ANZAC DAY
Council member Richard Shallcrass shares his ANZAC day address from 1964, as a young New Zealand diplomat serving in Canberra, he had to write an address for the High Commissioner to deliver on ANZAC Day. At boarding school in Timaru, he had dutifully attended the annual ANZAC Day dawn services. Recalling the haunting lament of the bugle sounding the Last Post, it was nevertheless hard to find words to capture the sense of occasion. It is still hard today.
On ANZAC Day, we remember the awful toll of human life, that New Zealand has experienced in times of war. We acknowledge the suffering of families whose sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fought, and in many cases died, on foreign battlefields. We also salute those who did return. Their youthful years of service, in a national cause, often gave rise to lifelong emotional and physical suffering.
We also pay tribute to those who, in the wake of World War II, sought to ensure that there would never be a World War III. Their goal was a world order based on the rules of international law and diplomacy. The principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, formed a foundation for the generally peaceful and relatively prosperous world, in which our generation grew to adulthood.
So much has changed since I composed that ANZAC Day address in Australia. In the ensuing years, I served in other capitals, mostly in Asia. This included Saigon. I was there during the final phase of the Vietnam War. New Zealand’s involvement was strategic, in service of our ANZUS ally, the United States. Back in New Zealand, a new generation questioned the country’s involvement in a regional war, that in no way threatened their own way of life.
Now we have war in Ukraine and in the Middle East, further upending the world order as we have known it. In terms of both military dynamics, and global political implications, these conflicts are vastly different from the wars of the twentieth century. Drones are transforming conduct on the battlefield. On the home front, a casual pronouncement in Washington can, within hours, adversely affect the lives of ordinary citizens, anywhere on earth.
Our children and grandchildren encounter a world that is technically more sophisticated, but at best, politically and economically uncertain. On the international stage, the United Nations seems no longer fit for purpose. On the domestic front, there is a pervading sense of unease at all levels of society.
This unease will be a factor in a significant rise in recent years, in the number of young people attending ANZAC Day services. They have every reason to be concerned about the stability of the path they see ahead. To my mind, the best guarantee for the future, is to understand the past. The message of remembrance, at the core of our being together on ANZAC Day, remains as relevant now, as it was a century ago.
Lest we forget!
