THE GREATEST MEMORIAL.

Southland Times, Issue 19395, 8 November 1924, Page 2

THE GREATEST MEMORIAL.

To the Editor. Sir, —Regarding obtaining the names of soldiers for Southland’s Memorial, surely lists can be got from the Records Office, Wellington, and from different Committees throughout Southland (where nearly every settlement has its local district memorial) or. even from the individual persons of Southland whose interest was aroused, and whose money was given in order to erect One Great Memorial for Southland—a memorial not to be of interest only to people of the present time, but to thousands of people still unborn—who, when we of this generation are long since dead, will see and learn to care for this Memorial, realising all that it stands for. What interest will it be to them (or to us) if no names appear thereon? Why hide the names of our soldiers, as though, with the passing of the years, the memory of these men had become less to use. or

we had ceased to be grateful for all they did for us I

I call to mind Kipling’S stiring lines (I quote Kipling because he evidently appealed to the writer of the leading article in Wednesday’s paper): No easy hopes or lies Shall bring us to our goal But iron sacrifice Of body, will, and soul. A sacrifice of time and of energy can surely be made by the members of the Invercargill Committee so that they may keep faith with the people of Southland, and we may yet have builded in our capital, not a unique Memorial, such as it will seem if no names are ihscribed on it, but truly “The Greatest Memorial,” comprising all our soldiers’ names so clearly, and indelibly engraved, that they will be legible for centuries still to come. I am, etc., SOUTHERNER. [lt is unfair to suggest that the War Memorial Committee reached its decision because it shirked the “sacrifice of time and energy.” So far from being unique, a War Memorial without names has a magnificent precedent in the Cenotaph standing in London.—Ed. S.T.]