THE EMPIRE’S WAR DEAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19969, 10 December 1926, Page 17

THE EMPIRE’S WAR DEAD

TABLET IN THE ABBEY. A MOVING CEREMONY. UNVEILING BY PRINCE OF WALES. (Fbom Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON. October 23. On Tuesday morning, immediately prior to the opening of the Imperial Conference, the Prime Ministers of Great Britain ami the overseas dominions attended the unveiling in the Abbey by the Prince of Wales of the tablet erected in memory of the million dead of the British Empire who fell in the war. The ceremony was a fitting introduction to the first session of the conference. The memorial, designed in conformity with the views of all the Governments of the Empire, is a replica of those which have been placed in many French and Belgian cathedrals. None has more sacred title to a place among the monuments of the illustrious dead of the British dead. Its erection within the Abbey, close to the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, is a fitting complement of the official scheme of remembrance which it has been the duty of the Imperial War Graves Commission to discharge on behalf of the nation. All the visiting Prime Ministers participated in the procession when the dean conducted the Prince of Wales from the west door past the Gr.ive of the Unknown Warror to the small dais upon which the tablet had been erected at the entrance to the choir. The memorial will repose finally in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, but to permit of the ceremony being witnessed by a larger congregation than could otherwise have been accommodated, it stood veiled by the Union Jack amid grey-blue drapings at the eastern end of the nave. About it on either side seats had been reserved for members of the Government, ex-Cabinet Ministers, and distinguished officers of the State. A congregation of about 1200 people was accommodated in the nave. A SOLEMN PROCESSION. There was no military pageantry, and all present were in ordinary morning dress. The Prince of Wales, who was accompanied by Major the Hon. Piers Legh, was met by the dean (the Very Rev. W, Foxley Norris). The dominion Prime Ministers, with Mr Baldwin, had been awaiting his Royal Highness, and at once a procession was formed. With the Wanamaker golden cross at its head, it moved up the nave, passing to the left of the Warrior’s Grave. Following the Dean and the Prince of Wales, the High Bailiff of Westminster (Lord Muir Mackenzie) and the Receivergeneral (Mr Knapp Fisher). Mr Baldwin walked with the Prime Minister of Canada. Then, walking in pairs, came the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and of Australia, Mr Kevin O’Higgins (Vice-president of the Irish Free State), the Prime Ministers of South Africa and Newfoundland, the Secretary of State for War (Right Hon. Sir Laming Worthington-Evuns, chairman of the Imperial Wm Graves Commission), the Secretary of State for the Dominions (the Right Hon. L. S. Amery), Major-general Sir Fabian Ware (vice-chairman, Imperial War Graves Commission), and the Hon. Piers Legh. India was represented by the Maharajah of Bur'dwan, the principal Indian delegate at the Imperial Conference. As the procession moved up the nave the familiar opening bars of “Land of Hope and Glory” gently supplanted those of Bach's Choral Prelude, which had relieved the period of waiting. Confronting the draped tablet tbc two lines of Empire statesmen fell away to either side, while the Dean stepped forward, and, after the reading of a short prayer, invited the Prince of Wales to perform the unveiling. Telling the congregation of the ultimate resting-place of the tablet, the Dean mentioned that the Chapel of the Holy Cross would be reserved for the purposes of a memorial to the fallen. THE UNVEILING. The Prince then stepped on to the dais, and, preparatory to releasing the silken cords which held the Union Jack in position, he said: I unveil this tablet in honour of our comrades from every land under the Crown who fell in the Great War. Time cannot dim our remembrance of them, nor lessen our gratitude to our Allics, who have given us the land in which many of them lie buried, so that we can care for their graves for ever. With those moving words his Royal Highness unveiled the tablet. He stood for a moment contemplating the simple inscription telling of its purpose, and then laid a wreath of greenery and crimson roses beneath it. The Dean dedicated the tablet, and the modern hymn, “The Supreme Sacrifice,” was sung to the beautiful old tune “Ellers.” The Empire called for the Divine blessing, “at this time,” upon the deliberations of those charged with its government, and on this note the service fittingly drew to an end. All present joined in singing the National Anthem, and then the Dean and the Prince headed the procession once more for the west door. His Royal Highness held brief conversations with the Dominion Prime Ministers before they set off for Downing street. A familiar figure advanced to the tablet and studied it curiously. It was Mr Kipling. whose soldier sou is one of the million dead in the war. IRELAND’S REPRESENT-*FIVE. Mr Cosgrave, president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, sent the j following letter to Mr Baldwin, in reply to an invitation to be present in tho ! Abbey:— “My dear Mr Baldwin. —I should per- | I sonally feel very much honoured to be present at the ceremony on October 19, when his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will unveil a tablet in Westminster Abb?v to tho memory of tho One Million Dead of the British Empire who fell in the Groat W ar. I I “I feel, however, a very real difficulty, I which I wish to put before you with the utmost frankness, knowing as I do that you will not fail to appreciate my motives. j “It is well known throughout Ireland ; that I, and at least one other member of | tho Executive Council, were actively engager! in the hostilities which occurred in Dublin in April of 1916. while tho Great War was- in progress, and in which a number of casualties occurred on both sides. “I do not wish —nor would it servo any 8 purpose now —to discuss the circumstances S rf that time; but a considerable amount of feeling was naturally aroused and bitter ' words wore spoken. “IT IS SO EASY TO HURT.” “Amongst our citizens wo number not a ! few who lost near relatives during tho fighting then. “Sb far as those who were killed amongst my companions are concerned, time and subsequent happy developments have almost completely cicatrised the wounds. But I know that there are citizens of ours who on that occasion lost brothers and sons | who were serving in the British army, and j there still remains amongst them—and not : unnaturally—a feeling of. I shall not say bitterness, but rather of pain. ’ j “For these I fear lest tho personal presence at this ceremonial in memory of their beloved ones ot one to whom they attribute responsibility for their bereavement should reopen wounds that are not yet quite healed. It is s 0 easy to hurt and so difficult to heal. “I have, therefore, thought it better to ask Mr O’Higgins, to whom no similar ob- I jeetinn exists, and who. in fact, lost a j brother in tho Great War, to represent mo at the ceremony. “ I appreciate that my absence may oc- ! easion comment amongst the unthinking, I but I feel that yon will agree that if the price to he paid for tho absence of such comment were the infliction of pain upon the relatives of the dead, silence would bo too dearly bought.—Believe me, yours <■ very sincerely, "(Signed) W. T. Cosgrave.”