OLD CONTEMPTIBLE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 November 1928, Page 5

OLD CONTEMPTIBLE

MEMORIAL UNVEILED.

ANGLO-FRENCH STRATEGY.

IN CRITICAL PERIOD OF WAR

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Aswyiiation—United Service.) Received 10.5 turn. to-day. PARIS, No-v. 4. The Marne memorial to 3888 Old Contemptibles -who were buried- in unknown graves in 1914, was unveiled at La Fen.te Sousn Jouarre by Genera) Sir William Pulton ey, who paid a tribute to Anglo-French valour amd strategy in cheeking the German advance, in whait was probably the most, critical period of the war, thus ensuring the safety of Paris. He also paid 1 a tribute to the historic engineering feat of the British Fourth Division in constructing, under intense fire, a floating bridge enabling the pursuit of the enemy and relieving the pressure' on the flank of the Sixth French Army. He stated: “There is no other place in the war where mutual assistance of the Allies was of such paramount importance, and success .so finely.exemplified.” (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Nov. 2. • 'Lieutenant-General -Sir William Fultoney will unveil on 'Sunday a memorial erected at Dafertc-sous.-Jbuarre in honour of the British Expeditionary Force and to record the names of 38S8 officers and men who 'fell in the operations at Mons, on 'the Marne and the Aisnc in 1914, and who have no known graves. Field-Marshal Sir George Milne, Chief of the Imperial General 'Staff, and General Sir Horace Smith Dorrien, will be present, as will Marshal Foeh and Generald Wevgand. ‘The guard of honour, numbering over 100 officers and men. will -be commanded by 'Colonel Heyw'ood of the Coldstream Guard's, and in its constitution will be a body of exceptional distinction. It will include 'one represen-tatve of every regiment land corps which figures in the eompostion of the original British Expeditionary Force. Every man in it took part in the operations in 1914 in the ranks of his unit, and is still serving t'o-day. Many constituent corps have been disbanded, such as the famous Irish, regiments, but representatives of these corps have been found serving in other corps and on the day of the ceremony they will 'attend wearing the uniform of flic unit in (whose ranks thev fought in 1914.