ANZAC DAY, 1943

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8904, 21 April 1943, Page 3

ANZAC DAY, 1943

The deeds that made Anzac a S memorable and significant word are part of the abiding and tragic story of the first World War. They live in memory and record, and they tell of the incredible courage and endurance of brave men against a brave and resourceful foe. By the time that struggle was over two peoples had learnt to respect each other. The Turks had felt the pristine strength of the fighting men of the new worlds of Australia and New Zealand, and the Anzacs had found the Turks foemen worthy of their steel. In this second World War, in which we nowfind ourselves involved, there would be a cordial welcome as our allies to our Turkish foes of a quarter of a century ago. In fact the Anzacs may claim some credit in the making of modern Turkey. It was their challenge that brought to the fore that strange and volcanic person, Mustapha Pasha, who out of the scraps of a broken people created a nation. ■-We have a strange habit of remembering our disasters with special pride. The Battle for Britain will be forgotten long before Dunkirk; we shall remember Gallipoli when every victorious action in the first World War has been forgotten. Somehow 7 we can’t forget our defeats, and we seek to redeem them by giving them what immortality we can. While this attitude may have its dangers in leading us to expect and accept de-

feat too easily, it certainly has its value in that we are never broken by any particular defeat is final. We could not bring ourselves to believe such a thing. We take it for granted that we must fight on and that we will fight on till the enemy stops fighting. The fact seems to be that we are not a military people. We do not delight in w-ar as a profession. When we find ourselves involved in war it takes a long series of disasters to make us take the beastly business seriously. These disasters at length compel us to wake up and that is why we remember them. We are not nearly so interested in the achievements of our Forces, the silent and relentless watch of the Navy, the resolute glaring of our airmen, the tenacity of 'the “Rats of Tobruk,” the undyingendurance of the folk of Malta, all these things we are prone to take for granted. They are part of the business of getting this war, this troublesome interlude in life, off our hands. % s soon as we can get through with it w-e shall forget it with all possible speed because our hearts were never in it. We shall only remember a disaster or two because they jarreq us

into consciousness. There are, of course, grave dangers in this attitude. We may find ourselves in a position from which we cannot recover. We may take the enemy too cheaply once too often. On the other hand there are very real advantages, and it is well to remember them, especially when we set out to blame everybody but ourselves when things go wrong. It is clear that our people do not exhaust theii emotional energy in trying to sustain a passionate hatred of the enemy 01 in indulging in other violent feelings. Their good humour quickly restores their balance and their sanity. They have amazing reserves of power just because it has not been exhausted in fruitless ways. When our Department of Information tried to teach us to hate, the attempt was a pitiable fiasco. In fact there was a £ real danger of it creating a pro-Jap-anese sentiment. Sustained hate is a mental disease from which so far we have not suffered very much. Our memories for injuries are short, and our sympathies are not yet perverted. May they never be. That doesn t mean that we won’t tight. We shall fight, but it will be for the things we love. We shall have our moments of anger and passion but we shall not continue to live in them. They will not sustain us. They would make us go limp if we indulged in them too much. It is the things that we love that sustain us, and they alone put sense into the fight. We shall guard our homes and our children because they are really more us to than life itself, and woe betide anyone who threatens them. This is a fundamental love, and from it springs a love of country, a love of our Motherland, which we shall defend from the desecration of war and plundei. L shall have also a ready sympathy and aUeart to help those, our friends and ames, whose homes have been outi aged and their lands invaded. We shall drive back the aggressor and his brutal hordes because he challenges everything we love. We are not going to distort our minds hating him,

but we shall destroy him and his instruments of power which ever he seeks to impose his will oy violence and murder. We shall do this because wo love our freedom and wo want other people to win and enjoy a similar freedom. Now that we have been properly aroused we shall not rest till we begin to set up justice as the way oi life for all men of good-will. We shall defend the laws that secure this to ourselves and to others, and we shall do it because in the bottom of our hearts we would like to love God and show it by loving our neighbour as ourselves.

(E.L.8.G.)