WAVE OF HOMAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 268, 12 November 1928, Page 7

WAVE OF HOMAGE.

THE EMPIRE'S FALLEN.

King Leads In Solemn Service

At Cenotaph.

WESTMINSTER PILGRIMAGE.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 12 noon.)

LONDON, November 11

From the heart of the Empire there has just radiated a mighty wave of homage to the immortal dead. The King again, in dull but fine weather, led the great service at the Cenotaph, but this time the congregation was Empire-wide, for the ceremony for the. first time was broadcast and heard by means of special installations in churches throughout Britain, and even by little groups gathered round a simple village cross. While Guards' bands played, detachments from the services, ex-servicemen, and men and women of the choir from the Chapel Royal, supplemented by the Westminster Abbey choristers, took up positions in Whitehall. Then, solemnly, the King placed a wreath on the Cenotaph, followed by the Duke of York, representatives of the services, and the British Dominions' Governments. Among the last-named was Sir James Parr, on behalf of New Zealand. On the first stroke of eleven from Big Ben sounding, trumpeters of the Royal Air l'orce sounded the "Last Post." The hymn, "0 God Our Help in Ages Past," was sung and a service, conducted by tho Bishop of London, followed, ending with the Reveille and the National Anthem. It is estimated that the crowd was greater than ever due to the ceremony falling on a Sunday. Then followed the great pilgrimage past the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey culminating at seven in the evening with a remembrance festival at Albert Hall, organised by the British Legion, which the King and Queen attended. The festival ended with the familiar "Last Post" and "Reveille." Admiral Jellicoe gave the keynote to the gathering in an impressive appeal to the vast assembly to renew its pledge to keep the spirit of comradeship which had won the war and also, while working unceasingly for peace, ensure that such horrors were never repeated.

NO ARMISTICE DAY. j ■ . 1 Germany Tries To Forget War ' Spirit. j j " PRUSSIANISM" DESTROYED, j ] (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) i BERLIN, 'November 11. | The tenth anniversary of the Armistice finds Germany totally disinterested. The day the Germans remember as marking the end of the Avar is not November 11, 1918, but November 9, when the old order was swept away and the Kaiser fled to Holland. To a few disgruntled Nationalists it is tlie most ignominious day in German history, but for the remainder it signals an opportunity to work out their own salvation without further assistance from "Divine grace." Thus to-day Berlin is brilliantly aglow , and proceeds with a merriment rivalling ; the carefree behaviour seen in London before the war. Ten years after the i Armistice the war is an old, forgotten memory. The glittering Imperial parades have been replaced by the desire for new commerce and finance, new uses of machinery, and all modern ways of making the land prosperous and wise. Germany would rather be second at the Olympic Games than first in another armament race. The Germans got all wrought up over defeating tho Aus tralians at tennis, but talk to them of a new gigantic army, and they will give a disgusted look and go on singing and drinking good beer. In Germany now the people are a political power. The last elections were a reflex of their unanimous view that v:ar is down and out. For this amazing change they look to President Hindenburg, now a most ardent advocate of the Republic. Everywhere the Germans declare, "By winning the war you broke up Prussianism and destroyed the soldier. Education gave the Germans a chance to discover the rottenness of military glory." The same spirit is seen in the younger generation. They are not dreaming secret dreams cf glory, instead, they are playing games. There are still embittered Monarchists who now and again are allowed to parade. It is no more than a parade of wooden soldiers. Everywhere to-day, a decade after the Armistice, there is growing prosperity, and complete absorption in all the benefits of peace. The Germans, freed from military tyranny, find the pipe of peace pleasant to smoke as they drink their Munchener. "Little Willie" is now a grey-haired man, approaching fifty, a figure of tragedy. The man who spent his impressionable years expecting to rule a vast empire was suddenly turned without warning, into a very ordinary citizen, whose main recreation is driving a sports car at 170 kilometres an hour.

Ihe completeness of his fall was shown recently, when he and the Princess were attending the opera in pouriug rain. They had to stand aside while the car of Frau Stresemann (wife of the Foreign Minister) was brought to the door of the Opera House, whereas the Prince and Princess were obliged to walk and search for a car in the downpour. The Crown Prince treated the matter as a joke, but the Crown Princess was deeply resentful. Germany doesn't care how resentful she was, or how wet.