THE GALLIPOLI MEDAL.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1918, Page 4

THE GALLIPOLI MEDAL.

IS IT RIGHTLY NAMED ?

A SERIOUS ANOMALY

A statement Jias been published helre, which is accepted as semi-official, to the effect that a medal is to be issued by the New Zealand and Australian Governments, with the sanction of the King, in recognition of services in Gallipoli. The Commonwealth and Dominion Governments, it is understood, will agree upon a design arid riband, which the King will'then b? asked to approve. The issue of the “Gallipoli Star,’’ as it will be called, is to be governed, it is said, by two conditions : 1. The recipient mast have participated in t'he Gallipoli campaign by actually landing on the peninsula.

2. He must have embarked in Australia or New Zealand on or before December 31, 1914..

This announcement, has* given great satisfaction^ to the Main Body and the earlier reinforcements. There is, however, a certain amount oi disappointment amongst several thousands of men w T hp bore a heavy part of the fight on Gallipoli, and in some cases spent six months or more on the peninsula, but who are nevertheless disqualified by the fact that they did not leave New Zealand before the end of 1914. ,

T understand that not a few’ men who sailed in the early days of 1915 took part in the landing at Ansae on April 25, and bore thejr full share of the campaign there, taking part in the hardest fighting of all in August and remaining until the winter .weather m November transformed the whole aspect of the fight. Let they would seem not to have earned the decoration. On the other hand, men who happened to leave New Zealand a wrnek or two earlier, and perhaps spent only a few days on Gallipoli, are qualified.

If this is really the intention, the decoratiou must be w r rongly named. Instead of being called the “ Gallipoli Star,” it should he called, like the Imperial decoration, the “ 1914 Star.”

General Godley, in reply to my qnery on the subject, remarks that “ ic will he perhaps as much, or more, in the nature of a. 1914 Star for the Main Body as for those who served on Gallipoli.”