ANZAC DAY ANNIVERSARY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2572, 26 April 1923, Page 2

ANZAC DAY ANNIVERSARY.

YES TE RDA Y’ S IMPR ESSI VE SERVICES.

Anzac Day anniversary services were held locally yesterday and were attended by a very large gathering of local and distiet people. In the morning a number of beautiful wreaths were placed at the foot of the Soldiers’ Memorial in the Triangle. Shortly before 2 p.m. a large number of people lined Main Street to watch the procession which was formed up near the post office and proceeded thence to the Town Hall. The order of the procession was as follows: —Combined bands (under bandmaster Colder) consisting of 33 players, Firing Party (Returned soldiers) under Sergeant Major Pea re, Returned soldiers in mufti (preceded by two of their number hearing a magnifieient wreath of 'fern, white eosmas and Michaelmas daisies) Fire Brigade, Oddfellows and Druids in regalia. The procession was marshalled and led by Air Me Murray. The stirring strains of the hand, as the procession moved along, was very inspiring. The Town Hall was filled in every part. The stage was occupied by the combined bands, which accompanied the singing. There were also on the stage, the Mayor (Mr J. Chrystall), the Revs. Walton (Anglican). McDonald (Presbyterian), Minifie (Methodist), and Ensign Huston (Salvation Army). The service opened with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by a prayer by the Rev. W. Walton.

The Mayor then briefly addressed the assemblage and referred to the necessity for keeping the memory of those who had fought and died, oreen. We were proud to belong to the greatest Empire the world had ever known, an Empire that stood for Truth, Freedom and Justice. The hymn “0 God our Help in Ages Past” was then sung. Ensign Huston then read appropriate portions of scripture from the tlOth, 91st and 40th Psalms. This was followed by the singing of Kipling’s Recessional. The Rev. Frank McDonald delivered a most eloquent address based on Exodus XII, 14. “This day shall he unto you for a memorial, and \e shall keep it a feast to the Lord, throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.” He said these words were spoken in connection with a great deliverance when, by a Divine act, a race of slaves became a free people, and a nation was born to possess and to inherit a future full of the promise of glory. It was right that such a day should be kept as a holy day. A nation that forgets its past is a nation that forfeits its future. The past is the explanation of the present, and it is an incentive for future endeavour, an inspiration for future service. A nation thal has behind it a tradition of service and sacrifice and which seeks to hold the record as a sacred trust can never fail —can never become unworthy. It is the duty, therefore, of a- people who value the higher things, who are jealous of their good name and ambitious for the future of their land to enshrine in memory the brave deed and the names of those who have accomplished it. We are met here to-day in memory of a great deliverance. We are here as those who believe that the cause in which we fought was a righteous one and a glorious one. We are here also as people who are not ashamed now to give the glory to God for victory and for peace. We acknowledge by out gathering here to-day that it wa> God who protected us in the days from weakness and unpreparedness. That He covered our heads in the day of battle and taught our hand.', to war and our fingers to fight. We realise that God was in our councils directing us and inspiring us. Marshal Foch, to whom belongs the honour of conceiving those last moves in the great struggle which, under the blessing of God, brought us victory and peace out of seeming defeat, definitely acknowledges (hat- his mind was moved and controlled by God and wo, with him, join to-day in praiseing God, our helper and deliverer, and saying in the words of the ancient Psalm: “Not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, hut to Thy name he the glory.” And as we render this our tribute anil praise to God for the deliverance He hall) brought us so wc reverently remember the courage, the labour, the pain, the sacrifice, of those who in the hour of our danger, yielded themselves to their God and to their country and to the world, to he in life or death the instruments of God’s holy will in the fight for freedom against that power which was to our world as tiie overshadowing of a, great horror and darkness and the incarnation of the very spirit of evil. We are here to remember the brave fellows who fought for us— We are here to pay our tribute to the memory of the heroic dead, who won our deliverance by the sacrifice of themselves. This day we commemorate particularly a supreme exhibition of undaunted courage in the lauding of the men of the Australian and New Zelaud forces at Gallipoli. But I take it the Anzac memorial is of wider application —it covers the heroism and sacrifice of all our men. For we cannot single out one day and one dead and say that this was more splendidly heroic than any. The courage initiatue and self-sacrifice of our men was proverbial throughout the whole period of the war and in all places where they were engaged. We are proud of our men. Proud that thy were worthy in the supreme test as they dared death to keep humanity free. By their courage and sacrifice they conferred nat-

ionhood upon us with its privileges and responsibilities. Under God they gave ns, not only our birthright which they had returned to us sprinkled with the “new sweet wine of their young lives, offered with death.” But they have set a new standard of manhood for all time before us. “Even unto death” in all that is good and brave and true must be the motto of our Nation if she is to remain worthy of her heroes. We are remembering to-day those especially who died for us. They poured out their lives that our liberties might be preserved. They sacrificed themselves for our country, for our homes and theirs, he are not our own. I say it in all reverence, for we are bought with precious blood. There is nothing that we have and hold and which is precious to us or beloved by us to-day but is splashed with the red blood of men who put their lives in jeopardy for us. T want to give one word of comfort to you who gave your best beloved in this conflict. Your sorrow and your joy none tnketii from you. Your hearts are desolate. You “sigh for the touch of a vanished band and the sound of a voice that is still.” You are partners with them in the sacrifice they made and that sacrifice was not waste. Those lives were not destroyed.. They rest from their toil, their pain, their strife, but their works abide. They live on in the new ideals of the multitude, in the present and future life of the nation they preserved from death. Robert W. Service puts these words into the month of a father who lost bis son:

“But you'll live, you’ll live, young fellow my lad, In Ihe gleam of the evening star; Tn the woodnote wild, in the laugh of the child In the beauty of things that are. And you’ll never die, my wonderful boy While life is brave and free For all of beauty and love and joy We’ll owe it to lads like you.”

And my friends, the call comes to us from the graves where our gal J hint dead are sleeping to be worthy of them. It is a call to-self-sacri-ficing service, to true brotherhood, to loyalty, to high ideals and to noble endeavour and achievement -o that our country may accomplish her glorious destiny and the world may he rid from the selfishness and materialism which are the roots of war. Our dead died to make the world safe for democracy —Now it is for us to make democracy safe for the world. To do this we must put an end to all divisions and strife. The world cannot be saved from bloodshed and war by mutual exploitation. That way is ever the red way of wrath and hate and sin. If democracy is to he safe for the world we must catch the spirit of comradeship that held our men together during the dread years of strife. As “Cook’s son, duke’s son, son of the millionaire." they fought side by side, suffered side by side, died for one another and for us all and now lie side by side in their graves in foreign lands. The peace of the world lies never in the way of strife, hut in the path of service and self-sacrifice for the commonweal. Along the line of honourable toil and heroic achievement, the way of honour and right and justice and truth and love, pur country must travel to attain her destiny. There is no other road that is safe. All other ways end in malice, hate and revenge; in sorrow, bloodshed and ruin. 'l’he last report of the world conference of Quakers concludes thus: “The roots of war can he taken away from all our lives. Day by day let us seek to remove any >oed of hatred, greed and resentment in ourselves and in the social structures about us. Christ’s way of freedom replaces slavish obedience by fellowship. Instead of selfseeking we must put service and corporation. . Fear and suspicion must give way to a spirit of understanding. Thus shall we more and more become the friends of all men.” Let us learn how to close up our ranks and work together for the common welfare. Let us make comradeship and co-operation the keynotes of our social order. It is in this way that we shall overcome the harriers of race and class and make democracy safe for the world. And it is in this way we shall best honour 0,1,1 dead, whose ideals, splashed with their life’s blood, have become our spiritual heritage, at once the inspiration of our thought and the example of our service. When this spirit of brotherhood takes possession of each of us, and of all classes amongst us and becomes the dominant spirit of our notional life we shall not have long to wait for the dawn of that day when the Prince of Love and Peace shall have the government upon His shoulders and His realm shall he established in righteousness, love and peace.” These are times for brave men who will do and dare and serve and give without reservation, so that it’s secret gospel shall become the law of men.

Passionately fierce the voice of God is pleading, Pleading with men to arm them for the fight. See how those hands, majeetically bleeding, Call us to rout the armies of the night. Not to the work of sordid, selfish saving Of our own souls to dwell with Him on high, But of the soldiers splendid selfless braving Eager to fight for righteousness or die Bread of Thy Body, give me for my fighting Give me to drink Thy sacred blood for wine

While there are wrongs that need me for the righting While there is warfare splendid and divine. The address was followed by a prayer by the Rev. Mr Minilie and the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers.’’ The Benediction was pronounced by Kev. Mr. Minitie and the audience remained standing as the Returned men left the building and proceeded to the Soldiers Memorial, where the wreath to their' f»tllen comrades was placed at the front of the memorial. The hymn “For all the Saints,” was sung, the Firing party tired the salute, and there was impressive silence as Bugler B. Wails sounded the “Last Post,”