TRIBUTE TO DEAD HEROES.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1916, Page 6

TRIBUTE TO DEAD HEROES.

ANZAC'S HOLY GROUND. Speaking at St. Matthew's Church, Auckland, on Sunday, Colonel W. E. Gillam, who arrived by the Maheno, on which he was senior chaplain, said that when the hospital ship anchored for tho first time in Ansae the staff on board received the shock of their lives. They had all supposed that, after months of fighting, the British troops would have made their way a considerable distance inland. Instead, those on board found that shrapnel was bursting and Bhots were falling on the very spot where the gallant Australians and New Zealanden first landed. On one hallowed spot quite near, where the honoured dead had been buried, the. ground waß being ploughed lip by shrapnel and high explosives.

"When I think of the noble dead who were, lying Ihere," said Colonel Gillam, "and of the thousands who were lying buried in the gullies and unburied on the hilltops, T was determined that when I entered this pulpit my first words would be to pay a tribute to the gallant men who made the supreme sacrifice there. We must never let their glory fade."

One wondered that any British soldier got there at all, he added, and he was convinced that only British soldiers could have done it. "We have to pay the price. Anzac will be for all time holy ground to us. "Those men," said the speaker, "died for you and for me, to make our homes secure, for the honour of the land we inhabit; they died to preserve our liberty and the honour of the Empire we serve." Continuing, he said he supposed that they had got over the illusion that the war would be short, sharp and decisive. In the long immunity from war which they had experienced they thought the war between great civilised nations could be averted by diplomacy. They now realise how futile it was. On August 4, 1914, came the call to arms and the demand for sacrifice. They were proud to know what New Zealand ,and other colonies had done. New Zealand was among the first to answer the call. They saw the boys marching down Queen Street, off to the war. They tliought they were, bound for Europe, but, instead, they were ordered to encamp in Egypt. ' They helped to repel the attack on the Suez Canal, an attack which was of much greater importance than was at first thought. The Germans said that to land at Gaba Tepe was impossible, but the British troops had achieved the impossible. The picture was quite clear before him In his mind's eye, he could see the barbed wire entanglements right down to the beach. The Australians and New Zealanders attacked, and saw nearly all their officers going down. Still they held on, and would not give in. When the Maheno arrived on the scene of operations she lost her identity and became hospital ship No. 30. Those on the hospital ships found the Australians and New Zealanders noble fellows. They proved to be brave in battle, calm, stocial and patient in suffering. New Zealanders and Australians had been drawn closer by tho ties of friendship as the result of the war than could have otherwise been the case.