E&OE...........
Your Eminence, Mr Mayor, Mr Prefect, my parliamentary colleague the Federal Member for this area in the Greek Parliament, Lieutenant General Andrianis, Captain Taylor, Ambassador of Australia to Greece and Ambassador of Greece to Australia, ladies and gentlemen.
The Australian war correspondent Kenneth Slessor, in a dispatch from Greece in 1941, said that the Greek spring with its piercing light, its floods of sun, its clear, sharp water and above all its exiled eucalypts reminded Australians, who had last seen their country in Fremantle, more of their homeland than any country they had seen.
This memorial honours the shared sacrifice of the young men of Greece and Australia and other allies who fought for freedom against the Nazis in 1941 in the Battle of Crete and more generally in the battles for Greece that preceded the Battle of Crete.
Two hundred and seventy four Australians died in the battle of Rethymno. Some 500 were wounded and several thousand were taken into captivity. It was a battle that was itself successful but ultimately Crete and all of Greece fell into Nazi occupation.
Ultimately after four years of occupation, the tide turned and Australia and Greece as allies, as nations sharing the same values, sharing the same commitment to personal freedom and liberty, were successful. And today I want to honour the modern friendship and affection between the people of Australia and the people of Greece.
Australians of Greek heritage play a major role in the modern Australia. And from Crete and every other part of Greece, people have come to settle in our country by the hundreds of thousands and have played a major role in shaping the modern Australia. What we in Australia, whatever our heritage may be, have in common with the people of Greece, is a commitment to freedom, to liberty and to shared values.
In celebrating our modern freedom, we must never forget the sacrifices of those who made it all possible, who gave their lives that we might have the freedom we now enjoy. We particularly remember the brave young men of Australia and Greece who died in the various Greek campaigns and particularly here on the island of Crete.
May they always rest in peace.
[ends]