MESSAGE OF ANZAC

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 68, 27 April 1945, Page 5

MESSAGE OF ANZAC

AN INSPIRING ADDRESS A CHALLENGE TO THE FUTURE The symbolic meaning offered to the people of New Zealand in the memory of Anzac Day dedicated to the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fell on the shores, of Gallipoli was the theme of an inspiring address delivered by the Rev. A. F. Altwood to the parade and all those who attended the service held at the Pohaturoa Rock on Wednesday. "The significance of this day,," he said "held .sacred to the memory * of those men has now been extended to include all men Maori and Paleeha- who have made the supreme sacrifice either in the last war or in the present struggle. "It is- unfortunate that by sorae ) Anzac Day is held rather lightly now. One of Lhe great things we need to do is to regain the tsfense of the holiness of it. "To the many returned men and women present, let me say that you have the gratitude of every jjerson in this country—not because you were soldiers but because you were men. We do not glorify war but we realise what the cost has been in giving some of the best years of your life to the service of your country and mankind. "To the memory of those who have fallen we bow our heads: to 9 ' those who have returned, we say 'thank you.' Continuing, he said: "On this" day the minds of many of you will leap back over the years to recall faces long since vanished, and voices* long since faded except, in the memory of thise who loved them. The nation itself knows not individuals but

Anzac Day is the commemoration of that indomitable spirit shown on the shores of Gallipoli, in the fields of and on the battlegrounds of the present war—a war which lias brought us from the verge of defeat to within sight of victory and peace. "Many of the men who fought were not saints or idealists. They were rough men and tough men, but they had a job to do and they did it without thought for self or self interest. "The voice of the Anzac& comes rallying over the years to us today. It is strengthened by the voices of those who have fought and are fighting in this war and it challenges us to devote ourselves to the reconstruction of a world in which war will not be known. If we do not heed it we are not keeping faith with those men. The challenge to us } is to live for what they died." He also touched on the aspect of the duty each and every person owed to the building of a better world after the present struggle had torn dQwn the old structure. "And so" lie said "the call goes 9 > out to us as individuals'. Only if we do this can we then say that our dead died not in vain."