CHINESE LEADER

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 156, 3 June 1929, Page 7

CHINESE LEADER

FUNERAL OF SUN YAT SEN. LAST RESTING PLACE ON PURPLE MOUNTAIN. SCENE OF GREAT GRANDEUR. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) SHANGHAI, June 1. There were colourful, impressive scenes on the Purple Mountain, Nanking, to-day, when the body of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of the Chinese Republic, was deposited in a speciallybuilt mausoleum on the summit of the mountain (the mountain was the scene of the decisive battle in the final stages of the revolution of 1911). It is oonservatively estimated that 200,000 people attended the interment services, including, it is believed, tho greatest aggregation of foreign diplomats, special envoys and Press representatives ever assembled in the history of China. Eighteen foreign nations were officially represented, tho representatives being headed by the Dutch Minister, Jonkheer Orlendjik (tho doyen of the diplomatic body) who delivered a staternent on behalf of his colleagues. The Dutch Minister voiced the profound respect and sympathy felt by tho Powers represented for China’s deceased revolutionary leader. Jonkheer Orlendjik concluded by hoping that China forever would be unified. To-day interment was the culmination of five days’ intense national mourning. The most impressive funeral scenes ever beheld in the Far East, and surpassing the solemnity and grandeur of the funerals of Emperors and Empresses before the Revolution, marked the interment. The casket was deposited in a huge domo in the- centre of the mausoleum to the accompaniment of the bustle and excitement of a vast native assemblage. A salute of 101 guns was fired. „ , , The Nanking waterfront recalled the stirring days of the Revolution. Dozens of foreign warships intermingled with the Chinese and Japanese vessels moored inshore. All the craft flew their flags at half-mast. Many of them acted as hotels for the respective national delegates.