Baldwin Spencer, which recommended an "arch of victory" over St Kilda Road, the major boulevard leading out of the city of Melbourne to the south. In August 1921 an executive committee was formed, with the former commander of the Australian forces in the war, General Sir John Monash, as its driving force. The committee soon abandoned the idea of an arch and proposed a large monumental memorial to the east of St Kilda Road, a position which would make it clearly visible from the centre of the city. A competition was launched in March 1922 to find a design for the new memorial, open both to British subjects residing in Australia and any Australian citizens who were residing overseas. A total of 83 entries were submitted, and in December 1923 the design offered by two Melbourne architects (and war veterans), Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, was announced as the winner. Opposition and response: 1922–1927 The winning design had a number of supporters, including publications such as The Age and George Taylor's Sydney based trade journal, Building, prominent citizens including artist Norman Lindsay and University of Sydney Dean of Architecture, Leslie Wilkinson, and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (who had been heavily involved in the competition). Nevertheless, the design was also fiercely criticised in some quarters—especially by Keith Murdoch's Herald, Murdoch reportedly describing the Shrine as "too severe, stiff and heavy, that there is no grace or beauty about it and that it is a tomb of gloom"—on the grounds of its grandiosity, its severity of design and its expense. As part of the campaign against the Shrine proposal, the Herald searched for alternative concepts, arguing that the funds could be better spent on more practical projects such as a hospital or a war widows' home. Furthermore, some Christian churches also attacked the design as pagan for having no cross or other Christian element. The new Victorian Labor government of 1924, under George Prendergast, supported the Herald's view, and pushed for a memorial hospital instead of the Shrine. When the Labor government was replaced with John Allan's Country/National coalition, the plan changed once again, leaning towards the earlier suggestion of an arch of victory to be built over St Kilda Road. As a result of the debate, significant delays postponed the construction of the new memorial, so a temporary wood-and-plaster cenotaph was raised for the 1926 Anzac Day march. The