FRENCH FETE DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2825, 17 July 1916, Page 6

FRENCH FETE DAY

A GREAT SUCCESS

M. POINCARE'S STIRRING

SPEECH

Australian-New Zealand Oablo Association,

_ . Paris . July 14. On tho celebration oi' tho French National FetoDay tho Boulevards were thronged and the monuments decorated with (lowers. British, French, Canadian, Indian and Australian troops paraded at tho Invalides. There was a medley of martial music. The Belgian trumpets sounded together, with the bagpipes, and tho melodious Kussian .military bands. ~M- Poincare. rcvieweil the troops before the Petit Palais. There were soul-stir-ring scenes. when AT. Poincare. handed .certificates of national appreciation to iho relatives of five hundred of the fallen. As their.names were called out there was a momentary silence, and then an offioer solemnly, announced, "Died for 'his country." : .... The procession marched from the tJhanips Elysee, along tho Hue Roynle f? ™ Boulevards, and dispersed at the £lacs de la Eepuhlique. The British troops were warmly cheered. Women threw flowers to tho Anzacs: M. Poincaro stirringly addressed the troops: "You know how, during the in. terminable weeks, "under concentrated artillery and heedless of rain, our battn_iions defended Verdun. Their endurance and stoicism facilitated elsewhere the combined operations of the Allies. It was a spectacle whoso, epic in grandeur surpasses anything humanity has hithorto known. Verdun is-now little moro than a heap of ruins. "But over tho blackened stones of your homes tho German army sees from afar France's _ victory. Our enemies should not retain, any illusions regarding tho possibility of bringing tho Allies to their mercy, drawing from their weariness a peaco_ enabling militarism to mask preparations for .a frosh aggressive. Wo .would not weaken if fighting for honour alone; but we are , also fighting for life nnd conscience of tho European nations. We face the poignant problem-of a free democracy,. and will not submit to an existence of simply vegetating in. tho stifling, unhealthy shadow of the German Empire, which was strong enough to 6proad over tho whole of Europe its heavy hegemony." Sip Douglas Haig's Message. Sir Douglas TT : , .:g sent the following massage to President Poincare:—"l am ■participating with tho valiant French in a struggle which has now become desperate. The British Army expresses its admiration at the results the French have obtained by their unfaltering confident and prompt realisation of tlio common aims." Af. Poincare replied: "Convey to the gallant British my keen admiration of tho splendid successes so brilliantly .fluveloped. Tour troops in Paris to-day tooeived thrilling evidence of public feeling."