OUR DEAD AT GALLIPOLI

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14669, 4 June 1921, Page 7

OUR DEAD AT GALLIPOLI

ANNUAL VISITATION, (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 6. Ou Anzac Day the annual visitation of tlie graves of Australasian sailors and soldiers buried fh th>s country will bo made. This pilgrimage of homage tr the gallant dead .was commenced by Ibe London branch of the A.N.A. four years rum, and each year has shown an extension of the visitations. The printing, postage, etc., cost last 'year rather over £3O, and so far (he Anzac Buffet Fund has been used to cover the expenditure. That fund is shrinking rapidly, owing to the large amount required to meet the day-by-day demands arising from distress amongst Australasian ex-soldiers in this city. Last year the High Commissioner for New Zealand co-operated with the Branch in the Anzac Day visitations, and Sir Thomas Mackenzie personally took part in them. Nearly 12 months ago in this column we warned Australian and New Zealand relatives against making plans for visiting the graves of their glorious dead in Gallipoli. Toe warning need not longer persist. All Is now peaceful in the region where at the time we wrote sniping by Turkish marauders was almost continuous, and there was real peril to. visitors. All that may be regarded as over, although we. do not venture to guarantee quiet behaviour by the Turk at any time, 'i’lie cemeteries containing the graves of British and Dominions’ soldiers aie all now in good order and the construction of permanent works is soon lo begin. Relatives in a position to do so may now visit these cemeteries. For ilieir guidance it is well to mention that the nearest point is Kelia; hut as there is no accommodation for visitors un any part of the peninsula itself, they should make Chanak their headquarters. There they ean get accommodation and secure transport (by water) to Kelia. Passport difficulties, to which we also a'luded in our warning, have diminished, although there is still a tendency—fully shared ay Great Rrilain —to make money out of the visa formalities. So do ali Governments rob travellers. Dominions’ people who visit Gallipoli and desire and can afford to come on to London, may do so now with comparative ease. Nor will they find it anything like, so hard as it was 'u obtain suitable acenmmodetinn in London itself, provided their purses me long enough to meet charges, which ■arc still very high. All this is. of course, based on the assumption that when visitors arrive we are not in the midst of an industrial convulsion.