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Hokitika Guardian, 18 September 1933, Page 4

Dtjiuno a visit- to a British war cemetery in France, Lord Hailsham, Secretary of State- for War, said: “To many "this has become an annual pilgrimage. To -others it may he their first visit. I hope that all may take away the feeling of assurance that the graves of those they care for are being worthily tended and watched. As 1 have passed down the front from Abode to Thiepval it lus se.med to me that while there has been the same central feature common to all, each cemetery has -a certain individuality of its own, hut that in every one there is a reverent solicitude accorded to each resting place which must make each one feel that their own .particular grave is receiving a cr.ro and attention at least equal to any which could be given at home, and that its presence in a war graves cemetery gives to it assurance cf a permanent attention which nothing else could afford. 1 am glad to notice sons coming out to visit their fathers’ memorials. I could wish

more would follow their example. They would learn something of the gratitude which is felt by the people of Belgium and France. They would realise fetter the conditions under which their fathers fought and the c-auve for which they died. They would understand that a recognition of the horrors of war, of which these countless thousands of dead and missing are perhaps the most terrible, is in no way inconsistent with an intense pride in the ideals which led their fathers to make the supreme sacrifice and in the courage and endurance with which they faced dangers. To the French and Belgian peoole I should like to express our gratitude for the sites so freely given, for the welcome so generously accorded and to add my profound conviction that the sacrifice our nations have shared constitue a. bond which time can never break.”