THE ROYAL TOUR

Southland Times, Issue 19515, 15 May 1922, Page 5

THE ROYAL TOUR

KING GEORGE’S MESSAGE *OUR DEAD CIRCLE THE EARTH’’ (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) • LONDON, May 13. (Received May 14, 5.5 p.m.) The King an d Gueen have concluded tour of the battlefields. The King delivered an oration including a message to the war bereaved: “For the past few days I have been making a solemn pilgrimage in honour of the people who died for all free men. I should like to send a message to all who lost those dear to them in the Great sFar. In this the Queen joins me. Amid surroundings so wonderfully typical of that single-hearted assembly of the nations and races forming our Empire, for an era, in their last quarters lie the sons of every portion of that Empire, across, as it were, the threshold of the Mother Island, which they guarded that freedom might be saved in the uttermost ends of earth.’* A generation of our manhood offered iwelf without question, almost without need in answer to the summons. We may truly say that the whole circuit of the earth i* girdled with the graves of our dead. AT NOTRE DAME DE LORETTE AN HISTORIC SCENE PARIS, May 13. (Received May 14, 5.5 p.m.) Touring the Ypres battlefields the King stopped for some time at the grave of the Australian Sergeant McGee, a posthumous V.C-. He reached Arras on Friday and motored to the Notre Dame de Lorette plateau, where a hundred thousand Frenchmen fell in a battle extending over a year and where a memorial with a lighted Lantern is to keep perpetual vigil. The King met Marshal Foch there and visited several cemeteries, depositing a wreath of red liurete. He also visited Vimy Ridge, vhich the Canadians captured, and he met -the Canadian High Commissioner and Rudyard Kipling. While at Notre Dame de Lorette, the King listened eagerly to Marshal Foch and Field Marshal Haig describing the various iunous points and explaining the details of the stupendous battle. He turned to them once, confidently saying in French: "Toijours bons amis nest ce pas.” Marshal Foch replied with fervour: “Toujcura, Toujoura pour les mems choses et les memes raisons.” He grasped Haig’s hand. As the two marshals held hands in the grip of comradeship, the King placed his hand over theirs. The scene was worthy of record by a great painter. On a hillside, scarred with graves, overlooking devastated France, the British King, sealing the comradeship of the two great war leaders, made an historic scene. A TOUCHING INCIDENT. LONDON, May 13. (Received May 14. 11.5 p.m.) The King's visit to Etaples Cemetery, ■where there are ten thousand British graves was marked by a touching incident. A letter from, an English woman was handed to ths King in which the writer begged the Queen to place a few forget-me-nots on the grave of her son. The King in the absence of the Queen reverently bore the flowers to the graveside, knelt down, and placed them at the foot of the tomb and gave instructions that the flowers be specially tendered and left undisturbed. The King was received at the entrance of the cemetery by Sir Allen Hogben and LONDON. May 13. The King and Qwea have returned to lonclom They were enthusiastically welromed by crowds during the drive to Buckioghtm Palace. AN INVITATION DECLINED. PARIS, May 13. it Gaulois states that President Millerand asked King George if he would like him to accompany His Majesty on his visit to the French devastated regions and the British soldiers’ graves. The King replied that while greatly touched by President Millerand’s offer, it seemed to him better to preserve the intimate character of the visit, and the strictly military PARIS, May 14. (Received May 14, 11.20 p.m.) King George declined on constitutional grounds President Millerand’s proposal to meet during the tour of the battlefields. The King explained that a meeting between two heads of States during Genoa differences would assume a political aspect which it was desirable to avoid. The Sunday Times’ Paris correspondent expresses the hope that the King’s refusal will terminate the persistent efforts made I by the French Press to present the King as opposed to the policy of hie Ministers.