GREATER PROMINENCE FOR CIVILIAN ASPECT OF CENOTAPH SERVICE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18887, 11 October 1929, Page 7

GREATER PROMINENCE FOR CIVILIAN ASPECT OF CENOTAPH SERVICE.

(United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, October 9. The Home Office has issued the following statement: “ The Government wishes that greater prominence be given to the civilian aspect of the Cenotaph service on Armistice Day. It sympathises with the suggestion that troops on duty should be unarmed, but it must be remembered that the service is primarily a tribute to the memory of the warriors whose death the Cenotaph commemorates. It is therefore appropriate that the service should be attended by naval, military and air force detachments, and, after the most careful consideration, the Government has decided that it would not be in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion if the detachments paraded otherwise than in full dress and armed. In order however, to emphasise the peaceful and civilian nature of the ceremony it has been decided to reduce the personnel on duty at the Cenotaph to the small est number compatible with adequate representation of the three Services.”—Australian Press Association—United Service. BRITISH LEGION SATISFIED. LONDON, October 10. Colonel Crosfield, chairman of the British Legion, said that a complete absence of uniformed troops at the ceremony would have been resented. But the Legion cannot cavil at a reasonable reduction of the number of troops present, because that would enable more ex-service men, and more of those who had lost their loved ones, to attend and obtain places nearer to the Cenotaph.—Australian Press Association.