THE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16422, 16 January 1919, Page 7

THE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL.

to THE EDITOR OF "THE TEESS." gj r> j read with your Jeader in to-day's issue on "Var Memorials." I confess the reading would have given more pleasure had you seen vour wav to accord the powerful sup- ' rt 0 f ""The Press" to the soldiers' appeal- llut whilo your attitude is that of the critic your tone is so clearly that ot tue friend as to encourage the hope that you may yet come to our aid. . J would like to make this point abundantly clear: the appeal is a.soldiers' appeal ; the project is a soldiers nroiect. The idea ol an appeal to the . public for a soldiers' ciul> and a hall , of memory in clom- proximity originifitli cnlflicrs. and was sliai>'d by

v ated vitu soiuiers, ami «us "•> soldiers: it had assuinod its present form before u single civilian was called J into council. At the first meeting at which civilians were present, the lato 3lr 11.* AI. Cotton, the president of the 8.5.A., not merely propounded the schemo for our support, but was actually prepared witn architects' sketch plans. l"or many months the project had been discussed anions the soldiors: they now invited a committee of civilians to help in bringing it bci'oro the public. To that appeal it seems to me there could be then, and there can be now but one answer: The soldiers know what they want: they ask tis to givo it to them: to mv mind it is inconceivable that we should refuse. But happily the form the soldiers' wishes have taken is one that surely in itself, apart from the debt wo owe them, must appeal to our imagination

and our sympathies. They want first and foremost this hall: I should personally profer to call it a chapel. They want to record in a sacred edifice tho names of the fallen-, many of their mates lie in unrecorded graves, some were buried in the soas off Gallipoli: here- in this soldiers' chapel their names engraved 011 brass or marble shall endure for ever. Hero, too, they want to place their tropJiies, not a. "Government selection" of arms and equipment merely, but all those more intimate things they have brought back with them each telling its story—a conviction, fuller and richer and more vivid bv far than could possibly lie obtained from public sources. Soldiers' diaries, plans, pictures, photographs—already wo arc promised tho liucleus of what will one day be a priceless library. Hero the soldier will come with his son and his son's son. "That one," spelling out a name, "was my pal: he fell at Messines," or "Him—we shared a dugout—a sniper got him on Chunuk Bair." The soldiers say that if they are given this hall, near their club, 'it will give meaning and permanency to their union: it will helpj them more thau anything else could to cultivate that comradeship for which Sir lan Hamilton has appealed so eloquently among the men who have fought in tho great war. The soldiers at least hope never to forget. You; sir, deprecate overlapping and dissipation of effort. But are our in-

timate arid local memorials to be deprecated? True—lot there be a national memorial—a noble group of statuary for choice—something at least or beauty which none shall dare to call useful. But may not the soldiers ask fot their warmer, closer, more personal memorial too? Old boys of Christ's College have led the tvay: I am told they have already ten thousand pounds for their memorial: is not theirs a noble thought—do we not earnestly hope that all the great public schools of the Empires may do the like? The vast majority of our sol- , diers were not public school-boys: thoy have no Alma Mater to do this

tender and boautiful thing for them. Will their city not play for thom the role of "loving mother'': be at once school and college to their memories. But ,1 trespass on your space: so much pleading would not have been necessary but for the plague that came and wrought ruin among us. The soldiers decided to put their scheme forward on peace night: the meeting was magnificent: there must have been twenty thousand people assembled and there was but one thought: gratitude to .God for peace and to our soldiers for victory. The appeal was made that night, before division of opinion could have shown itself, before evon Christchurch, with its constitutional eclecticism could have dissipated itself on a dozen schemes and theories, the money would have been won and the Sgift completed. ■ BMt iiext day the ague fell upon us—it pmote the soler ranks sorely and earned off some of the brightest spirits in the Association: more clamant needs united us in effort. And now—we have to make our appeal to a public whose nerves

are frayed, with the aftermath of influenza and whose minds are distracted by a dozen differont "memorial proposals." But we make it confidently still: and we have the audacity to believe that you, sir, and the great paper you control, "will yet rally to our support' and make Buccess assured.—Yours. . etc.,- • . • 0. T. J. ALPERS, Chairman R.S.A. Memorial Fund. ;January 15th. ' OTHER WAR MEMORIALS.

• TO THE EDITOR O* "THS PRESS." i^ir, —In reply to "More Massive," 1 ' dp not consider it would be wise to purchase expensive land and buildings to widen a streot and then block it up again with heavy masonry. Besides, you will require subscriptions from the i whole of Canterbury, and outside Christs; church they might not caro to subscribe ■to your utilities. If I had had that . ® mind, I should have suggested either - *' bridge or tunnel for the Colombo ; . street crossing, but that is anathema. lN °j what we want is a real monument, not a fake, and also every penny subscntad to go into it, not wasted on utilities. J have an idea that the i monument would - look well; it would not - suffer from contact with other buildings, „ and the land would cost next to nothinß» and we should, get a respectable monument, and all Canterbury oould. tUQscnbe to it. It will be a shame if we don't all pull together and make a , jood job of it.—Yours, etc., Y MASSIVE. January 15th. . THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." - hope your excellent article win reference to the above will careen opinion over to the Arc de Trij l dea. We have none in New r ,i so let Christchurch get in first. +i~, 8 UK,Wu . Spreydonite told me that rnnZr.? ere ? 01n « to have their own meil •' 80 ?°°ks as if they are going J" spring np like mushrooms, which will „ P .y,> "s it will militate against a Rvmcial undertaking worthy of the JfXT^ on; „ Vhat is wrong with the Bank faJ «. W , nd corner as a site, invitJours etc *° a — PETER TROLOVE.