ECHOES OF THE WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3584, 21 November 1922, Page 24

ECHOES OF THE WAR.

RE-ERECTING MENIN GATE. LONDON, November 2. On Australia’s decision rests the fate of a proposal for the re-erection on an elaborate scale of the famous Menin Gate, at Ypres, formerly know as “the unhealthiest corner of Europe." The Imperial War Graves Commission has fathered a striking scheme for the commemoration of the 50,000 men reported missing in the Ypres salient, 6000 of whom were Australians. The monument would be erected astride a. battlement moat outside the city walls, on a spot familiar to soldiers. There is available £250,000. but the scheme provides for onlv £130,000. The onlv trouble is to get Australia’s approval, which involves the provision of 6 per cent, of the amount. SOLDIERS’ GRAVES. LONDON. November 14. Sir James Allen suggests that if Australia wants to give her dead soldiers’ next-of-kin a. worthy memento, she should come in with New Zealand’s proposal, and send them coloured photographs of the "raves as they are seen in the spring-time. Tie said it would cost New Zealand £SOOO if she acted alone, and half that amount if Australia would collaborate with the dominion. He could conceive of no better permanent record. ARMISTICE DAY IN FRANCE. PARIS, November 12. The celebrations in Paris centred round the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arch de Triomphe, where long queues waited to lay flowers on the tomb. Sol dices representing 200 disbanded regiments paraded past the tomb, wnere M. Millerand, 31. Poincare, and members of Parliament assembled. The President (M. Milleratid) unveiled an armistice memorial at Rethondes, in the forest of Compeigne, on the spot where Marshal Foch’s carriage, in which the

armistice was signed, stood at the historic moment. There were present Lord Haig, Admiral Lord Wemyss, Marshal Foch, the Allied Ambassadors, American, Italian, and Belgian military* officers and delegations of wounded soldiers and sailors. M. Millerand decorated Admiral Wemyss with the Military Medal.