ARMISTICE DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17622, 8 November 1920, Page 7

ARMISTICE DAY.

THE UNKNOWN WARRIOIL DETAILS OF THE CEREMONY. A COMPLIMENT FROM FRANCE By Telegraph—Press Association Copyright. (Received 7.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. Not. 5. The final arrangements have been completed for interring the body of " an unknown warrior" at Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day, November 11. Lord Curzon states that the Government is | satisfied that the precautions taken are ample to maintain that the identity of the interred shall be unknown to anyone. It had been decided to make the ceremony domestic entirely, hence the Allies would not participate, but as the French desired to participate the French destroyer Verdun had been selected to convey the body to England as a compliment to France. The French will hand the body over at Boulogne with military honours. A field marshal's salute will be fired at Dover on its arrival on the afternoon of November 10. It will lie in a specially-prepared chapel at Victoria Station, and a military guard w ;, i be posted throughout the night. Another field marshal's salute will be fired when the body is placed on a gun carriage at 9.40 a.m. on November 11.

The coffin is inscribed : " A British Warrior who fell in the Great War, 1914-18, for King and Country." It is not even known if the body is that of an Englishman or a Dominion soldier. Besides representatives of all services, detachments of the mercantile marine and ex-service men and women will participate in the procession. The coffin will be covered with a Union Jack from the battlefields that has been used at many military funerals at the front. When the procession reaches the Cenotaph in Whitehall the gun carriage will halt before the King and the Primate, and the Bishop of London will conduct a service at which massed choirs will assist. The King will unveil the Cenotaph as Big Ben chimes the last stroke of 11 o'clock. Elsewhere maroons will be fired in the metropolis in order that the 'two minutes' silence may be synchronised.

At the expiration of the two minutes the procession will reform. The King will march to the Abbey' immediately behind the coffin, followed by the Pri tee of Wales and the other princes, the Prime Minister and other notabilities. The dean and chapter will receive the coffin at the Abbey and conduct it to an open grave, where a short service will be held. After the coffin has boen lowered muffled drums will roll out and massed buglers will sound the reveille, the ceremony thus ending on a note of hope. If there is a black fog the ceremony at the Cenotaph will be omitted and the coffin containing the unknown warrior will' be brought from Victoria Station to the Abbey by the shortest route.

The pallbearers will bo Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux, Admiral Lord Beatly, Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, Admiral Sir Charles Madden, Field Marshal Lord French, Field Marshal Lord Haig, Field Marshal Lord Methuen, Field Marshal Sir, Henry Wilson, General Lord" Home, General Lord Byng and Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard.

Over 14,000 applications from relatives of war victims have been received for 1050 seats available in the Abbey. For these a lottery will be drawn. Only bereaved women will be given seats at the windows of Government offices overlooking the Cenotaph. ibe King has approved the recommendation of a committee of the Cabinet that there shall be a complete suspension of all normal business, work, anH locomotion throughout the Empire during the two minutes' silence at 11 o'clock on Armistice Day.