YPRES SALIENT

Evening Star, Issue 19617, 25 July 1927, Page 6

YPRES SALIENT

MEM GATE MEMORIAL UNVEiLIHC CEREMONY ENGLAND’S SAB PILGRIMAGE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright, LONDON, July 22. Mingling with the holiday crowd at Victoria station yesterday were groups of sad-faced fathers, mothers, widows, and sweethearts bound for Yp’res to witness to-morrow’s ceremony at Menin Gate. The majority were dressed in black, and a young widow wore- a bunch of Flanders poppies. The biggest band of pilgrims leaves to-night—7oo 1 poor folk who could not make the journey but for money collected by the Ypres League. It is estimated that several thousand British people will see the unveiling, while the whole country will listen to the service broadcast. KAHY TOUGHING INCIDENTS SYMBOL OF BRITISH COURAGE. (British Official News.)' Pres* Association—By Wireless—Copyright. RUGBY, July 24. (Received July 25, at .11 a.m.) Field Marshal Lord Plainer to-day unveiled the Alenin Gate memorial, which is, erected on the site of the old gate of Ypres. In his address Lord Pluraer epitomised the object of the memorial in the words "Now it can bo said of each one in whoso honor we are assembled here to-day ‘He is not missing; he is here.’ ” He paid a tribute to the King of tile Belgians, who was present at tho ceremony. Bishop Gwynne, who was Deputy Chaplain-general to the British Armies in France and Flanders, dedicated the memorial.

There were many touching incidents during the ceremony, not the least of these being the arrival from England of 700 poor women who had been brought to the unveiling through the good offices of the patriotic organ isations, and whoso procession to their places through tho Menin Gate followed the same path by which their relatives had gone out to the salient during tho war years. King Albert of Belgium, who spoke in English, said; “If it be true to say that blood bravely shed in a noble cause sanctifies tho ground on which it is spilt, there is certainly no ground in the world more sacred than that of the Yprcs salient. :i Baying a tribute to the determination and bravery of tho troops of the British Empire, His Majesty sail that throughout tho centuries to come the name of Ypros would ever aland as a symbol of British courage and British endurance. A SOLEMN CEREMONY. LONDON. July 21. (Received July 25, at 10 a. m.) Every part of the British Isles heard this morning a surprisingly good broadcast of Field Marshal Lord Blumer’s unveiling of tho imposing memorial at Menin Gate. The King of the Belgians, in acknowledging Britain’s aid, thoughtfully mentioned the long distances the Australians and New Zealanders had come. Sir Granville Ryrie and Mr T. Tr'umble were present on behalf of Australia, and there was a good representation of New Zealanders. Those who participated in the ceremony included Sir L. WorthingtonEvans (Minister of War) and Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops, and the service closed with the ‘ Last Post,’ a Highland lament, the ‘Reveille,’ and tho Belgian and British National Anthems, followed by one minute’s silence.

SACRED GROUND. , LONDON, July 24. (Received July 20, at 11.15 a.in.) Sir L. Worthington-Evans (War Minister), in inviting Lord Plumer to unveil the Ypres memorial, said that it commemorated the heroism of the men who maintained an unconquerable rampart for four years against the. bitterest onslaughts in the history of warfare. The memorial was erected by the Government of every nation in the British Commonwealth and every colony and dependency. Lord Plumer said that relatives of the missing men must have felt that more might have been done to recover their loved ones’ bodies, but now they probably saw that it was mure impossible after realising the conditions of the fighting in tho Ypres salient. Yet the void seemed still greater when no grave existed on which to lay a token of remembrance. The memorial fulfilled this object because they could now say “He is not missing. Ho is here.” Lord Plumer recalled how from Menin Gate King Albert led the AngloBelgian armies in their final victorious advance. King Albert, in an address after the unveiling, said that there was no ground in the world more sacred than that of Ypres salient, first, because thousands and then hundreds of thousands of soldiers came to Flanders from Britain and the dominions determined to conquer or to die. ft was for this reason that Ypres from the outset became the most decisive corner in the war; secondly, because Ypres lor fifty months was the Empire’s tlireshhold, and it would for ever remain a. symbol of British heroism and endurance. Tho memorial would perpetuate the heroes, but their memory would always dwell in tho hearts of tho Belgian people.—-A. and N.Z. and ‘Sun’ Cable,