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Thus ended that drama of Gallipoli, which, although it was played many thousand miles from our Dominions, was nevertheless the greatest episode that had ever occurred in their national life.
Much was subsequently heard in England by way of criticism of the Campaign;
it is significant of the spirit spirit in which Australia and New Zealand entered upon it that no such criticism or complaint was volunteered in any responsible quarter of either Dominion, nor was it any wish of theirs that a special Commission should be appointed to inquire into what had happened.
This attitude was very far from being the result of apathy, for there were few families throughout Australasia which had not given a member to Gallipoli, and ever since the War began, the women and children of the two Dominions had toiled and saved that they might contribute all they could to the welfare of their armies in the field. It had been their hope and prayer that these might win through to their goal.
The Southern Dominions, however, owing to the normal conditions of their national life, are in the habit of risking much to gain all : their two primary industries, sheep farming and mining, depend on their acceptance of this principle, and they have learnt to accept a lost throw courageously.
Disappointment and disaster have too often visited them through drought and fire and flood to cause despair when encountered beneath the new form of War. The Dominions knew that at Gallipoli their troops had once and again approached victory, and that it was no fault of theirs that it had not been achieved.
They knew, moreover, that the value of success would have been inestimable, and that even as things were, the Anzacs had done great service to the Empire by helping to hold up a large army of Turks, which might have been employed elsewhere with disastrous effect. They had fought beside the troops of Britain and India, and out of that partnership they had forged a new bond of Imperial brotherhood. Anzac and its graves these British lands of the South regarded, and will ever regard, as their own earth. Their chagrin at what remained undone was eclipsed by pardonable pride in the much that they had been permitted to do.
For all these reasons they accepted the Evacuation with resignation and without bitterness. Both before it and after, their attitude towards the War is best expressed by the words of the Prime Minister of Australia, which may fittingly conclude this volume:
"The heroic and vigilant spirit which inspired our soldiers in Gallipoli has kindled a fire of patriotism which neither time nor danger can quench. The British race is being tried in the furnace. For us in Australia, saved by the British Navy from the awful horrors of war upon our own soil, this is our hour of trial, too. We must do our part, cost what it may, for this is the parting of the ways.
The war is a war of ideals - a war for
liberty - a war against military despotism - a war against war - a war for everything which we here in Australia hold dear; it is a war for that liberty for which our forefathers fought, suffered and died, for liberty to work out our own lives and to work out our national destiny, for liberty without which mere material prosperity is as dry husks.
And, for this, we must fight; no people ever won liberty unless they themselves struck the blow, and no nation can ever retain it save by readiness, if necessary, to die for it. We must fight with all our souls and with all our strength for this
glorious land of Australia upon which Nature has showered her gifts in rich profusion, and which has led the world in democracy. It is for Australia and for liberty we fight, and, inspired by the spirit of this our dear land, we go forth resolved to conquer."
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