AT MENIN GATE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 August 1928, Page 5

AT MENIN GATE

SERVICE OF REMEMBRANCE.

IMPRESSIVE SCENES. BRITISH. LEGION PILGRIMS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Aug. S. Deep emotions were touched among .the eleven thousand British Legion pilgrims, headed by the Prince of Wales, at the service of remembrance at Menin Gate memorial at Ypnes to-day. Beside the Prince of Wales on the platform there were present at the service Prince Charles of .Belgium, Viscount Jelliooe, president of the British Legion and a number of distinguished French Generals,. The service, which was conducted by Dr. Jarvis, chaplain-generail to the forces, was ibeautifuil in its simplicity. It concluded with an address by Dr. Lanig, / Archbishop of York and Archbishop Designate of Canterbury. The last scene of the ceremony was the march of British Legionaries. Some limped on .crutches; other® were armless, but all wore medals. The Prince of Wales noticed that Lately Haig, widow of tht late Field Marshal, who feci the British forces to victory, was marching with the women pilgrims. He at once asked her to join him otn the platform and share the salute. It was a gracious and .spontaneous action which was particularly appreciated [by the wives and mothers among the pilgrims. In the afternoon the Prince, accom. panied by General Sir Fabian Ware, visited the cemeteries in the neighbourhood. H;is Royal -Highness returns to London to-night. In his address the Archbishop of York said: “We meet here to revive the memories and spirit which have made this place for ever sacred an the hearts of the British race. Yet when we remember the sacrifice of toil and treasure and precious blood poured* out on the fields of France and Flanders, the question springs“nnbidden to the mind : ‘Was it ail-1 worth while P ’ “Here, -at this gate, let there be no faltering in the answer: ‘Yes : a thousand times. Yes. The spirit was active and menacing which used war, or the threat of war, as a normal instrument of policy. It has been laid low and dethroned in the very lands where once it,seemed to reign; it will soon be 'renounced in solemn- and deliberate pledge by all the nations who ten years -nigo> were locked in the throes of war. Through the sufferings and sacrifice of war there has ’been won, as never before in human history, the settled will to seek peace- and ensure it. “Ten years ago our hearts were full of high, .purpose-, full of hopes for a better and richer life for all our people. What has come to them ? How do they meet the challenge of insecurity, of unemployment, of ‘ depression which lies like a blight upon the industrial north of England from which I come?” The Archbishop declared the bettering of the life of the British Commonwealth was a cause demanding sacrifices no less real than those which were offered in the stress of war.