CITIZENS’ SERVICE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28261, 26 April 1957, Page 12

CITIZENS’ SERVICE

Stocktaking Suggested

Christchurch’s Anzac Day service was held in vain if people had not set their minds above

everyday things and directed their thoughts to a higher plane, said Vice-Admiral Sir John Collins, Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand, who was the speaker at the Citizens’ service in King Edward Barracks yesterday afternoon. There was an attendance of 2000. Australians and New Zealanders were fortunate in having the foundations of their countries laid by pioneers of the calibre which had bred the Anzacs, Sir John Collins said. It was proper to give thanks to the pioneers who had bred the Anzacs for they had made the nationhood of people today possible. With that thought in mind, people should take stock of themselves to see if they were worthy successors to their heritage. “Have we the great faith that the Anzacs inherited and displaved for all the world to see? Have our spiritual values got a bit rusty in the hurly-burly of daily life when we have not got much time to think about it?” he asked. Sir John Collins said it was necessary for people to have faith in God and courage to stand against frontal and subversive attacks by Communists “on those things we hold dear”; it was necessary to have faith in the Queen and ’ the determination to defend her and what she represented; and it was necessary to have faith in friends in the Commonwealth and free world, and courage to stand by them when thev were thought to be right. “When we do not see eye to eye with them we must still have the courage to stand by them if we can find a solution. We must be spiritually strong if we are going to fulfil our destiny,” he , said.

Armed Force It was also necessary to, see that Australia and New Zealand were, by strength of arms, able to defend what they beld dear. “But I feel that this is not the time or the place to discuss material aspect, important though it is. Enough to say that good works must go with good faith, ’ he added. Anzac Day was not a blue day, Sir John Collins said- The fallen would not have wanted it to be that; they would have wished to be remembered in their days of youth, sunshine and happiness.

Personal Feelings People thought it was wrong to wear their feelings on their sleeves, but it did no harm to do that on an occasion like Anzac Day. He personally remembered his 600 brother officers and men lost in H.M.A.S. Sydney which sank with all hands soon after he left the ship; he remembered most of the contemporary captains of his in the Royal Australian Navy killed in world wars, and many of his own navy term who had been killed. “I think of them not as in battle, but in the happy times,” he said. ‘‘That is the way they would wish to be remembered.” The chairman of the service was the Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P.). Those taking part were the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren), Canon F. V. Fisher, Major HSimpson of the Salvation Army, the Rev. L. S. Armstrong and the Rev. V. R. Jamieson. Officers of the Returned Services’ Association and representatives of the armed services were also among the official party on the dais. Music for hymns was played by the Woolston Brass Band, conducted by Mr D. Christensen, and an anthem was sung by a choir of the Royal Christchurch Musical Society. Stanzas of Rupert Broke’s "The Dead,” and Lawrence Binyon’s ‘‘To the Fallen,” were recited by Mr D. W. Russell, a former president of the Christchurch Returned Services’ Association.

Buglers of the Christchurch West High School cadet unit sounded "Last Post” and “Reveille.”