Fed: Transcript of PM s speech at Gallipoli

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2000
Fed: Transcript of PM s speech at Gallipoli

CANBERRA, April 25 AAP - Transcript of Prime Minister John Howard's address at the
dawn service, Gallipoli, Turkey.



To this ancient land the passing of 85 years must seem but an instant in time. A mere
moment in its journey towards forever. But to us it is the distance of human life. Thus
we come to this place at this hour on this day to observe not only a dawn but a dusk.

For dusk has all but fallen on that great hearted generation of Australians who fought
here. The shadows gather on a time and a world in which our nation's spirit was born.

Soon the story of ANZAC which forever joins the people of Australia and New Zealand will
pass gently from memory into history. Soon the fire struck here will be ours to tend.

Soon its record once written on pages wet with tears will be ours alone to guard, ours
to cherish, ours to live.



It is a remarkable legacy. Only now from the sheltered safety of our time can we comprehend
what was dared and done here. Only now from the vantage point secured for us by others'
lives can we see the scale and the scope of their achievement. For those young Australians
as wild and free as the land they loved, left us a creed to which we can all aspire in
the gentle years of peace as surely as in the hard and hungry years of war.



The inheritance we claim today is not a fallen sword, nor have we come to extol a warrior's
code. The respect of gallant foes and the high regard of comrades is the praise that soldiers
seek. It is not for us to give. Let them rest, far from thoughts of battle. Instead we
come to claim from them, a heritage of personal courage and initiative. Of daring and
determination in the face of overwhelming odds. A heritage that requires of each of us
a conscious decision to do what is right regardless of the resistance we meet or the fears
we hold.



We come to seek the inspiration of stories of compassion and comfort given to others
in their time of need. Knowing that there are opportunities in our own lives to ease the
burden of those suffering adversity and hardship. We come to draw upon their stirring
example of unity and common purpose. To believe that whatever our differing circumstances,
we are all companions with each of our countrymen and women and together we travel a single
path. We come to join with those that rest here in a shared love of our nation bathed
in sunlight and so blessed with bounty. We come to stand on soil rich with the lives of
our kin and vow that what they began, we will finish.



For they fought to build a nation which would stand proud and respected amongst the
free people of the world. A nation where ordinary men and women would live long lives
of happiness and fulfillment. A country where children would grow nourished by the land's
harvest and by the love of their parents. A country where prosperity and opportunity are
derived not by birth, but by endeavour. A people made independent united and free for
all time. And in the attainment of these ideals, in the keeping of a decent and responsible
Australia, in every year of peace between the nations of the world, we will build for
all those who have served and suffered in war, a monument upon which evening will never
fall.

AAP eg/bdm

KEYWORD: ANZAC HOWARD SPEECH

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