The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Alan Griffin, today welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to holding an annual Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux in France. “I had the privilege of giving the commemorative address at the first Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, last month,” Mr Griffin said. “That morning I acknowledged that to a certain extent, Gallipoli had overshadowed Australia’s involvement in the battles of the Western Front, particularly the immense losses our relatively small nation sustained there. An Anzac Day Dawn Service is an appropriate commemoration of the sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of Australians who served on the Western Front and the more than 46,000 who did not return home. I look forward to working with the local French authorities and my Department to make the 2009 Anzac Day service, and future services, every bit as memorable as this year’s service,” Mr Griffin said.