LATE GENERAL MELVILL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19125, 17 September 1925, Page 11

LATE GENERAL MELVILL

THE FUNERAL TO-MORROW. FULL MILITARY HONOURS. I LARGE PARADE < ; OF TROOPS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday. Some 3000 troops are to take part in the full military funeral which will be accorded on Friday to the late MajorGeneral C- W. Melvill, General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces. Officers from all parts of the Dominion will attend. The service will be held at St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral at 9.45 a.m. and the procession will leave the church at about ten o'clock, moving off via Mulgrave Street and MUrphy Street into Tinakori Road and thence to Karori Cemetery, where the interment will take place in the soldiers' plot. The troops taking part will be the Ist Battalion, Hawke's Bay Regiment and the Signal Corps, both now in camp at Trentham; the Ist Battalion, Wellington Regiment, one squadron of the 6th Mounted Rifles, the sth, 15th and 19th Batteries, Field Artillery, and representatives of the Engineers, Army Service Corps and Medical Corps. A salute of thirteen minute guns will be fired from General Headquarters, Buckle Street, commencing as the cortege leaves the church. The firing party will be provided by the R.N.Z.A. and will fire three volleys over the grave. A salute of thirteen field guns will be fired from the vicinity of the cemetery immediately afterwards. Tho bearers will be formed by senior N.C.O.'s of the New Zealand Permanent Staff and the pall bearers will be three colonels-commandant of the Northern, central and southern commands. With the exception of the Union Jack flying at General Headquarters all flags on Government offices are being flown at half-mast out of respect to the general's memory. SIR R. H. RHODES' EULOGY. GREAT AIM EFFICIENCY. DUTY BEFORE SELF INTEREST. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] " WELLINGTON, Wednesday. "It came as a great shock to me to lose my right hand man in the matter of military defence," said Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, Minister for Defence, in referring to the death of General Melvill. "I am quite certain that all ranks will equally regret that they have lost a commanding officer ■who has proved himself so keen to put the forces under his command on an efficient footing. It is largely due to his enthusiasm and energy that our cadets and territorials are now in such an efficient state. He never spared himself and kept in touch with all officers of our territorial force. I know that it was his desire to replace our system of training by daylight and evening parades by a longer period in camy and my only regret is that I was not able to give him a clear hand in this connection. "It is unnecessary for me to say anything about his great services in France, when he commanded a brigade of our Expeditionary Force. These are well known to 'the public and no doubt many who served under him will say a word of appreciation. "I knew that he wished to go into hospital in order to get the operation over but he was anxious to get his estimates, through first. This is just one evidence of what characterised him through life, namely, the placing of duty before personal interests." SYMPATHY OF FRANCE. WAR SERVICE OR AT ITU DE. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] WELLINGTON, The following telegram was received by the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, this afternoon from the French Consul at Auckland:—"l have heard with deep regret of the unexpected death of MajorGeneral Melvill, tho noble and gallant soldier of the battlefields of France, and send you and members of the Government in this great loss sustained by the whole of the Dominion expressions of deep condolence from the French Government and people, whose gratitude will outlast death." Owing to the death of Major-General Melvill all military parades, including musketry parades of territorials and senior cadets at Penrose, have been cancelled until next Monday.