GATHERING OF VETERANS.

Wairarapa Age, 4 July 1929, Page 2

GATHERING OF VETERANS.

ADDRESS BY SIR CHARLES FERGUSSON. ANZAC DAY OBSERVANCE. HASTINGS, July 3. The Governor-General and Lady Alice Fergusson arrived last evening, and were received by die Mayor, Mr. Campbell M.P., and prominent citizen®. Later His Excellency was the guest at the ex-service men’s re-union. On rising to reply to the toast of his health, he received a tumultuous reception. He said in the course -of his speech that in all function® he attended none afforded him greater pleasure than meeting old comrades who had been through the mill with him and those veterans of the Maori, South African, and other wars long past. The services of these veterans, who had borne the brunt of battle in the past, must not be forgotten at ILS.A. reunions or their deeds allowed to be eclipsed by the Great War. Referring to a speech he made in Auckland he said that a statement he had made regarding the observance of Anzac Day had been misunderstood. He had heard it said that he had advised the holding of a different kind of Anzac Day and that it should be a day of holiday and jollification. He had -said nothing of the sort. What he did say was that in our services on Anzac Day we should keep up the intense solemnity of the services, but that we -should not let the sadness of the occasion overshadow the glory of the day, quite a different thing to altering the character of the day. He did not like •services when women wept. It was not in the spirit of the men who died that we -should think only of the mournful side and lay no -stress on the glory of the deeds of those who had fallen. Continuing, Sir Charles Fergusson said that those who had the good fortune to return from the war had <svill work to do by fostering the spirit of comradeship, by never letting a comrade down. They bad served their King in the stress of war and they had common sense, courage, and every quality of a good soldier, and so by going the right way about it they could exercise a great influence on the community and hold their 'respect by acting in co-operation, a® they did in the war. He concluded by saying that when he went Home he would do everything he could to help Lord Jellicoe, who was their good friend, as a testimony of his gratitude to the people of New Zealand who had been so good to them in this country. The crowd of nearly 700 service men rose and loudly cheered His Excellency.—(P.A.)