History in the balance

Attention the Mayor of Casey Geoff Ablett and Deputy Mayor Amanda Stapledon.
Letters printed in the News on Thursday 3 April, see page 6, in support of the Allied invasion of Turkey in 1915 by Richard Bailey and John Howard fail to answer the most important questions about the Great War and Anzac Day commemorations.
Australian historian Robert Bollard, however, in his book In The Shadow Of Gallipoli does ask the key questions that have been deliberately concealed behind the historical amnesia of some writers and the annual Anzac commemoration propaganda from some public officials.
What, for instance, did the Turks ever do to us?
How in particular did they threaten our freedom? Why did we have to land on an obscure beach on the other side of the world to become a nation?
More importantly, why did we have to sacrifice so much of a generation of young men to achieve nationhood and is the abstraction worth the sacrifice?
Australia’s involvement in the Great War came with a heavy social and economic cost.
One in 24 Australians during the Great War were wounded or killed.
Despite the rantings of former Prime Minister Billy Hughes, Australian voters twice rejected military conscription (this is a reflection of strong anti-war sentiment in the community).
Moreover, anti-conscription meetings led by Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix, the Women’s Peace Movement, Tom Barker and the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World) were all well attended.
The heroic efforts of the anti-war movement and the anti-conscription leaders during the Great War should not be obscured behind xenophobia and any unbalanced annual Anzac commemoration propaganda.
I call on the Mayor of Casey Geoff Ablett, the Deputy Mayor Amanda Stapledon and Casey councillors to ensure that the commemoration of Anzac Day gives recognition to a balanced account of Australian history.
John Glazebrook,
Endeavour Hills.