Dr Jenny Macleod, University of Hull 1 NZ-UK Link Foundation Annual Lecture 2015 Remembering Gallipoli in New Zealand and beyond1 At the end of this week, Referendum One on a possible new flag for New Zealand will open. The task will be to choose between five possible designs. The preferred design will then be considered against the current flag in a second referendum in March 2016.2 In drawing up its shortlist, the panel that sifted through 10,000 suggested alternative flag designs drew up a number of criteria, which included the following. The flag should: Unmistakably be from New Zealand and celebrate us as a progressive, inclusive nation that is connected to its environment, and has a sense of its past and a vision for its future; Be a great flag [… that] has an enduring quality which will not become outdated, and will work well in all situations from celebration to commemoration; Be inclusive, in that all New Zealanders should be able to see themselves within it;3 It is a central premise of the flag consideration project that the existing flag may no longer pass this test. With its Union Jack in the corner, it speaks to the country’s strong historic links with the UK, but does not reflect its multicultural present. In particular, it is not inclusive of Aotearoa New Zealand’s proud Maori heritage. Nor is the present New Zealand Ensign unmistakably from New Zealand, given its strong similarity to Australia’s flag. Nonetheless, it remains a powerful symbol on commemorative occasions and one of the strongest lines of criticism of the mooted change has been that New Zealanders have fought and died under the current flag for more than a century.4 The question underpinning these flag referenda is ‘What do we stand for?’ The question was posed to the New Zealand people and a huge range of responses 1 An event organized by the NZ-UK Link Foundation in collaboration with the Institute of Historical Research and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. The event is part of the Being Human Festival (12-22 November 2015). The lecture was delivered on 16 November 2015 in Senate House, Malet Street, London. A video of the occasion is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqgnTnRCiI&index=38&list=PLYlXXEouA28QkeGW3- 8QOVIyxTC8LraY- 2 Flag Consideration Project, NZ Government, The NZ flag – your chance to decide (2015). Available online: https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your- chance-to-decide/ [Accessed 11 November 2015]. 3 Flag Consideration Project, NZ Government, Get to know the five flags before you rank them (2015). Available online: https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag- your-chance-to-decide/elections-pack-brochure/ [Accessed 11 November 2015]. 4 Royal New Zealand Returned And Services’ Association, Join the Fight for our Flag (2015). Available online: https://rsa.org.nz/Community/FightforOurFlag [Accessed 11 November 2015]. Dr Jenny Macleod, University of Hull 2 NZ-UK Link Foundation Annual Lecture 2015 were submitted – including this from Stacey: ‘I stand for not wasting millions on new flipen[sic] flag!’5 I’d like to reflect on the question ‘What do we stand for’ in a different way – by reflecting on some aspects of the commemoration of Gallipoli in New Zealand. On the New Zealand battlefield memorial at Chunuk Bair there is the inscription, ‘From the uttermost ends of the earth’. Tonight I wish to place New Zealand’s commemoration not at the periphery, but at the centre. Too often, the NZ in Anzac has been silent; the analysis of Australia’s memory of the campaign has been assumed to stand for two countries, not just one. Taking some cues from those criteria for a new flag, I’m going to explore what has been unmistakably characteristic of New Zealand in its commemoration, but also how it has come to pass that it has been confused with or overwhelmed by Australia’s concerns. I’m going to look at the resonance of the Union Jack in the corner of the flag by tracing how long a sense of Britishness survived in the rhetoric of commemoration before becoming outdated. I’m also going to touch on how commemoration has become more inclusive, to better reflect an experience and a meaning ‘that all New Zealanders should be able to see themselves within’. NZ in WW1 But first, a reminder of the role New Zealand forces played at Gallipoli. The New Zealanders who fought at Gallipoli were all volunteers. Commanded by the British General, Sir Alexander Godley, they formed part of the New Zealand and Australia Division, the second division of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. About 3,000 New Zealanders landed at what became known as Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915. They formed the second wave of the invading forces, and landed from around 9am onwards. Perhaps 20% of them became casualties that day.6 The New Zealand forces saw action in both sectors of the peninsula – at Cape Helles as well as at Anzac during the campaign. They were reinforced from home by the dismounted New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade a couple of weeks after the landings, and then by the New Zealand Maori Contingent in early July. The Maori Contingent was just in time to take part in a major renewed effort in the campaign. In August, a breakout from the Anzac sector was attempted. In the difficult terrain of Gallipoli it was vital to gain the three high points of the Sari Bair ridge that dominated the sector: Koja Chemen Tepe, Hill Q and Chunuk Bair. During the offensive, the Gurkhas briefly captured Hill Q, and it fell to New Zealand forces to attack and hold Chunuk Bair. The man who led them was 5 Flag Consideration Project, What do we stand for? (2015). Available online: http://www.standfor.co.nz/ [Accessed 11 November 2015]. 6Ian McGibbon, ‘Gallipoli’, in The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History, ed. Ian McGibbon (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 2000), 194. Dr Jenny Macleod, University of Hull 3 NZ-UK Link Foundation Annual Lecture 2015 Lieutenant-General William Malone. His Wellington Battalion, with support from other British and New Zealand battalions held the summit, or ground just below it, between 8 and 10 August. Whilst they did so, they gained a brief view of the Narrows of the Dardanelles on the other side of the peninsula. It was a beguiling sight that must have made victory seem within their grasp. During the battle Malone and many of his men were killed. The Ottomans also suffered important losses, and in the reorganisation of their command structure that took place as battle raged, Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal was put in charge of the area. Some hours after the exhausted New Zealand forces were relieved by an inexperienced New Army battalion, the Lancashires, Kemal struck the decisive blow. He personally crept forward to launch 16 battalions into the attack, and succeeded in sweeping the British and New Zealanders from their toeholds on the Sari Bair ridge. Chunuk Bair is known in Turkey as Kemelyeri (Kemal’s place).7 Although it was not immediately apparent the loss of Chunuk Bair marked the failure of the August Offensive. The failure of the August Offensive signalled the failure of the Gallipoli campaign. Five months later, the peninsula was evacuated. It is difficult to say how many New Zealanders served at Gallipoli, but we know that 2,700 of them died at Gallipoli, including 50 Maori. NZ commemoration The first commemorations of the New Zealanders’ service and losses at Gallipoli took place on the first anniversary of the landings on 25 April 1916. They were held here in London, and across New Zealand. In reflecting on these commemorations and how they evolved during the 1920s and 30s, I want to concentrate, to begin with, on those aspects that were ‘unmistakably’ from New Zealand. It will be seen that many of the activities were shared with Australia, but the tone, the emphases, and the meanings attributed to them were distinctive.8 In towns and cities across New Zealand there were marches of returned men and services of remembrance.9 And we can trace what was said at them and what was written about them through the extensive available newspaper coverage – in editorials, and through the reported sermons, prayers and speeches. Indeed, churches and religious or spiritual sentiment in general, figured much more prominently in New Zealand’s Anzac Day than they did in Australia where similar events were also held across the country. Anzac Day 1916 was a newly minted 7 Peter Hart, Gallipoli (London: Profile Books, 2011), 321–5; Sean McMeekin, The Berlin- Baghdad Express : The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power, 1898-1918 (London: Allen Lane, 2010), 187. 8Margaret Harris, ‘Anzac Nations; Creation Myths, Expressions, and Anxieties’ Master of Arts thesis (University of Chicago, 2012), 18. 9 For further details, see Maureen Sharpe, ‘Anzac Day in New Zealand: 1916 to 1939’, New Zealand Journal of History 15, no. 2 (1981): 97–114. Dr Jenny Macleod, University of Hull 4 NZ-UK Link Foundation Annual Lecture 2015 tradition, which drew upon the established format of a military funeral.10 Its hymns, prayers and benediction will have had a comforting familiarity and a consoling message of sacrifice and redemption. It also reflects the importance of the church within New Zealand that the difficulty of agreeing on combined ecumenical services was a particularly vexed feature in the preparations for the day.