Letters To Editor: 23/04/11

Precious Memorial
Recently two stories have appeared regarding the memorial oak trees planted at the former Tomoana meatworks to honour the men lost in the war. To our family's knowledge this is the only living memorial as opposed to stone epitaphs.
According to my Collins English dictionary, it reads, memorial: Serving to preserve the memory of the dead or a past event. These oak trees represent a memorial on both counts.
Perhaps it is time, as more names have been located, to look at some form of plaque to be erected before any drastic actions are taken to remove this memorial. Both stories are unclear as to the identity of the person(s) or company contemplating the oaks removal and these servicemen have a living brother, sisters, nephews, nieces and grand nephews and nieces who are very concerned about the current events. The memorial maybe only a small number of gallant men's memory but a very precious one to their families.
These men went away and fought for the freedom we now enjoy and paid for it with their lives. With Anzac Day upon us will the decision-makers be paying their respects along with the family at dawn by saying, "We will remember them".
Charles Houston and family of William Earl Houston, one of the fallen honoured by this memorial. Hastings
War memories
Anzac and Victory Day in the UK hold significance.
I was born in 1938 in the village of Matfield near Tunbridge Wells on the Kent and Sussex border, known as doodle bug alley. The 2000lb V1 flying bomb was nicknamed the doodle bug. More fell in the corridor than on London.
Matfield is near Chartwell House where the War Cabinet sat.
We were ringed by Battle of Britain airfields from which NZ squadrons flew. There are various versions of how the V1 came to be called doodle bugs. I can relate to NZ airmen likening the sound of the V1 pulse jets to the chirping of cicadas in NZ.
Although I was only 7 when the war ended, I can still remember laying on the village green watching dog-fights. We slept in dugouts and coal cellars with other children, our mothers watching over us as enemy bombers and doodle bugs passed overhead with ack ack guns pounding away.
I served in Persian Gulf and Cyprus hotspots after the war.
It is pleasing many young people turn out for Anzac Day services. Many who died were young, like the 21-year-old killed at Passchendaele in World War I who is remembered at the Kennedy Rd entrance into Nelson Park. Lest we forget.
Derek Williams
Napier One people
Mr Wise's letter (Hawke's Bay Today, April 11) seems rather fanciful in drawing attention to Professor Higgins, morris dancers and a different anthem to rally people to an unnamed cause. Without mentioning it, Chicken Little and his concern for the sky falling is also raised.
In terms of providing some comment to his misgivings, the use of the term "us", whether his or the paper's does not in my mind equal any referral to the British Empire or the Union Jack, though it is noted that New Zealand's flag has a corner devoted to it.
All of these matters whilst interesting in terms of a response, say little at all over my basic concern for having a New Zealand society that has one law for all and where no special treatment for a select group of people occurs. Surely by 2011 we have moved beyond being stuck in colonial events and sentiments expressed by Mr Wise. Despite the many backgrounds that represent New Zealand society today, we should be 'one country and one people' where the use of "us" is an inclusive community!
A Thomas
Taradale