THE Pukekohc and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1915 THE ANZAC CAMPAIGN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 128, 5 January 1916, Page 2

THE Pukekohc and Waiuku Times

PUBLISHED MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND FRIDAYS.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1915 THE ANZAC CAMPAIGN.

The Official Organ of . The Franklin County Council. The Pukekohe Borough Council. The Tuakau Town Board. The Karaka Eoad Board. The Pokeno Road Board. The Wairoa Eoad Board. The Papakura Towu Board. The Waikato Eiver Board. Tho Mercer Town Board.

" )Yc natk'wj extenuate, nor net dvivn auaht in malice."

The withdrawal of the British lorces ironi oulsa Day and Anzac bringr to a close the phase of the war with which New Zealand bag been most closely associated. It is the end of a splendid failure, of an heroic enterprise, initiated with a dash and devotion that electrified the Empire and sustained with a persist ;ncc and a valour that have won for colonial troops an even greater name than would have been theirs it success had crowned their first brilliant rush. This is not the time tu estimate the value of the service that wss rendered to the Empire at Ar.zac. The landing of Ihe Australasians was part of an enterprise, greatly conceived, whicb at one stagp, according to a statement that had oflicidl authority, was witlun a law hours, or a taw miles, of complete success, Blunders in the execution, that canr.ot now bo discu?sed, converted it into a tragic lailure, involving heavy losses to some of the finest troops that were ever mobilited. It is not for us to criticise the operations or to question the wisdom of the military authorities. Our men were placed unreservedly at the service the Empire, and ali that con-

cerns us at t'ne present is that they discharged ths duty assigned to them with Single-hearted devotion and unflinching courage. Many of them have laid down their iives in the light. These rest content on the red hills of a corner of a foregn land that little more than a year ago meant riotfci g at all to the in. They died doing their duty, and it the story of the Gallipoli campaign makes a tngic chapter in iNcw Zealand's history, it also makes a glorious one. In the history of the war the epis.de will be dijmi sad, perhaps, as one of the costly futilities, hut even the severely practical and coldblooded critic of tli2 future neec's must spare a sentence for the personal aspect of the struggle. And it is not so certain that the campaign will have to be written oil' as lutile. It i:.ay have been political in conception -as lo that we have h;'> yet no fositivc intormation but the dec'?i"ii that sent the Aut: Iraliana and New Zcalatiders to the [icr ini-u 1 > must have been based on :=lrung argument;-, and though the lailurc ot the effort to reach Constantiinplc may seem to imply i eondemua! ion of the logic it the rc?: : oti!ng, we have still to learn certain of the tacts without which an estimate ; ; 1 the value ot the campaign is impc;:siblc.