OBSERVANCE OF ANZAC DAY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 186, 3 May 1940, Page 11

OBSERVANCE OF ANZAC DAY

Returned Soldiers Discuss Change CHARGE OF HYPOCRISY MADE “That no change be made in the observance of Anzae Day” was a remit adopted yesterday by the annual conference of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association. An amendment to add the words, “and that branches of the association hold no functions which are not in accordance with the spirit of Anzae Day,” moved by a delegate who said the attitude of the assoeiatln had been “damned hypocrisy, was defeated. While the proposal to adopt the remit was before the conference, Mr. G. A. Hayden (Dominion executive committee) said the attitude of the association had been utterly Illogical. “We ask the public of New Zealand to observe it as a Sunday, yet we ourselves deliberately break it,' he said. “On Anzae Day in Wellington this year we had the dawn service, services in the schools and a big service ourselves. At night I went to a concert which I enjoyed very, very much, but it was a vaudeville short’. What right have we to hold a vaudeville show? In other places we have smoke ,concerts, it we are going to pass this remit year after year it is up to us to observe it ourselves. I am very much against the present observance, but if we are going to pass this remit we should be loyal to it.” The president, Mr. Perry, M.L.C., supported the remarks of Mr. Hayden. He bad felt for a long time past, he said, that New Zealand’s observance of Anzae Day did not fit the occasion. lie was not sure it should 'be observed as a holy day. In Sydney flags were hoisted to the mastheads at noon and the rest of the day was one of pride and glorv. After all, returned soldiers in New Zealand did not observe it as a holy day, for after the parades they got together for conviviality in the spirit the diggers who had gone would, they knerti, wish them to adopt. “I think we have got past tbe time when it should be a holy day,” he said. “The general public of the Dominion do not observe Anzae Day as a holy day, and -do not want that. It should be made a day of pride and glory in the achievement of nationhood and not X day of mourning.” Mr. A. B. Fyers (Waikare) said he was sorry to hear what had been said, because the instaut the suggestion was made in the conference that a change be mafde the public would say returned soldiers wanted the change, and they did not. He asked delegates to think very seriously (before they supported a proposed change. . “If we made a mistake 15, 18 or years ago it is too late to recover that mistake?’ said Mr. B. J. Jacobs (Dominion vice-president). “If you change the observance you will destroy it altogether.” In Australian States other than New South Wales the day was observed on lines almost similar to tho.se in New Zealand. With boys whom they had been teaching about Anzae Day serving overseas a worse time for a change could not be chosen. Mr. T. A. Bishop (Western Suburbs) said they should not let the day degenerate any further. With the outbreak of war the day would have a meaning for the younger generation similar to what it had for their elders, specially if casualty lists were received. The dav did not belong to returned soldiers only, but to the next-of-kin of dead soldiers. Mr. Hayden then moved the amendment. Mr. P. J. Priest (Hastings) said the concert on Anzae night, was no different from a charity concert on a Sundaynight. Anzae Day was the only opportunity for a reunion of men in country districts, said Mr. J. W. Thompson (Morrinsvilie). Lieut.-Colonel A. Cowles ( Wellington district vice-president) said the amendment was dangerous because it would fetter branch associations.

The amendment was lost and tho remit carried unatneiided on the voices.