HOMAGE TO THE DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20254, 14 May 1929, Page 11

HOMAGE TO THE DEAD.

THE ENTENTE CORDIALE.

FLAME OF COMRADESHIP.

FRENCH WARRIORS IN LONDON.

[from otjr own correspondent.!] LONDON, April 5.

Earl Jellicoe, in the name of the British Legion, last Sunday welcomed 900 French ex-soldiers who had come to London to pay homage to their British comrades who were killed in the war. All these were members of La Flamme du Souvenir, the association which is representative of all the 504 ex-Service Men's Associations in France and which has pledged itself to keep the Flame of Remembrance on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris ever burning. London received them with open arms. Tens of thousands of people greeted them as they marched, or—as in the case of many of them—limped to Westminster Abbey to pay homage at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior there and afterwards to tho Cenotaph. Marching with the pilgrims was one woman nurse. In Whitehall far-stretching crowds were moved to unwonted emotion by tho spectacle of a sunlit cloud of. silken tricolours mingled with the blue and standards of the British Legion; of bandsmen of the 110 th Regiment of French Infantry in blue uniforms and steel helmets ranged besido tho band of the Welsh Guards in black and scarlet; of ranks of battle-scarred Britons and Frenchmen symbolically standing shoulder to shoulder.

The "Lion of the Argonne." There was one figure in this spectacle that drew the admiring gaze of all—that of the tall, grey-bearded man who limped and whose right sleeve swung empty. He was General Gouraud, the "Lion of the Argonne," who served in Gallipoli—where he lost an arm and was wounded in the thigh—and who outwitted the Germans when ho wa3 called on by Foch to meet the first shock of the great enemy offensive in July of 1918. The French visitors arrived early on Sunday morning in two parties. After they had attended service in "Westminster and St. George's Cathedrals and other churches there was a general assembly in Old Palace Yard, where the band of the 110 th Regiment of French Infantry, 84 strong, wearing their blue-grey uniforms and steel helmets, stood to attention while the delegation, in dark-blue berets adorned with the badge of La Flamme," and bearing numerous brightcoloured standards, surmounted with craps in memory of Marshal Foch, passed into Westminster Hall between a guard of honour of British Naval ratings. "The time of your visit is particularly happy," said Major-General Clive, "for last Friday at Cannes the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Entente Cordial? was celebrated."

Address by Earl Jellicoe. Lord Jellicoi*, welcoming the delegates in the name of the British Legion, said: "It is you who light every day the sacred flame which burns to the eternal memory of the sons of France who fell in the Great War. Let me tell you that the homage which you render to the dead of your Allies helps also to make the flame of comradeship shine, to which the war gave birth. In spite of the misunderstandings which occasionally happen we ex-soldiers know that we are bound together because we have fought side by side. .... a . "And that comradeship, if it is us«'% in a tolerant and generous way, can be one of the finest means of preserving peace and increasing the goodwill which statesmen should use. We hope you are rejoicing in your, unity here and we thaiik your ■ distinguished leader, General Gouraud, and his friends for their presence here to-day. Long live the Flame!" General Gouraud, in reply, first explained the origin of "La Flamme," the movement for keeping < alive the flame of remembrance at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Paris. 'How was it possible, he asked, that two peoples who had shed their blood together on the battlefield should cease that friendship ? Today the Entente Cordiale was stronger than ever and all Frenchmen were eager to strengthen it. General Gouraud paid personal tributes to the memory of Lord Haig and to Field-Marshal Birdwood and in conclusion expressed the gratification that the French people felt at the recovery of the King from his illness, "May God protect him; long live file King," said General Gouraud, and a lond cheer from the delegation followed. Tributes to the Dead.

A procession was then formed to Westminster Abbey in the presence of aoins thousands of spectators. It was headed by the bands of the Welsh Guards -arid 110 th Regiment of French Infantry, followed by detachments of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, representatives of the British Government, General Gouraud and officials of the British Legion and the French and British services.

The French Infantry Band played the delegation into the abbey and some 180 standard-bearers of the British Legion formed a guard of honour. When they had assembled round the tomb of the Unknown Warrior General Gouraud revercentlv laid a bronze palm. The procession was reformed and on arrival at the Cenotaph the standard-bearers formed up on four sides of it. As the band of the 110 th Regiment played "Sommeil Eternal" all standards were dipped and heads bared. General Gouraud, after a further tribute to the British dead, laid a second bronze palm on the memorial.