TWO MINUTES SILENCE
WHEN the Empire's 'million dead' were finally listed after the armistice of 1918; when the nation's homes were bowed m sorrow for those who would never return, it was thought little enough in those tragic days to pledge those who remained, to observe, once a year, a brief two minutes silence in memory to the fallen in a sacred cause. What has happened to us twenty-six years later, whjen caught in the midst of an even greater struggle, we* in Whakatane are unable to even remember our pledge, the date of its observance, or the signal which was expected to bow each head. On Saturday last, scarcely a soul paused in the busy street; scarcely a vehicle stopped. Armistice Day, with its sobering message had been forgotten. The two minutes silence to the memory of those who died that others might live in freedom, was much too great a fag for the average person to be bothered with. Was this so— or are we merely forgetting? The onus to remember is definitely on ourselves—perhaps the R.S.A. might help us to remember the small gesture and all it stands for next year either through the schools or through the channels of its own organisation.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19441117.2.10.2
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 25, 17 November 1944, Page 4
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206TWO MINUTES SILENCE Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 25, 17 November 1944, Page 4
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