West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Thursday 24 April 1924, page 10


FREMANTLE WAR MEMORIAL

Decision of the Committee.

, To consider what steps abooU be taken in regard to the use of the money* raised by the committee of Franantle citizens in connection whh, the proposal

to erect a war memorial on Monument Hill, a special ?meeting of the committee was held yesterday afternoon. Mr. F. E., Gibson was voted to. the chair. The question, of the committee ^standing m a. protest . agaicst . the . apathy of the citizens in the matter of satacripttcos had been debated- at the previous meeting of the committee, bat action «toag those lines was not taties yesterday. After, a lengthy discussion it was decided unanimously to proceed with the erection of the memorial as far as the foods collected' would permit. About half of the total amount of £7,000 required has been -either, sobscribed or promised, and the mnncipal council has spent half of its contribution of £1,000 upon the work of laying out the grounds and nreparinx the ^jte for the memorial. Mr. J. W. Bateman-.wb# resigned from the committee because ot his disappointment regarding the poor response of the shipping and commercial interests, was present by invitation. Mr. W. Watson, MJ3.R., expressed few disappointment that the appeal had not met with a. more liberal response from some sections of the public, but he understood that the committee was bound t» go ahead with the project. He urged the committee to remain united and tt-see the matter through t» finality. Tb«« commute* .regretted the circumstances which had caused Mr. J. W. Bateman h» resign because Mr. Bateman was first to move in the matter of having nomethin* done to commemorate the woric'of the faBen men. The mothers of the men had srated clearly that they would Mke the memorial to be erected npon Monument 1IUL He had thought that tie people of Fremantle would have been only toa willing to show their gratitude to those who had sacrificed their lives, bat it appeared that there were many who would not contribute towards the erection of the memorial. 'He considered that the committee should proceed with the -erection of the memorial as Car as the funds in hand would permit. Mr. J. W. Bateman «aid that he was anxious that the whole of the subscribers should be consulted before anything was done. . ? ?

Mr. H. E. J. Foreman aaid that Mr. Watson had a great deai more faith in the citizens thsn he had, if it was considered that the partial erection of the; memorial would result in the collection of: the remainder of the money y There was no feeEng of sacrifice or gratitude so far as the wealthy people of Fremantle were concerned. Without going outside the State for examples, Perth had made no move to erect * war memorial until Sir James Mitchell had taken up the matter, and the people of Subiaco had failed to subscribe tue amount necessary for a far smaller memorial 'than that proposed for Fremantle. , . (Mr. Watson: Subiaco has a memorial. . Voices: Tbe municipal council subscribed, two-thirds of the money when it was apparent that the' amount, could not be raised by public subscription. Mr. Foreman . said that if it was decided to proceed' with the erection of the memorial and it. remained unfinished for want of -funds, it would be a monument .to the disgraceful neglect of the. people of Fremantle.' Mr. £. H. Fothergill questioned whether the committee would atitance further towards its goal unless it made use of the money already subscribed. Mr. S. Thomson said that the committee had a mandate from a public meeting to proceed with the work of the erection of . a memorial. He believed that the commencementof the work of constructing the memorial would be an incentive . to many people to ' contribute to the funds- . The chairman-moved that; the. committee should- approach Messrs. Allen and Nicholas, architects, who have undertaken to. supervise, the erection of the memorial gratuitously-, with the request that they secure estimates of the cost of the erection . of the memorial, that the work be carried out as far as the money collected would permit, that the foundation stone be laid on Armistice Day, and that the committee continne its '.efforts to raise the neeesury funds to complete the memorial. 'Mr. .Tas. ' Shepherd seconded the motion,' which waa carried without a dissentient..