GALLIPOLI HEROES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 60, 4 December 1917, Page 6

GALLIPOLI HEROES

What reasons influenced tiio War Office in determining the conditions under which it is proposed to award the Gallipoli Star it is difficult to imagine, but as they stand these conditions are palpably and grossly unjust. So far as New Zaahndcrs are concerned, the War Office proposal would actually withhold the star from men who took part in the Gallipoli campaign from its opraing days, in April, 1915. and afterwards served either to its close or until they were put out of action by wounds, sickness, or death. According to the* announcement recently cabled, those to whom the Gallipoli Star is to be awarded must have sailed from their respective countries before the end of 1914 and must have participated in the Gallipoli campaign. In the case of tho New Zealand lixpeditionary Force this would, mean that the only men eligible would be the members of the Main Body and those of the first two reinforcement drafts. The glaring injustice of the proposal appears when it. is considered that portion of the Third New Zealand Reinforcements, though they did not leave this country until J 915 - landed at Anzac Cove with the Main Body, and played their part in the famous campaign from its earliest days. Yet it is proposed that these members of the third draft should lie denied an honour which is to be awarded to comrades with whom they landed side by side. lhis is neither ordinary justiro nor common sense. Failing any better explanation, it can only be supposed that the War Office proposal was drawn up without any real reference to the facts of the Ga lipoh campaign. Though the. exclusion of the Third Reinforcements is a particularly inequitab.e feature of the proposal, it is open to "'tinsm on the broader ground that theic is no justification for making invidious distinctions between tbo sol-

diers who had a part in the initial operations on Gallipoli au;l the members of later drafts wbo saw service in that theatre. Wlio does not know, for instance, that the Fifth Iteinforcements landed on the Peninsula to engage in one of the heaviest battles of the whole campaign i The pioneer herons of Gallipoli, we should think, will be the first to condemn a proposal to ignore tluv claims of those who arrived in good time to fight shoulder to shoulder with them in one i.f (lie most supremely trying campaigns in the history of warfare. In essentials all who took an honourable part in the Gallipoli campaign are on a common footing. One and all tliey responded promptly to the call to arms, not all were in the pioneer drafts, and though their epic campaign was net crowned with victory it afforded splendid proof that the men of their race are equal to the Hardest tests that war can impose It is on this broad ground ih.it, the Gallipoli Star should be awarded and must be awarded if it is to worthily serve its intended purpose of commemorating a campaign in which the Imperial and Allied troops engaged earned deathless renown. A common award t for all the troops engaged-English, Indian, and French, as well as Australians and New Zealanders would best meet the case, but the Governments of Australia and Ne.w Zealand have no power to move in this direction. They have every right, however, to insist that the award shall be made to their own troops on a just basis. , a basis can only be that suggested by Mr. M.assey ; n a letter winch ho addressed to Lord Derby some time ago. His suggestion was that the star should be awarded _ to those who took part in the Gallipoli campaign, and he has since expressed a hope that in the case of the men who have fallen t the star and riband may be forwarded to their relatives. These suggestions would fully meet the case, and would eliminate the objectionable features of tho arrangement announced _by cable. Presumably, similar views are held in Australia, and it is to be hoped that the _New_ Zealand. Government, in conjunction with the Government of the Commonwealth, will forthwith make such representations to the Imperial authorities as are necessary to secure the amendment of the ill-considered and unsatisfactory proposal made by the War Office,