PILGRIMAGE TO MONS

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 27

PILGRIMAGE TO MONS

DOMINIONS’ VETERANS INCLUDED.

PLANS FOR ARMISTICE DAY. LONDON, January 20. The pilgrimage plans are now definitely taking shape. The Empire Service League is taking over the dominions’ section and the secretary, Captain Simons, anticipates that at least 1000 will be dominioners, of whom 300 will be Australians and 150 New Zealanders. He emphasises that the pilgrimage be open not only to memoe.-s of returned soldiers league's, but to all ex-service men.

The cost, once they arrive in England, will not be more than £5 each. Captain Simons also points out that cx-service men, on holiday in Europe at the time, should take advantage of the opportunitv of participating. Earl Haig will head the nilgrimage, rid other notables are expected to be present. The tour winds up with a march past the Menin Gate.

A cable on October 23, 1927, stated that the Old Contemptibles’ Association was planning a pilgrimage to Mons on Armistice Day. Three hundred representatives of every unit of the army were to be present. The battle veterans would draw up in a single line to observe the two minutes’ silence; then the buglers and trumpeters who were present on the first day of the battle would sound the reveille and the ‘‘Last Post.” The following Sunday there would be a drumhead service on.the spot were the first Old Contemptibles fell. When the visit was first projected in London in August, M. Poincare, Premier of France, sent a message, through the Daily Mail, to the veterans of the Old Compemptibles and all those who from the Home Country or from the dominions fought in France side by side with the French troops during the war, and added: “ France would be extremely happy if, in a few months, the British Legion were to organise with the Canadians, South Africans, Australians, and New Zealanders a voyage similar to that which the American Legion is about to make in France. The ex-service men of the British Empire can count on receiving from their brothers-in-arms the warmest of welcomes.”