ANZAC DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 12 June 1923, Page 4

ANZAC DAY.

The Returned Soldiers’ Association has left nothing to doubt concerning its attitude to the proposal to observe Anzac Day on the nearest Sunday. Anzac Day is associated irrevocably with a particular date, a day in the calendar which will be remembered as long as there are with us the descendants of the men who took part in the fiery landing at Gallipoli and in the subsequent months of fierce fighting. No other day in the year can take its place. When Shakespeare made Henry V. deliver his speech before Agincourt on the eve of St. Crispin’s Day, he knew the immense power of the memorialisation of a “day,” of the association of great deeds with some fixed point, and it is doubtful if anyone reading the king’s speech could imagine the old warriors of Agincourt in later years telling the story of their achievements on some other day in the week set aside by decree for the purpose. Men who served with the forces, and who were at the Dardanelles, will recall fiery events on Anzac Day, no matter what Parliament may say, and it would be absurd to suggest that any other day in the year could be given to them as a substitute. The proposal that the change should be made has no supporters among the returned men, as far as we. know, and the origin of 1 this request is not known, but when the R.S.A. has given voice to its emphatic opposition to any alteration which would rob the memorial day of some of its sanctity, the Government and the House should not give any further attention to it. The men who went to the front are entitled to the final say in this matter, and until the organisation representing them is a consenting party to it, the idea of a substitutionary day should not be considered.