the supreme sacrifice and those who returned disabled, the ceremony being performed by the Prince of Wales, the present Duke of Windsor. Why not something of the kind in Dunedin, a home or hostel where the homeless could spend their last years in comfortable surroundings? Nothing extravagant is needed, only a comfortable home with good plain meals at a reasonable charge, and I am sure that many inmates of such a home would be prepared to assist in the work and make it practically self-supporting. .One would naturally have expected a suggestion on these lines from the RSA, but the organisation seems indifferent, while the public seem even more so by the attendances at the meetings. How soon our boys are forgotten. Dunedin people should think less of getting something on the cheap for pleasure and entertainment and think a little more of those who fought and gave their live! and those who suffered and returned disabled and crippled, who fought to make this country a safer and better place to live in.—l am, etc., Lest We Forget.