HOMAGE TO DEAD

Hokitika Guardian, 2 December 1931, Page 6

HOMAGE TO DEAD

MEMORIAL AT PORT SAID

ANZACS’ SERVICE. IN EAST,

WELLINGTON, November 29

The memory of all the Australians anti New Zealanders who fell in Egypt, ►Sinai, Pates tine, and Syria" during the ‘tineat NVar 'is to be perpetuated by the erection of an imposing monument on tlie banks of the 'Suez On nail at Port Said. The memorial will stand on a site provided by the Port Said municipality in conjunction with the Suez Canal Company. The sit©, which is in the public gardens, is unrivalled among war memorial sites, as it commands the entrance to the Suez Canal ait Port ■Said, on the main artery of the British Empire, and will be seen at close quarters by all passengers going ltd and from Great Britain and India and Australia and New Zealand.

The Australian and New Zealand troops in the field subscribed £5,400, to which tlie Australian Government added £9,600, and the New Zealand Government 2,000, making a total of £17,000 for the memorial.

UNCOMPLETED TASK. .Competitive designs were invited from sculptors, architects, and others of British nationality permanently resident in Australia and New Zealand and from Australian and New Zealand sculptors and architects beyond the seas. Mr C. Webb-Girbert’s design, a bronze group on stone pedestal, was selected, but he had not half completed hi'Sdask "when he died suddenly in 1925. Arrangements were then made by the Australian Government with Sir Bertram MacKennal, for the completion of ■the whole of the sculptural group as originally designed. Unfortunately, Sir Bertram died suddenly on October 11th last, leaving the work still unfinished, but in a saitisfactory position.

The pedestal and base in Australian stone have been erected by the agency of the Imperial War Graves Commission on tlie site at Port Said. All models for the structural group are out of the sculptor’s hands, the last having been dispatched to tlie founder by Sir Bertram MacKennal on the morning of his death. The work of the founder is now well in hand, and it is anticipated that the group will he erected and in position in Egypt at about Easter, 1932.

ORIGIN OF IDEA. The Minister for Defence, Hon. J. G Cobb©, mentioned yesterday that shortly after the battle of Romani in 1916, a suggestion was made that a memorial be erected by the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division, more Commonly known nos the Anzac Mounted Division, to their comrades who lost their lives in the Sinai campaign. The matter was taken up warmly in the division and a representative committee formed. It was originally intended that the memorial he erected at Kantara, where the division crossed the Suez Canal on April 23rd,. D,JS. but this site was discarded for two reasons, firstly, that Kantara was to become a great military base and tliii site would be required for wharves, etc., and, secondly, in times of peace it would rarely been seen a s all passenger ships pass Kantara during the night. It was therefore decided to place it at Port Said, close to the entrance to the Suez; Canal and facing the east, and the “Darb-el-Sultani” (th-' Road of Kings), the road by which all ancient and modern armies from Egypt had marched to the conquest of Palestine and Syria.

As the campaign progressed and other Australian and New Zealand formations were organised, it was decided to expand the movement in order to include the Australian Mounted Division, the Australian Flying Corps, the Anzac Battalions of the Imperial Camel Corns, and all other Australian and New Zealand units or formations serving in that campaign.