The Daily News SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1932. ANZAC DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1932, Page 4

The Daily News SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1932. ANZAC DAY.

By a welcome coincidence this month has seen the publication of a summary of Britain’s official history of the Gallipoli campaign. It is welcome because it is on April 25 that the whole of New Zealand, commemorates the landing of the Australians and. New Zealanders at Anzac and of the glorious 29th Division at Cape Helles, the opening of the campaign which was to establish the fame of the Dominions’ citizen soldiers and to raise thess young countries to the status of nationhood. Seventeen years ago the flower of the manhood of these nations launched the effort to force the gateway to Turkey, and the effort failed. The purpose of the official history is to examine the results of the campaign and to assess the extent of the failure —subjects which have been so fully discussed for seventeen years that further argument would seem entirely unnecessary. It is sufficient for our present purposes to accept the summing up of Brigadier-General C. F. AspinallOglander, who has described the idea of forcing the Dardanelles as one of the few great strategical conceptions of the war, and to leave it to the formal history to show how far the attempt to carry out this great conception proved effective. The campaign, the recent summary has told us, was opened without adequate preparation and was continually hampered through indecision off the field; the magnificent feats of arms performed by the British troops were nullified through lack of reinforcements and guns, but in the long run the Allies profited by it. General Aspinall-Oglander’s epilogue, it is reported, expresses the opinion that the drama of the Dardanelles campaign, by reason of the beauty of the setting and the grandeur of the theme, will rank among the world’s classic tragedies. Perhaps his opinion is justified, yet it will not be with the sense of tragedy uppermost in their minds that New Zealanders will gather in every centre on Monday for the Anzac Day commemoration. There are thousands among us for whom Anzae Day inevitably stresses the sense of loss that has remained with them throughout the years, and will last as long as life, but even these do not regard the day as one of tragedy; It is not too much to hope that the healing hand of time has assuaged individual grief and glorified for those who have suffered most as well as all the rest the fine significance of our greatest national anniversary. There is ample reason why this should be. In the first place, Anzac Day stands for a great deal more than Gallipoli. It is the commemoration of the part played by this country’s manhood throughout the Great War; not. only of that heroic adventure which began on April 25, 1915, but also of the long campaigns elsewhere which, culminated in victory of the forces banded together to save the world from the onslaught of destructive militarism. In the second place, Anzac Day is far more than the commemoration of a dead past. It is not enough to remember that the tremendous sacrifice which the war called for achieved its immediate purpose. There is a far greater issue to be faced. Those of us who twelve or fifteen years ago had come to the age of discretion began to celebrate the Anzae anniversary with the highest Hopes. We believed that the greatest war in history had been fought to end war for all time, and we felt that the world was about to reap a rich reward as the result of the services so gladly given and the sacrifice so loyally made. But we have to confess today that our hopes have not been realised. There is scarcely a nation in the world that is not staggering under a tremendous burden of difficulties. It may be, as the Prince of Wales suggested not long ago, that the failure of the older generation to realise its aspirations is due to its failure to attune itself to new conditions. Statesmen with pre-war ideas are not very successful in the effort to adjust them to post-war requirements. If that is so the sooner a new generation takes charge the better. In the time that has passed since the first Anzac Day a generation .has grown from childhood to maturity. For that generation the anniversary should have its greatest value; the young men and women who are soon to be the leaders of this still young nation should find in Anzac Day the inspiration they require. Service and sacrifice are only less needed in peace than they are in war. The men who went from this Dominion to the theatres of war won through because individually they possessed courage and initiative, but also because they worked together. To-day the need for us all to pull together is surely as great as it was when we faced an outside foe.. Is it because we have not been facing our problems as the men whom we are about to commemorate faced theirs that we have been

less successful than they were? They bequeathed to us a glorious memory and, still better, an inspiration. If we are to be worthy of their great gift we too must seek the ideals which they served so nobly. Especially this year do we need the spiritual help of Anzac Day. As we gather on Monday, young and old together, for the simple services of the commemoration we should not be content to pay our tribute of reverence, pride and gratitude but should pray that our hearts may be opened and our minds strengthened so that we too may be able to serve our country in its present need,