FUNERAL OF DULLES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28906, 28 May 1959, Page 13

FUNERAL OF DULLES

Statesmen Pay Homage (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 27. World statesmen will join in paying homage to Mr John Foster Dulles as he is given a hero's burial today. President Elsenhower will lead the nation in final tribute before the former Secretary of State is buried near the tomb of the unknown dead soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Many diplomats with whom Mr Dulles worked during his six years as Secretary of State will be present One of his foes, Mr Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister, is due to arrive here this morning to attend both the funeral service at Washington Cathedral and the burial. President Elsenhower ordered an official funeral and military honours for the man he has described as one of the greatest Secretaries of State in United States history. Seven matched grey horses will draw the coffin, mounted on a gun carriage, through the cemetery lanes. Its drums muffled, a military band will lead the procession to the grave. Guns will roar a lß r gun salute, a squad of riflemen will fire three volleys and a bugler will sound “taps” over the grave. Mr Dulles’s body lay in state for 24 hours in a small Gothic chapel in the crypt of Washington Cathedral. An honour guard was mounted at each corner of the flag-draped coffln. Wreaths of chrysanthemums, carnations and gladioli were banked against the chapel walls.

Only Mr Dulles's family and invited guests will be permitted to attend the service. The cathedral will accommodate 2818 persons. More than 200 limousines will form the procession which follows the hearse to the cemetery. The service will not be televised. but millions will be able to hear and watch the burial over television and radio.

Mr Dulles, the son of a Presbyterian minister, will be buried according to Presbyterian rites, but services are being held at the cathedral, a protestant Episcopal institution, because it Is larger. The cathedral is frequently made available to other Protestant denominations. His son Avery, who embraced Roman Catholicism and who is now a Jesuit priest, attended a brief service held in the cathedral today. Mrs Dulles changed her plans and was not present when the coffin was borne down the chapel steps and under an archway with the inscription in White letters: “The way to peace ” The New Zealand Charge d’Affaires in Washington, Mr G. D. L. White, will represent the New Zealand Government and people at-the funeral.