Passchendaele exhibition goes online

A touring World War I exhibition in Featherston was officially opened, and went live to the world on Friday.
The official opening on Friday night was attended by several invited guests, including Chief of the Army Major General Rhys Jones, and Belgian Embassy attaché Sophie Hottat (who declared the exhibition open).
The exhibition - Passchendaele: The Belgians Have Not Forgotten - will run for a month at the Featherston Anzac Hall and for the first time during its New Zealand tour on Friday was also streamed live to the Internet "allowing visitors around New Zealand, and also in Belgium, to log in for a look".
Telecom has provided a broadband link to the venue at no charge and, while applauding the company for its patronage, South Wairarapa District Council Mayor Adrienne Staples also acknowledged the support from Wairarapa residents for the exhibition.
"An army of volunteers has helped with the set-up and will staff the displays while they are here, cementing our belief, this exhibition commemorating the story of our soldiers involvement
at Passchendaele, is not only
keenly anticipated but also highly valued.
"We are pleased to have been able to facilitate its showing in Featherston for our community and surrounds and also on the
Internet for visitors from afar to share."
The links between Featherston, from where 30,000 New Zealand soldiers departed for the Great
War, and the Belgium town of Messines was made official in 1975 when the two centres were internationally twinned.
Mrs Staples said the council was "honoured to host such a prestigious exhibition, further cementing the bonds between Featherston and Belgium first forged almost a century ago".
"Our connection to the Great War dates back to the Featherston Military Camp where the majority of soldiers who served then, trained before being sent to foreign shores.
"The formal twinning between Featherston and Messines 30
years ago recognised and reinforced that connection which has not
only stood the test of time but remains vitally important to both towns."
Franky Bostyn, Memorial Museum Passchendaele curator, said Featherston was a fitting venue "given the sacrifice of those men whose journey from the 'uttermost ends of the earth' began at this very point and ended in Flanders fields.
"It is thanks to these men who left there more than 90 years ago, who volunteered, they were not conscripted, these men who volunteered to come to Belgium to fight for our freedom, our democracy, that we are again one of the most prosperous areas in Europe.
"Yes, it was a waste as a battle, but if that battle had not been fought, if your soldiers had not made that sacrifice, ah the world could have looked different if Passchendaele had not been conducted."
- Passchendaele: The Belgians Have Not Forgotten is open to the public from 10am to 4pm daily. For more information please go online to www.thebelgianshavenotforgotten.blogspot.com