Fed: Ruxton rejects call for more children in marches

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Fed: Ruxton rejects call for more children in marches

CANBERRA, April 22 AAP - Anzac Day marches would turn into festivals like Melbourne'sMoomba parade if children were encouraged to march, former Victorian RSL president BruceRuxton said today.

Mr Ruxton said that while he accepted children should eventually have a presence atAnzac Day marches, the time was not yet right.

"A lot of the veterans say it's a veterans' march, not intended to be a Moomba parade,"

Mr Ruxton told the syndicated John Laws radio program.

Marches would last too long if every person marched with a child, he said.

"We can't handle it," Mr Ruxton said.

"See, what people don't understand is in Melbourne and Sydney, the march is a longmarch, three and a half hours past a given point.

"If everyone brought a kid, the march in Melbourne would last seven hours. It can't do it yet."

RSL national president Major-General Peter Phillips was reported yesterday as sayingall children should have the right to march, regardless of whether they were the descendantsof veterans and regardless of their ethnic origins.

But he later said that while the RSL's top priority was to involve and educate moreyoung people in the Anzac tradition, he did not support unhindered access to the officialparade.

Mr Ruxton said marches were already swelling with numbers.

"So they say the old veterans are slipping off the perch, well maybe, but I tell youwhat, they're coming out of the woodwork too," he said.

"They're still marching. Our march is getting bigger, not smaller."

Mr Ruxton said he agreed with a plan for children to learn about Anzacs in voluntaryprograms in which they could pass an exam to get a badge and participate in future marches.

AAP lm/daw/wjf

KEYWORD: ANZAC RUXTON