CORRESPONDENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 26 April 1933, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE

ANZAC DAY OBSERVANCE.

(To the Editor)

Sir.—l would like to comment on the Anzac Day celebrations as carried out at present, Now, I understand that this day was set asid e to commemorate “our glorious dead” who sacrificed their lives so that civilisation should exist. If this is correct we should have more respect than to hold military displays, such as are held at present with the blare 0 f • t-runjpetg and the shooting of. guns. To me, as a returned soldier, with three years’ service, and one who lost a brother, the whole ceremony o n this memorable day seems a mockery, especially as advantage is taken of it to collect money for those who. r e ~ turned and are now down and out, and regarded with disgust by those “pat riotic” citizens wh 0 used to gush with pride as they uttered such sentences as ‘Go to the war, boy, and we will look after you when you come home.” The organisers of these military displays must know that, if fate and a cruel war had not taken those we are commemorating on Anzas Day, they v ould probably ,be in the same position as some of us who returned are today—“broke” physically, financially, and, in a lot of cases, mentally. So why remind us this day of a war we are all trying to forget. Common sen s e tells us that if we wish to honour our dead heroes we must got as far away from the actual cause' °f death as we can, and that is by holding a quiet sOi’vic e absolutely free .from militarism.

If we were honouring the memory a hero who was murdered we would certainly not do it by recalling incidents which happened at the time.

With a /war now in about the came stages of development as the ila s t one was in 1910 it seems disgraceful to think that Anaac Day should be used, {perhaps unconsciously, as a mean s of instilling the war spirit in our present day youths. I am, etc., MEMORIES.