Remembrance Day [11 November 1946]

[Editor: An article published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1946.]

Remembrance Day

For 27 years November 11 has been observed as “Armistice Day” in commemoration of the ending of the First World War, but this year, in accordance with arrangements for future observance approved by the King, British countries have substituted the Sunday before November 11 as “Remembrance Day” for annual commemoration of the sacrifices of both wars. Although the actual dates of the respective capitulations of Germany and of Japan last year have not impressed themselves so deeply upon the public mind as did “the eleventh day of the eleventh-month” of 1918, the late war naturally tends to overshadow the earlier conflict which is already beyond the personal recollection of many people.

Since by general agreement it was regarded as fitting that the Empire’s dead of both struggles should be remembered together, there was every reason for establishing the annual commemoration on a day as near as possible to that already hallowed among British people for more than a quarter of a century. The fight for human justice and dignity against German aggression through the two wars was essentially one. Those who laid down their lives in the resistance against Hitler died for the same cause as their fathers did against the Kaiser, and indeed by 1939 the armistice of 21 years before had come to have a new significance. The peace earlier supposed to be assured was illusory; the enemy recovered and resumed his aggression in a bid for world dominion. Therewith is added for the renamed annual ceremonies of observance an additional injunction upon our people “lest we forget.”

Source:
The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 11 November 1946, p. 2