"LEST WE FORGET"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 40, 10 November 1937, Page 4

"LEST WE FORGET"

Observance of Armistice Day To-morrow MEMORIES OF WAR Ever since November 11, 1918; when the guns of the armies of the world ceased for a brief space to sound, all the inhabitants of all the countrie® who took part in the struggle have remembered the occasion at the same hour of eaeh anniversary. To-morrow morning at 11 o'eloek, New Zealand will remember its. dead by the observance of the two minutes' sitotice Of Armistice l Day, and as the clock moves on, this silence will be repeated by the people of other lands, round the circle of the globe. The original Armistice. Day ;i'S but 19 years away — its memory still green in the minds of the majority of the people. The first Armistice Day was one of hilarious, almost hysterieal rejoicing. In the Empire 's capital, and in every city, town^ and village and the Empire, in France,' Italy, Germany, the United States, Au'stria, and other combatant nations, the prevalent thought was that the wholesale bloodshed of the past four years had ceased at last; that those relatives and friends who were still living would continue to live and to return. The War was over.

It was not until later that the first anniversary of the cessation of hostilities brought bitter memories. The rejoicing was then all over. Able and disabled ex-servicemen had returned, doffed their" nnif orms, and many "of them were vainly trying to find a place in a world whieh had no further use, for them. The remainder of the world was feverishly trying to forget that there had been a war. Away in many foreign lands were row upon row of white wooden crosses. Two reasons stand ont for the eontinued observance of a memory which must be painf ul to * many. One is a sentimental reason: that it is after all but a small thing to honour the dead who sacrificed all at the* call of 'duty. The other is more important: that by keeping fresh in the memory of the people, and of teaching to the younger generation which has never known war, the misery, horror. and waste oi war, there may result a substantial strengthening of the movement toward peace — that there may be no more war.