OTHER SERVICES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19783, 26 April 1934, Page 10

OTHER SERVICES

PAREORA Ex-servicemen and other residents were well represented at an Anzac Day commemoration service at Pareora yesterday morning. The Rev. F. H. Thorpe conducted the service, and an address was delivered by Captain A N. Oakey, M.C. As one who left New Zealand with the Main Body and served on Gallipoli, Captain Oakey said that he knew something of the men who took part in that great adventure, and he had always felt that it was a pity that the people of New Zealand were not able to see their soldiers after the five months’ strenuous training they went through in Egypt. By their regular and progressive training they had become inured to hardship and thoroughly fitted for the task before them; it was a most inspiring sight to see the men of the infantry returning to Zeitoun camp after completing a long route march over the desert sands. It was not generally known that the place selected for the landing was not Anzac as New Zealanders knew it. but the southern beach, the nearer of the two to Gaba Tepe. Captain Oakey then gave a graphic description of the landing, and referred to the bravery of the men in face of great odds. “And what Is the result of all this sacrifice?” asked Captain Oakey. “We were told that it was a war to end war, but we know that If that were the intention it has miserably failed. Why? You must ask yourselves—l cannot tell you. But I do know that to-day we are just as likely to be embroiled in war as -ever we were, and this in face of our very considerably weakened defence. The Disarmament Conference has failed. The League of Nations has shown itself impotent. France is arming; Germany is arming as far as she possibly can; Japan and Russia have both armed and are waiting for the spark to be supplied.” He referred to the recent warning issued by Viscount Hailsham, Secretary for War. concerning Britain’s inadequate defence, and said that it was a horrible thought that we might again be involved in war. No one realised the horrors of war more than the men who served there. “We do not want war, but we cannot as British people openly expose our far-flung possessions to the attack of the first nation who wishes to colonise. No, until there are some better means to prevent war than those we know of to-day we must prepare to fight for our King and Empire as did those boys whose memory you commemorate to-day,” concluded Captain Oakey. WASHDYKE Residents of the Washdyke and Levels districts held their first Anzac Day service at the Washdyke War Memorial yesterday, when there was a large congregation. The address was given by Mr J. Mee, chairman of the Memorial Committee, and the service was conducted by the Rev. D. Thorpe.