ANZAC DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18927, 22 April 1933, Page 7

ANZAC DAY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —On Tuesday next we wUi commemorate Anzac Day, and arrangements have no doubt been made for the usual services and parades. Looking back over the past few’ years one wonders sometimes whether the . remembrance of the landing at Gallipoli should be associated with these services, etc. The conditions at present existing should lead us rather to think of the future than of the past.. Is it not better to honour our dead by seeing that the returned soldier and the pensioner and our youth have a better outlook and a happier country than offering eulogies In connection with the great sacrifice of those whose bones lie in that far-ofFpeninsula? To-day the whole world is in a terrible situation still due to the forces and the commercial rivalry that brought about the explosion In 1914. The world is still an armed camp, and it certainly seems that our politicians have broken faith with our honoured dead in not dealing with the past war problems in the right spirit. Is it right that after all these years a large number of our fellow-country-men should be in such dire straits and that 1 many of those who lost their loved ones should be in distressful conditions, to-day?

The young manhood and womanhood of to-day know practically nothing of what happened between 1914 and 1918. They do not know what war means. From. Information received the next conflagration will be much worse than the last. .

I suggest that on Anzac Day special mention should be made regarding these matters. We were told emphatically that the 1914-18 campaign was a war to end war. The events of the past few months prove that the nations of the earth have not learned the lesson. If those who speak on Tuesday next will give the lead by impressing upon their hearers the inculcating of the spirit of peace and brotherhood, not only between ourselves, but also between all peoples, and exhorting the people to examine present-day conditions and urging reforms • that will eliminate friction and selfishness in our everyday actions, then these celebrations will be of service and use to the community. Every time we express, privately or nationally, thoughts of hatred to our fellow-men so long shall we reap what we sow —hatred. The time lias arrived when we have to put into practice the second great commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as tlvyself.”—l am, etc., MARCUS JAMES. Hamilton, April 20, 1933.