OUR DEBT TO THE ANZACS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2753, 24 April 1916, Page 3

OUR DEBT TO THE ANZACS

WOMEN AND .'MEN MAY DO

[By Imogen.]

■. -'-ar ago all but a day, Australia • • '->w Zealand, countries that till ."-id been somewhat vaguely-known' ip.-ue places from which wool and ■"•iJan mutton came, at one .-moment,' -J one bound) suddenly took their places among the nations of the, world that counted. The grim' , cliffs and. hills of Gallipoli; that long centuries ago had seen such heroic fighting that echoes of it still live, in the world, once . .>or© looked down upon such dauntless "--'/ mage, such, fighting and endurance a haye roused.the admiration of every military nation taking part in this greatwar. And ;soit is that Anzac Day will always stand apart from all the other days of the year to Australians and New Zealanders. because it marked the birth of a very great heritage and tradition to countries that till then were, without history and without the pride' that can only come by a national ancestry of great deeds and great suffering. And yet, tthile Anzac.Day is being celebrated by .inspiring sermons and beautiful speeches and patriotic dinxitj. '0 returned soldiers, many'.of whom R . ; ,iill too ill to attend, and all'the of it, they are, though very pleas'no doubt, still rather dealing with 0. surface, iand there still remain ways* jq which perhaps-we should hasten our footsteps. The feelings at the back of Anzac Day should, and do, go further, but'we nave still much to dp in smoothing the path of the returned soldier. In this women/ as a returned wounded soldier pointed out. tho other day in an address he gave before a gathering of women, can do very much to help T)y using .to the utmost their influence in. getting employment for these men who . have, been fighting for us. It is not a bit: of. good offering a man who has been' invalided bacic with rheumatic fever- work on a' farm that will . keep him . outside ,m, fair; weather or, foul, or offering a man who has beon a station manager for years be- | foro he went .to the war a position, as "rouseabout" on a place, nor a man who had been badly wounded in •; the • shoulder -a position that practically meant navvying. These, men for ■ .Weeks ■ on end have lived with everynerve, every sense on the alert, who, fastidious in regard:to their .surround-, ings in the old days of-peace; have liv-i ed iii the midst of the most- terribly revolting sights - and sounds and smells, .who have; faced death times: ;v day, as well ; as thirst, hunger,' and • deadly - monotony, should come . back .with every nerve awry, and. thoroughly hypersensitive as- regards their outlook on life, and their treatment by those whom.,they left behind. They had given so much, and what have those others given? What' have they yet to give in the way of forbearance; consideration-,• and a practical assistance,'hat is merely _part of the payment of a great debt? - • . - V'..

To people all. over the world the-war has brought many revelations, but to none perhaps more than ourselves,- the people of the British race ' both at Home and in the outlying Dominions. That men, who bad lived peaceful, uneventful lives, filled with the quiet pleasures of the country or with the more'varied interests that city life perhaps affords, but- in any case, lives in which there had been no opportunity, for the display of the warlike---quali-ties, should have looked unflinchingly

■into the cortain eyes of death, have I faced it in the dreadful terrors _ that war brings with so high a spirit, so true a. chivalry was a divine revelation, and once more revived tho trust in the heritage that race bequeaths. \Theso lads from New Zealand, such "boys some of them,j with thoughts and longings, and sometimes tears in' their hearts for home, as their letters have shown,..yet .made'this gray, old ti-ag-cdy-worn world ' still its heart-beats while they, fought and died," and sacrificed themselves for the and for oath , other 011 the., hills •■that wiTi for ever more be sacred. "The most beautiful adventure in life is death," said Charles Frqhman, when iactrig death 011 the sinking Titanic; and so these-boys of ours made , it—a glorious, ail immortal adventure on the storm-swept, yliost-haunted lulls of Gallipoli, where .now for so many the meaning and the ; sobbing of the 1 blue Aegean Sea sing_ their 'last long lullaby as an. accompaniment to their dreamle'ssj quiet sleep.