Anzac Day on Nauru

From a Special Correspondent

Nauru, Apr. 29

OVER 70 per cent, of the male Euro pean population of this island are ex-Servicemen of Australia, New Zealand or Great Britain; and April 25 this year, was made an occasion of solemn remembrance of those Diggers who had given their lives in two World Wars.

A Shrine was constructed on the local airstrip and, in brilliant sunshine after earlier rain, ex-Servicemen, the police guard, boy scouts and the Nauruan choir formed in a square in preparation for the arrival of the Administrator. Women and children and members of the general public were accommodated under canvas.

Shortly before eleven the Administrator, Mr. M. Ridgway, and Mrs. Ridgway, ar rived. The Administrator Inspected the guard and after a short service, led by the Rev. J. Shawcross Robinson, addressed the assembly. He spoke of the men who had fallen, and made special reference to the late Administrator, Lt.-Col. F, R.

Chalmers, and his gallant comrades who had voluntarily remained behind on Nauru after the general evacuation in 1942, and who were subsequently mur dered by the Japanese. He paid tribute also to the Nauruans and Chinese who had died during the occupation and in conclusion spoke the immortal words of Lawrence Binyon: “They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”