The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, 26th. APRIL, 1940. ANZAC DAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 152, 26 April 1940, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, 26th. APRIL, 1940. ANZAC DAY

YESTERDAY'S solemn commemoration must have, in view of the present state of the world, given rise to a new and strangely arresting flow of thought. The hundreds who attended the service, witnessed the laying on of wreaths to the memory of the fallen, and watched the parade of Returned men, must have felt the strangeness of Anzac Day 1940 as compared with all previous occasions. Gathered for the purpose of remembering the fallen of the last war, they were yet over-shadowed with the fear and dread, of the new conflict which is gathering so ominously overseas. There were few in the Grand Theatre, or at the "Rock" who had not relatives who have enlisted for service in the present war. To them the ceremony of remembrance must have been doubly significant, for it would seem that the lessons of the past have not been appreciated or valued, even though the utmost agony and suffering was inflicted in their application. But as one speaker so rightly observed 'Who are we to judge!" No one will -deny that the British nation exercised the greatest forbearance, before actually deciding to commence hostilities against a movement which knows neither conscience nor God. In this new war the role of the Empire is definitely in the interests of the weak and oppressed. The mixed feelings which greeted the Anzac service may be branded as the very natural outcome of sorrow for the losses of the past, bslended with a certain inborn sense of justice which makes it possible for a people to willingly undergo the same dreadful ordeal again, if by so doing they can be assured that great- and offensive wrongs may be righted. But: thoughts of the new war can never completely submerge the wealth of meaning and association, which Anzac Day has for New Zealanders. It has become far more than a post-war memorial. It has become a national shrine which holds in its midst the highest ideals and aspirations of the Dominion's initiation to nationhood. The sober gathering has an irresistible appeal, for it has become symbolic of the nations' life, combining with the blood test of the 1914-18 struggle, the toil and sacrifice of the pioneers, the blending of the two races—Maori and Pakeha and the final triumph which has brought this country to the forefront in the world of progress, industry and prosperity. The spirit of Anzac broadens as the years pass until today it has become all-embracing. The realities of the present conflict have this year been brought home to us in a manner which was not possible by the most arresting ' communiques or national broadcasts. For Anzac Day is a day of grim realities and a disciplined people nurtured in a state of free democracy will take its full lesson and meaning and applying it to themselves face the future: with confidence and resolute determination.