GENERAL PELLE'S FUNERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16426, 9 May 1924, Page 7

GENERAL PELLE'S FUNERAL.

FXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT

FEELING IN THE ARMY

LONDON, Mm-eJi 24. A painful incident in Paris has created a sensation of the first order, General Pelle, (he famous French soldier, who died last week, was refused the burial riles of the Church. The body, which had boen lying in the beautiful chapel of the Invalides, was v tlu ust out, by order of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Dubois, and the funeral ceremony had to be conducted without priests. The reason for (bis was that General Pclle had married a woman who had divorced her first husband, and—say some reports —she was a Protestant. J>e that as il may bu the marriage could only be celebrated 1 civilly. The incident is all the more regrettable in view of the fact that. General Pclle not only attended the Roman Catholic Church services regularly, but. as High Commissioner at Constantinople where he was seized with his last illness, he was 'father" of the French Roman Catholics in Turkey. As such, when he attended church in the Turkish capital, the Bible was presented to him to kiss. He stood in quite an exceptional position towards the Church. It was only at, the last moment that the Archbishop received the information which led' to his action, for be bad promised to take the service. The body had been placed in the Chapel of St. Louis, in the Invalides, flic traditional dwelling of military glory, where the imposing funeral rites should have been celebrated. It was on information received that the Archbishop ordered the removal of the coffin from (he church, which was thereupon locked. When the mourners assembled they found the coffin covered with wreaths, the general's uniform, and decorations near by, in the Invalides courtyard.

The great generals of the French army were 'there: Marshals Potl're and Petain, Genera] Gouraud, representatives of President Millerand and' M. Poincare, and Mine. Millerand Herself. There were .also two battalions of infantry and a battery of artillery, but not a. single priest. In these circumstances the ceremony was brief. The soldiers and diplomats iiled slowly past the catafalque, and the military band played the "Marseillaise." General Pelle was not only .a Brilliant commander in tbe held and a. stall' officer whose work at tbe French General Headquarters is still spoken of with pride, but was one of France's ablest' diplomats. As High Commissioner'alongside General Sir Charles Harington at Constantinople he wrestled with a difficult situation in a milliner'that won the recognition of all his countrymen and his -'colleagues of Allied nations.

The whole incident' has created deep feeling in the army and cannot but- fail to have a disturbing influence.—Auckland Star correspondent.