Fed: Australians to stop to commemorate Anzac Day

AAP General News (Australia)
04-24-2004
Fed: Australians to stop to commemorate Anzac Day

EDS: Contains material embargoed until 0001 AEST, April 25



By AAP Correspondents

SYDNEY, April 24 AAP - In every Australian town and city, and on the battlefields on
which Australians have fought from World War I to today, the Anzac spirit will be remembered
and honoured tomorrow.

Prime Minister John Howard has used his Anzac Day message to express gratitude to Australians
who fought for their country and to honour Australian military personnel serving overseas,
especially those in Iraq.

"Our veteran ranks are diminishing with every passing year, but the spirit of Anzac
continues to strengthen its hold on the affections of the Australian people," he said.

Mr Howard said the Australian troops who landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on April
25, 1915, had come to symbolise the struggle of a hopeful nation starting to make its
way in the world.

"The honour of their deeds and those who fought in later conflicts helped to shape
the destiny of a people who value decency and mateship, who strive for fairness and stand
up for what is right, whatever the cost," he said.

Mr Howard paid tribute to Australian Defence Force personnel who are serving overseas
in the Solomon Islands, Iraq and East Timor and to those who took part in the war against
terrorism in Afghanistan.

"Special honour is reserved for our soldiers, sailors and air force men and women in
the Gulf who, in the best traditions of the Australian military, continue to bring credit
to our country by helping liberate the oppressed people of Iraq," he said.

One of only six surviving World War I diggers is expected to join the hundreds of thousands
of Australians commemorating Anzac Day, with dawn service ceremonies, marches and a beer
or two, and a game of two up.

Marcel Caux, 105, is likely to take take pride of place in a chauffeured Jeep at the
head of the Sydney march. Mr Caux was wounded three times on the Western Front.

Meanwhile, thousands of Australians are expected to defy the government's travel advice
and make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli to commemorate Anzac Day.

Defence Minister Robert Hill will represent Australia at the ceremony and deliver the
main address, to remember not only the 8,709 Australians, 2,701 New Zealanders and 86,692
Turks killed in Gallipoli in 1915, but every other force represented.

Sunday also has special significance in France, where close to 50,000 Australians died
in the Great War.

West Australian premier Geoff Gallop and 12 schoolchildren from his state will attend
services at the town of Villers-Bretonneux on the old Western Front.

In Britain, a crowd of several thousand is expected at the first dawn service to be
held at the new Australian War Memorial in Hyde Park Corner in London.

Following the dawn service wreaths will be laid at the cenotaph in Whitehall and Westminster
Abbey will hold its annual Anzac Day service, the only occasion for which the church closes
to the public on a Sunday.

In Asia, ceremonies will be held from Thailand's western Kanchanaburi province, along
darkened bush tracks at the Death Railway site through to the war graves cemetery in Malaysia's
Sandakan town in Sabah state.

In Vietnam, Australian veterans are gathering at the Long Tan Cross 100 km north of
Ho Chi Minh City, paying tribute to Australians killed during a conflict 30 years ago.

Hundreds of people are expected at a Papua New Guinea war cemetery to remember thousands
of Australian soldiers buried there, not far from the start of the infamous Kokoda Track
where so many of them perished.

In Indonesia, the closeknit expatriate community in Bali will gather for a dawn service
at the Australian consulate on the island, while senior diplomats including Australian
Ambassador to Indonesia David Ritchie will travel to the Commonwealth war cemetery at
Balikpapan, in Kalimantan.

The town, along with Surabaya on Java island, were sites of major battles during World
War II and during Indonesia's subsequent struggle for independence.

AAP jlw/cjh/jlw

KEYWORD: ANZAC NIGHTLEAD

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