BRITISH GIFT TO FRANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20786, 3 August 1929, Page 29

BRITISH GIFT TO FRANCE.

WINDOWS FOR WAR CHAPEL. THE UNKNOWN DEAD. On a spur facing Vimy Hidge stands the merii'qrial chapel which has been built from Subscriptions of the French people—the' only ' large French memorial in the British area-; of the old front. It stands in the Great War Cemetery where are the graves of . 80,000 men who fell in the dreadful fighting bf 1015, and in' the crypt underneath’it are collected the bones of thousands of soldiers of ■ both nations who wore never identified. In the Imperial Institute there were recently on exhibition some beautiful stained-glass windows which are being presented by the War 'Graves Commission on behalf of all the Governments arid peoples’of the ; British Empire 'for the chapel at Notre Dame de Lorette. These windows commemorate the dead from all over the Empire * who fought over the same ground,, as their . French comrades and fell on French soil;” They are intended as a tribute of gratitude to the French people for the help they have given to the commission in their work of caring for the British graves in France, and for the generous grants of land for our cemeteries and' memorials;

The six windows-are to be placed in •he transepts of the chapel, which has become a place of pilgrimage from all over France. They have been made and designed by Henry A. Payne, and are adnurable examples of the best English work in this kind. In one set of three commemorating the British dead the central figure is that of Bt.‘George, and on either side are angels, whose designing suggests the manner of • Burne-Jones, blowing the trumpets of fame or sweeping down to lay wientbs of laurel on the wooden crosses marking' the fallen; and there are symbdls> too, of the sacrifice of youth in war. The French set of windows is dominated by the figure of Joan of Arc, her workdone and giving up her sword, and on one side is Memory-, a beautiful seated figure wearing a garment of rich j blue, and on the .other Praise, with uplifted face. Mr Baldwin showed great interest ip this eloquent scheme when he visited Virny Bulge last year.’ The arrangements for the, unveiling of the windows have not yet been made, but it would be a fine gesture of friendship with France if the new Pi ime Minister were to perform the ceremony of unveiling these pictures 'in coloured light which will for centuries to come stand as. constant evidence to the French people of the tragedy and, wastage of war that fell upon our men and theirs at that place.