The Waikato Times. MONDAY, APRIL 24, 1933. “THAT’S FOR REMEMBRANCE.”

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18928, 24 April 1933, Page 6

The Waikato Times. MONDAY, APRIL 24, 1933. “THAT’S FOR REMEMBRANCE.”

Time, whose gentle hand lays a soft mantle over our scars and dims the radiance of our triumphs, finds one day in the calendar which has lost none of its brightness, none of its nobility, since that distant day, eighteen years ago, when history was made on the rocky shores of Gallipoli. As we daily see all of the things for which “a just, war” was fought rendered hollow mockeries, it behoves us to cling all the more dearly to the one priceless heritage of those dark days.

The war took a terrific toll of life. Even greater than the lives that were lost, have been the minds and souls which have been des troyed. And what has been given to us in return for that sacrifice Peace . . . Freedom . . . Democracy . . . Opportunity • • - Security—perhaps. But let no bitter cynicism cloud our realisation that tha war has given us —Anzac Day.

The land of Anzac is unique in the possession of a day which commingles joy, pride, sorrow and affectionate remembrance, as no day elsewhere does. Britain has her solemn day of November 11, in which we, too, share, but it is a commemoration of the sacrifice of youth, while Anzac Day is the glorification of the youth who came back as well as of those who remained for ever. The poignant memories which will be called forth to-morrow are the bitter-sweet leaven to our day of splendour.

Let us be thankful that we can remember Anzac Day, m these days which see many precious things slipping from our grasp. Adversity and hope lopg-deferred have blunted our perceptions or finer things, until we have become cynical and “practical in al our dealings, It is our own good fortune that we are still able to set aside one day in the year for the purpose of remembrance of what has gone before. Though there are many now to whom the first Anzac Day is merely a name derived from some incident in a war they but dimly remember, the, spirit of the day is felt by them albeit without the sadness of direct personal loss.

It is fitting that the advent of yet another Anzac Day should rouse us to consideration of what the war has done for us, and what we have done for those whom war has battered. Are we better men and women as a result of the war, or have we, like the Bourbons of revolutionary France, “forgotten nothing and remembered nothing? Are we not losing sight of the ideals for which the war was foug t —our homes, our country, the brotherhood of man? Does any one of these terms denote anything more than it did before? Do we think any the more of our home, or of our country because a bloody war was fought to preserve them?

Our memory of the sacrifice is still green; our pride in the splendour of it is undimmed; but our appreciation of the things for which the sacrifice was made has been lost in the turmoil of another wa r, bloodless but just as bitter. The lesson was learnt in the war of arms that men must stand together, loyal to one another if victoiy was to be obtained. Let us apply that lesson in the war of peace.