MOTHERS AT THE WAR GRAVES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3383, 18 July 1927, Page 2

MOTHERS AT THE WAR GRAVES.

COMRADE’S TRIBUTE

“I venture to think that those buried on this spot will know that their commander is here to-day, and that they will realise that their sacrifice has not been in vain.” These were the words of Lord Plainer, the veteran Field-Marshal, as he stood with Lord Allenby in the military cemetery at - Ramleh, Palestine, on the afternoon of May 6.

It was the occasion of the unveiling of the Stone of Remembrance, and a scene never to be forgotten. People of tcvery rank and many nationalities were gathered together to honor the dead. There had been a continual stream of people along the dugty road that runs through the cornfields for hours before the time fixed for the ceremony. They came in motor cars and lorries of every discription, in mule cards and carriages, on horseback and afoot. At last, they were all assembled; Lord Plumer and Lord Allenby with their staffs; Sir James Parr, High Commissioner for New Zealand; the Bishop of Jerusalem, easily distinguished in purple cassock and white pith helmet; Palestinian officials, frockcoated and red fezzed; patriarchs of the Greek Church, with flowing hair and beards; Jewish Boy Scouts; Ara-. bian Boy Scouts (who prefer to be called Palestinians nowadays), wearing the picturesque headdress of the Bedouin Arab, and men of the Palestine Police, with Astrakhan caps and redbelied khaki tunics. 'I here were R.AIF. nurses in white, and men and women drawn from all the foreign colonies in Palestine, and — a handful of people who had come all the way from England specially to be present—they were St. Barnabas Pilgrims—many English mothers—-with a special interest in Ranileh Cemetery. Commands arc rapped out iu English and Arabic. There was a-rattle of rifles as flip guard of honor came to attention. It was as smart a guard as one could wish to see, drawn from the B.A.E. and the British section of the Palestine Police. The Union Jack veiling the Stone of Remembrance was drawn aside by Lord Allenby, and fell in folds against its, whiteness as the words engraved on tho stone, wo-p revealed ; “Their name liveth for evermore. ■

The Last Post rang out. the plaintive notes seeming like some lingering good-bye; then the Peveillq was sounded. speaking, of hope and life and of joyful resurrection. Wreaths were laid at the foot of. the Cross of Sacrifice. There were great wreaths of I’oses and carnations from the peoples of Australia and JNew Zealand: regimental tokens from the Imptrinl War Craves Commission; others from Zionist and Greek organisations. Most touching of many tributes was a. hunch of flowers, obviously put together by a man’s unaccustomed hand, and tightly tied, placed there by a soldier in hospital blue, in memory of bis comrades. The cemetery at it mulch is divided into three sections—lndian, Egyptian, and Christian. The Christian section comprises i) 00 graves, of which 600 are the graves of .men who came from Great Britain, the remaining 300 being from the Dominions. They rest in | gallant company, for St. George, the > Patron Saint of England, lies in the \ same soil at Lull, not far away. j Pilgrims are entertained at tea by,•/' the villagers, and an address of wel- 1 come was read by the Mayor. The speech was in Arabic, but it had been translated and distributed in leaflet form.