MOVING TRIBUTES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 86, 8 October 1930, Page 11

MOVING TRIBUTES

HONOUK TO THE DEAD

FRANCE BIDS FAREWELL

Received Bth October, 11 a.m.)

RUGBY, 7th October

The victims of ElOl began to-day tfceir journey homewards from Beauvais. They-will reach London in the .aaall hours of the morning, and will be taken to the Westminster City mortuary. They will later bo removed to an appropriate and central building in London, to lie in state prior to burial near Cardington, Bedford, from which they set out on their last journey, and where so many of them had their homes! At a memorial service to be held in St. Paul's Cathedral on 'Friday, the Prince o£ Wales will represent the King, and many other members of the Eoyal Family will be present. BEAUVAIS TO BOULOGNE. On the early stages of the journey from Beauvais to Boulogne, where they were placed aboard the British destroyers Tempest and Tribune, moving tributes were paid to the bodies of the dead airmen. Wreath-covered coffins tvere borne from Beauvais Town Hall to gun carriages, which proceeded to

the station through mourning crowds, many people kneeling in prayer as tho procession passed. Buildings, were draped'with crepe, and all the shops in the town were closed, while overhead aeroplanes circled, and a -French battery fired a salute of 101 guns. The French Prime Minister, M. Tardieu, the Air Minister, M. Laurent Eymae, and many other distinguished Frenchmen followed the procession in company with the British Ambassador, Lord Tyrrell, the Secretary for India, Captain Wedgwood Bonn, the Under-Seere-tary for Air Mr. F. Montague, Sir John Salmond, Chief of the Air Staff, and numerous other British officials and mourners, including three of the survivors.' ' There " were present also the Mayor of Beauvais and a deputation of citizens from the town which provided so much practical help. "PROM MOTHERS OF BEAUVAIS." One wreath on the gun carriages came "From Mothers of Beauvais to sorrowing Mothers of Britain." Others were from French and British services. Near the station Flanders poppies had been strewn by children in the roadway. The coffins were removed to a special train which drew out as guns thundered and bands played mournful music. A salvo of guns was fired, and the French and British National Anthems played when tho special train reached Boulogne. In the presence of a great silent crowd and of the civil find military authorities, the coffins were carried to the waiting British destroyers. At Dover, and later at Victoria, where the special train was due to arrive in the early morning, representatives of the Government and, of the Services waited to receive tho honoured dead. Long before they were due, crowds began silently to assemble.