A GRIM FUNERAL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 58, 1 December 1934, Page 18

A GRIM FUNERAL

Armed Procession at Full Speed

An atmosphere of grim foreboding—of war and national crisis, heavy and sullen as the leaden clouds which shrouded Paris—weighed down on the State funeral of Al. Louis Barthou, the man who fought and died to secure peace for France, states the Paris correspondent of the London “Daily Express.” All! round Paris were mobile guards, armed to the teeth, standing on guard at the bridges as though the enemy were already at the gates. • And the note of this State funeral was of war—from its impressive display of French military might to the funeral oration of the French Premier warning the enemies of France that she stands ready for them. AVar, too, was the note of the religious ceremony in a chapel reserved to the memory of Napoleon and the great military achievements of France.

The coffin was wrapped in a Tricolour. On the topjof it la£ one solitary laurel leaf.-Slowly the pallbearers advanced and placed the coffin on top of a drab grey carriage of a French “75” gun.

Contrary to the usual practice, the gun itself was there too—under the coffin, grey, efficient, full of omen. All along the route stood crowds, but this time they were carefully marshalled by the police. The precautions for the safety of the dead man, Barthou, were infinitely

greater than those for the living statesman and tlie monarch lie greeted down in Marseilles. Two Repirblican Soldiers on horseback went liefore the procession with pistols pointing to the sky.

Motor-cycle policemen and three motor-ears with the Prefeet of Police and other officials inside raced ahead. Shrieking police whistles cleared the way for the hearse and the. cars with mourners that followed. The procession dashed for the cemetery more like a tire brigade than a funeral. The reason for the hurry was the new fear of assassins which has gripped the French authorities since the Marseilles murders, coupled with the impossibility of guarding efficiently the whole of the five-mile route to the cemetery.

The police watched the crowd with lynx eyes, and there were soldiers on guard all the way.

A tribute had been erected on the esplanade, and in front of it the coffin and hearses halted. The coffin was lifted down and carried to a special dais that had been prepared for it. There must have been 80,000 people there.

/kt the cemetery, on Iwhose topmost point the grave of M. Barthou has been placed. M. Doumergue’s emotion at the death of his friend mastered him.