AT THE CENOTAPH

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 151, 24 December 1930, Page 4

AT THE CENOTAPH

DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

EMPIRE'S HOMAGE

SOLEMN PAGEANTBY

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, I4th November. One looks-for new features in the solemn pageantry in Whitohall on the groat Day of Remembrance. It is arranged so wonderfully that one year's programme is identical with that of another —perfect in all its detail. This year, perhaps,' ono may think of the ceremony at the Cenotaph as an Empire tribute to the. Empire's dead. Behind the king stood thirteen Indian princes, representing 70,000,000 people, who acknowledged tho King as Emperor. There were also the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Newfoundland, representing the millions of the self-governing Dominions. One other thing was noticeable as being different from other years. The sun was shining from above the towers of Westminster. • A long shadow of the Cenotaph was cast on the open space of Whitehall. Shadows of the ordered ranks of the troops fell on the clear street as they marched into position. One then remembered that on no occasion during the past ten years has the ceremony been hold in the autumnal sunshine, but never has there been enough rain to cause the slightest inconvenience. This would seem a good omen for tho continuance of this moving ceremony. Never were there greater numbers attending the ceremony, and the Dominion representatives who took part in 'the proceedings will retain a memory which will last a lifetime. Long before 10 o'clock the public had gathered in. their thousands hi what has now come to be .considered a vast outdoor sanctuary—at' least, for this one sacred day. The spaco allotted to the public. is invariably marked off by a line of police standing almost shoulder to shoulder. Thus, looking from one of the windows in the Home Office, one could see beyond the cleared bounds a black mass of people right up to Trafalgar Square on the ono side, and down to Parliament Square on the other. A FAMILIAR PATTERN. Shortly after 10 o'clock the troops? and sailors marched in from the Horse Guards Parade and ranged themselves about the Cenotaph in a pattern now familiar. To the east of the Cenotaph were dismounted Household Cavalry— Life Guards in blood-red cloaks, the dark uniforms of tho Blues relieved by plumes of tho same huo-^-Eoyal Horse Artillery, Guardsmen in grey, greatcoats and tall bearskins, and Territorials in khaki. Facing them were officers and men of the Koyal Navy, the 8.N.8., the K.N.V.E., tho Merchant Navy, and Fishing Fleets, and tho Koyal Air Force. To the south of tho memorial stood buglers of tho Koyal Marines with'white helmets, trumpeters of the Koyal Air Force, and behind these again tho massed bands of the Brigade of Guards, at the head of them a lino of drum-majors. To the north, some distance along Whitehall, were detachments of ex-Service men and women in mufti, with Admiral of the Fleo't Lord Jellicoe in front. Others one retognised were. Sir:'- lan T^Hamilton, General Sir Hunter Weston/iand, Majqr; .Cohen, M.P.V in his -electrically;propelicd'chairJ ■• '' '. • • '. That' the troops marched to their places to such tunes as'"lt's A Long Way to Tipperary," and "Pack up Your Troubles" porhaps showed that the ceremony to-day is one of remembrance rather than of mourning. Certainly, the old tunes have acquired a dignity in the minds of ex-Service men through their tender and sometimes poignant associations. As the hour of eleven approached the music became more arid' more subdued and classical. Before the quarter had struck silence had settled down upon the great throng, and the hush •of expectation deepened. One could hardly hear the murmur of voices. Such sounds as that caused by the pawing of a policeman's charger were heard intensely from some distance. Even the movement of the' bronzed leaves still remaining on the trees could bo heard. OFFICIAL PARTIES ARRIVE. As the .hour approached the procession of clergy, headed by the choir in the scarlet uniforms of the Children of tlie Chapel Boyal, in the white surplices of the Abbey, filed slowly into the hollow square around tho Cenotaph, with the Bishop of London—his episcopal staff borne before—following in the train._ Next came the Ministers of State," the Prime 'Minister, and his Dominion colleaguos," the Leaders of tho two Opposition parties (Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Lloyd George), the members of the Cabinet, and the Hereditary Princes and other representatives attending the Indian Conference^ • His Majesty the King then came from the Homo Office, followed by the Prince of Wales and tho Duke of York. His Majesty was .wearing the khaki Service uniform of a Field-Marshal. The King advanced to the .Cenotaph with his wreath of poppies and laurel leaves. He laid it at the foot of the monument, which he saluted. To the music of Chopin's Funeral March, the laying of the other official wreaths began—first by the King's sons, and by representatives of the Duke of Connaught and Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.. Mr..MacDonald followed with that from the Cabinet, and after him came the Dominion Prime Ministers and representatives of the Irish Free State, India, and the Colonies. NEW ZEALAND WREATH. Me. Forbes laid the wreath on behalf of the Government' and people of Now Zealand. It consisted'of bronze chrysanthemums with a spray :of white lilies and- ferns. The last wreath was laid only a few moments before the chimes of Big Ben sounded on the quiet air. The boom of the gun- on the Horse Guards Parade was heard and the Two Minutes' Silence had begun. A few suppressed coughs were all the disturbance that could bo heard from, the human throng. But a slight breeze had arisen, which ! fluttered the six flags on tho Centotaph and tho white robes of the clergy and choir, and the bronzed leaves on £ho trees could be distinctly heard against tho branches. The thoughts of the majority of tho people doubtless went back to those whom they had known- before the war began, but who were now no more with them. The suggested subject of thought und prayer during the Silence was this: "In remembrance of thoso who made the great sacrifice, O God, make us better men and women, and give peace in our time." A SIMPLE SERVICE. The gun boomed out again, and the distant maroons repeated the signal. The Air Force trumpeters sounded the haunting farewell of the "Last Post." A simple service followed. There was a. hymn—"O God, our help in agos past"—and Ihen a collect spoken by.the Bishop. It was: "Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that all who here do honour to the memory of our brethren's sacrificemay so be filled with the spirit of their love-anr!.-fortitude that,'forgetting all selfish and unworthy aims, they; may.

live, only to tho glory of God and to tho service of their fellow-men." Tho Lord's Prayer, rose from thousands of voices in no more than a faint murmur. A gay and beautiful Eoveille, from the silver bugles of the Boyal Marines, dispelled tho strain. Then tho people joined in "God Save the King." It may have been the superb accompaniment of the massed bands that caused the effect, ■ but the National Anthem, on this occasion, seemed peculiarly heartfelt and beautiful. The King, tho Princes, and the Ministers departed. Without haste, the military and naval units marched away at tho word of their respective coaimanders, each section saluting the Cenotaph as they passed it. THE MAEOH PAST. Then began the march past of the ex-scrvico men and women. They marched to such tunes as "Roses of Picardy" and "Tipperary." Earl Jollieoe led the first party of the officers and men of tho British Legion. His word of command sounded strongly and clearly down Whitehall. Among the first group were twenty Now Zealanders. Lord Jellicoo laid his wreath against one of the barriers at tho Cenotaph, and one by one as the columns in civilian dross 'followed in the direction of the Abbey, saluting as they went by, tho bearers ot wreaths and bunches of flowers toll out of the ranks to add them to the ever-growing carpet of colour. In the sunlight tho flowers were seen to the best advantage. The double column of ex-service men and women took almost half an hour to pass. A f^me^ of police came next, and finally the general public, mainly women, carrying humble floral ' tokens of remembrance to lay at the base ot the Cenotaph. ■ j