THE BIRTH OF A NATION.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3893, 23 April 1937, Page 3

THE BIRTH OF A NATION.

'THE countries of the Old World, built upon foundations centuries old, are rich in historical associations in that they can survey the vistas of years and point to many crises vast in their significance and potent in their consequences. Not so New Zealand, which, on the threshold of her first centenary, is one of the two youngest countries inhabited by people of British stock? Up to a generation ago her past was, historically speaking, a matter of yesterday: she had never felt the hot blast of war upon her face. Then came August, 1914. With its clarion call “To Arms ! ” came immediate response, enthusiastically patriotic and unanimous. The attitude of every person in New Zealand was that inasmuch as the Empire was at war, and New Zealand, as a part of that Empire, was consequently at war, it was the duty of this Dominion to enter the war with as much vigour, as large a contribution of men, and as full an acceptance of responsibility in every sense, as was possible within her resources. In other words, the war saw New Zealand emphasise her sense of individual .nationhood within the Empire. Then came November, 1918—and with it the Armistice, long awaited by a war-weary world. But long before that epochal date, troopships had been returning to New Zealand with those who had been blasted and sullied and seared by the thunder of the guns and the red carnage of war. Since then the golden glory of the Anzacs, whether on Gallipoli, in Mesopatamia, or France, has burned steadily through the years, but still with the passing of Time the black shadows of sorrow and death have been lifted and all the sacrifice, all the splendour, and all the glory have been in danger of receding into the background, till those who remem - ber are apt to cry in the words of Kipling’s Recessional: “ Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget —lest we forget!” And so it came to pass that the men who had fought and been maimed and invalided early realised, even as far back as 1916, that some form of association was required if the comradeships knitted by the war were to endure, if a thoughtless public were not to forget the legitimate claims these men had for consideration from a country they had served so well and faithfully. So we find that in 1916 the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association took actual form, being finally placed upon a concrete basis at a general conference held in Wellington on April 28, 1916. From such an Association obvious material benefits have been, and are. derived, but, in the words of Lord Bledisloe, “There is also a spiritual gain flowing from it to the whole community in the existence of an organisation whose aimsand objects in themselves demand the profession and practice of high ideals.” Thus the coming of age of the Returned Soldiers’ Association next Wednesday is a national event worthy of more than passing notice.