Bones have reportedly been unearthed - some cut into two - by roadworks being undertaken in Gallipoli.

Road crews have been widening Second Ridge Road, which runs along what was the "no man's land" between ANZAC and Turkish troops during World War I, and is now an unmarked grave for thousands of soldiers, the ABC said.

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see toon at top...

Anzac Gallipoli gatherings misguided, Keating says

By Antonette Collins

Former prime minister Paul Keating says he thinks it is misguided for people to gather each year at Anzac Cove to commemorate the landing at Gallipoli.

Speaking at a book launch in Sydney, Mr Keating said Australia's decision to go to Gallipoli was influenced both by loyalties to Great Britain and a desire to become more independent.

He said while Australia wanted to prove itself to Great Britain, the nation also resented being dragged into a war which did not threaten it or its people.

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I agree with Mr Keating... We're overdoing the commemorations at Anzac Cove when we should quietly remember those who died there, with the mindset not to repeat the same mistake again... Which we've been doing again with albeit far less casualties under the Liberals aligned with George Bush... We should also remember the useless killing fields of Vietnam by accepting the soldiers, who bravely fought there, with open arms. Their battles were not in vain should we believe in peace and no more wars.

From Alan Ramsey, SMH...

The words, by email from Keating's office, were headed simply: "PJK rebuttal of K. Rudd's remarks on Gallipoli." Here is the full text:

"The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said today that I was wrong to reject the popular view that Australia was redeemed at Gallipoli. I should have thought the Prime Minister might have noticed I have spent most of my political life rejecting so-called popular views. A political leader's true task is to interpret events and reality to a conscientious nation. It is not to wallow in jingoism in the hope this might find some harmony with an old chord.

read the full text... see toon and comment above.

From the BBC

There has been an angry reaction in Australia after television producers cast a Caucasian man in the role of a Chinese-Australian war hero.

Billy Sing was a hero of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, but a TV drama has him cast as a white man.

The producers say they could not find a 60-year-old Chinese actor to play Billy Sing's father, so both parts will be played by white actors.

They have been accused of re-writing Australian history.

Billy Sing was known as the "Gallipoli assassin", the son of a Chinese man and English woman, who became a hero of the Australian forces during World War I by killing more than 200 enemy troops.

The recipient of a Distinguished Conduct medal, his memory is cherished within the Chinese-Australian community.

That's why there's been such an angry reaction to the decision of the producers of the television mini-series, The Legend of Billy Sing, to cast a white man in the lead.

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A Liberal National Party candidate proposed an essay competition for high school students with a trip to Gallipoli as the prize. I can't think of anything worse.

First, there is already a similar competition called the Simpson Prize for an essay about Gallipoli. This encourages students to recycle all the tired, jingoistic falsehoods and cliches like ''it was the birth of our nation'' or ''it was our baptism of fire''.

And it produced the breathtakingly false finale to one prize-winning essay that ''the Anzacs ran up that beach for our freedom'' and ''they gave their todays for our tomorrows''. No, they didn't. No one threatened our freedom in World War I, least of all the Turks. And although it would be nice to think that the senseless sacrifice of some 9000 Australians served some useful purpose, I cannot see what it was.

The trouble is that competitions like this glorify war as some sort of noble adventure when recent events in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan show us that, in fact, we get involved in other nation's illegal, squalid and immoral invasions based on lies and led by the vanity of tough-talking politicians who do not have to fight themselves.

Monday night's Four Corners confirmed our suspicions that our SAS in Afghanistan are simply a secret death squad indiscriminately killing friend and foe and showed conclusively that we are not fighting terrorism. We are the terrorists.

If glorifying Gallipoli encourages anyone to admire Australia's illegal and immoral military adventures then it is definitely best we forget.

David Lewis Hervey Bay

Western Australian playwright and screenwriter Alan Seymour, best known for his play The One Day of the Year, has died in Sydney at the age of 87.

One of the first prominent critiques of the jingoism of Anzac Day celebrations, The One Day of the Year premiered in Adelaide in 1960, sparking controversy for its writer who received death threats.

The play later became a staple of the Australian school curriculum.

Born in Fremantle in 1927, Seymour worked as a radio announcer in Perth after leaving school at 15. Following a brief spell as an advertising copywriter and film critic for ABC radio, he began writing drama for the ABC in Sydney.

Swamp Creatures, Seymour’s first professional play for the theatre, was a finalist in the Observer’s annual play competition in 1957 and took him to London where he had a busy career writing at the BBC. His credits there included Frost in May, House of Eliott and the much loved children’s television adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In Australia his screen adaptations included The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay, and the 1988 TV movie Tudawali about the life and times of Aboriginal actor Robert Tudawali.

In 1995, Seymour returned home for good, settling in Sydney where The One Day of the Year was revived in 2003 by Sydney Theatre Company. It continues to be performed by amateur and professional companies across the country.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/mar/24/alan-seymour-playwright-and-screenwriter-dies-aged-87

See toon at top and other places on this site referring to "Gallipoli"...