THE LATE MR MASSEY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18415, 23 June 1925, Page 8

THE LATE MR MASSEY.

TRIBUTE FROM COLONIAL OFFICE FRIEND.

(SPECIAL TO ' THE PRESS.")

WELLINGTON, Juno 22.

Mr F. D. Thomson, C.M.G., private secretary to the late Mr Ma&sey, and now Mr Coates's secretary, received by to-day'a mail a letter in which there is a touching tribute to his late chief. The letter is from Captain George S. Swinton, who was liaison officer between the Colonial Oihce and the Dominion representatives in 1916-17. Captain Swinton is a cousin of tho famous Brigadier-General Swinton, intelligence officer in the Great War, and author of "The Green Curve" and other short stories.

Captain Swinton, who knew Mr Massey well, writes asking Mr Thomson to convey to Mrs Massey and family tlie very great regret with which ho read the sad news of his death. "We hoped," he adds, "from some of the bulletins that he was going to win the fight. However New Zealand history may work out in the coming ages what ho did, and tho fearless part he plaved in the Great War will mark him out as one of the grand figures in her earlier days. The Abbey was full this morning, and the flags over the Government offices were flying halfmast. I enclose copy of tho order of the service." Features of the service in Westminster Abbey were choral preludes, (Bach and Brahms); and tho "Requiem Aetei,--num" (Basil Harwood) before the service, and at the close Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C minor. The opening hymn was "For All tho Saints Who From Their Labours Rest," and the lesson was from tho 21st chapter of Revelation, beginning, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth." Towards the end of the service Kipling's "Recessional" was sung, and as the procession left the church "The Dead March iu Saul" was played.