Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1942. A TRADITION ENLARGED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1942. A TRADITION ENLARGED.

JN at all events the earlier years of what we know now to have been a period between two world wars, there entered into the observance of Anzac Day the belief, widely and sincerely held, that at a great price—a price measured in the valiant service and sacrifice of those who upheld the cause of justice and freedom in all theatres, on laud and sea and in the ail, in the war of 1914-18—the blessings of ordered peace and security had been purchased for mankind. Paying our grateful tribute to those who fought and those who died in those grim and terrible years, we believed, or tried to believe, that their service had not been given nor their sacrifice made in vain that by their valour and constancy the forces of evil had been overthrown and the way opened to a better and nobler Jut me for men. and nations.

Today, with forces of bestial aggression ravaging a large part of the world and many nations that were free brutally enslaved, we know these hopes to have been premature and to that extent ill-founded. This assuredly docs not mean that Anzac Day has lost anything of the significance it held when hope ran highest. In essence the observance 01. this (<ay, dedicated to 'memories of service and sacrifice, is an assertion of faith in true ideals of liberty and enlightened human pi tigress —ideals which more than ever must, be our beacon and guiding star now that the world is once again submerged in the horrors of almost universal war.

It was not given to the Anzacs of a quarter of a century ago and their comrades in arms to make the world safe foi democracy, but they did all that men might do to that great end and set standards which those who follow in their steps today may be proud to emulate. Like the men of the fighting forces of our own nation and others now withstanding the Axis hordes, those to whom our day of memories is dedicated were not military adventurers, seeking martial glory lor its own sake, but citizen soldiers, who gained renown in fighting solely and only 1q uphold all that they and their fellow-countrymen held and hold dear.

With the Tree nations of the world fighting once again for life, and more than life, the tradition of Anzac Day is being extended enlarged—above all in an almost illimitable field of conflict and in the mighty volume of loyal effort, in productive and industrial service, in perilous sea transport, and in a thousand other ways on which the continued existence of civilisation depends. The observance id' Anzac Day is not yet the thanksgiving of nations at peace and hoping for continued peace, but through all the conflict and shattering disorder of these times the tradition of the day extends unbrokenly. The spirit of the day is one of true service and sacrifice, ol a loyal unity of effort in defending and upholding all that is best in the life of our own nation and others. It is upon the victorious assertion and enlargement of that spirit, and of the tradition in which it is enshrined, that we must rest our hopes of peace and a better future for generations yet unborn.