Million poppies say a nation still remembers

By AINSLEY THOMSON and NZPA

New Zealand streets will take on the hues of Flanders fields today as a million red poppies go on sale in support of war veterans.

For 80 years, New Zealanders have bought poppies to help RSA welfare funds on the Friday before Anzac Day.

The poppy is a reminder of the World War I battlefields of Flanders, where the small red flower grew in profusion.

The first recorded Poppy Day was in London on November 11, 1921, when hand-made poppies donated by French war widows were sold to aid those who had been disabled in the war.

The poppy has become the international symbol of remembrance.

This year is the 80th anniversary of New Zealand's first Poppy Day, on April 24, 1922. Then, 245,000 poppies were sold.

The poppies have been a source of controversy. Two years ago the Auckland RSA angered some people when it imported cheaper Chinese-made poppies to increase profits.

National RSA spokesman Bill Hopper said that, to the best of his knowledge, the million poppies on sale this year were all made in New Zealand.

They are the responsibility of the Christchurch RSA, and are made by widows of returned servicemen, and disabled and handicapped people in the city.