THE LAST TRIBUTES

Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 5

THE LAST TRIBUTES

HAUL HAIG'S FUNERAL

IMPRESSIVE SCENES (British Official News.) Picm Association—By Wireless—Copyright. RUGBY, February 4. Leaving St. Columba’s Church for the Abbey, mounted men slowly drew the gun carriage. * ' Meanwhile the guards and other regiments lined the route to the Waterloo station. The procession resumed its journey, and massed bands played funeral marches throughout, while the escorts marched slowly with reversed arms. The troops lining the route leaned upon their rifles with bowed heads. For the most part the journey to the Abbey was covered at a quick march owing to tho distance, but from the Abbey the funeral was accorded the impressive and time-honored army ritual. .‘The coflin-was borne to the funeral van by eight Scots under a sergeant. The Princes entered the van, and gave the Empire’s farewell salute, and the train started quietly. The Princes and pallbearers saluted, and the band played Chopin’s ‘ Funeral March.’ Two train carriages were filled with wreaths. The Prince of Wales wore the lull dress uniform of a colonel of the Welsh Guards. The Duke of York and Prince Henry followed, and then came Prince Arthur of Connaught and the other representatives of Royalty, after whom followed the family mourners. Tophatted war veterans, proudly displaying medals, and also a poppy each, included “ Old Contemptibles,” carrying a red, white, and blue banner draped with black. Representatives of the universities, etc., academically robed and led by officers, of the three fighting services, and dominion and colonial representatives followed. One of the most impressive sections was a big contingent of British Legionaires, carrying magnificent poppy wreaths inscribed “ For remembrance. A French detachment, m light blue overcoats, grey tin helmets, and black haversacks, and with rifles reversed, and little Belgians, in khaki and tin helmets, were in striking contrast to the towering guardsmen, who were m vivid dress of gold, blue, and red, with white gauntlets. Tho 17th and 21st Lancers, known as “The Death or Glory Boys,” led the procession in lull dress of dark blue, with white facings and plastrons—Earl Haig’s favorite uniform. Meanwhile, within tho Abbey, awaiting the arrival of.tho procession, were scenes of very impressive dignity and beauty. The reserved areas were filled by the nation’s eminent personages and distinguished representatives of the foreign Powers in diplomatic uniforms. inside the Abbey a vast congregation representative of tho Empire, including almost the entire Cabinet, other statesmen, hundreds of officers and diplomats, representatives of almost every nation on earth, stood reverently while the coffin was borne past the Unknown Warrior’s grave amid the strains of Chopin’s ‘ Funeral March ’ towards the choir. The congregation was mostly in mourning and black, hut a wealth of Haig poppies relieved the sombre lines. Earl Haig's widow, with a daughter on either side, stood in loneliness at the foot of the coffin, but nearby, grouped by themselves, were the Princes and the pallbearers. The service proceeded with all the beauty associated with Abbey memoriaras. The pipers raised a lament from the silence, and then the bugles were sounded, and finally ‘ Onward, Christian Soldiers,’ sung with an impressive volume, gave the service a concluding note of triumph. IN EDINBURGH. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, February 4. There were unforgettable scenes at midnight when the body of Lord Haig was conveyed through the streets of his native city of Edinburgh to St. Giles’s Cathedral, where it will lie in state until Tuesday. Despite tho late hour and a piercingly cold wind, people of all ages and classes made pilgrimages to the Princes stret station, and waited in the frost-covered streets. The approaches to the station were impassable when the special train arrived at 12.7. This morning eight artillerymen bore the coffin to a gun carriage. Pipers played ‘The Flowers of the Forest,’ and the procession was headed by a battalion of the Scots Greys to the cathedral. ST. GILES’S CATHEDRAL. LONDON, February 4. After a service at St. Giles’s Cathedra! on Tuesday Lord Haig’s coffin will he entrained to St. Boswell’s, where it will be placed on a farm cart and escorted by Ins Bcrmersyde employees along five miles of the route to Dryburgh Abbey, where a non-military service will be held. LONDON, February 5. It is estimated that 150,000 men and women passed through St. Giles’s Cathedral on Saturday. LORD HAIG’S DIARY. LONDON, February 4. Tho ‘ Daily Express ’ reveals the fact that Lord Haig, shortly before his death, deposited his diary of the war years with the trustees of the British Museum, with a proviso that the seals on the manuscript, which is now in the strongroom, must remain unbroken until 1940. The diary is frank and fearless, but its contents are known only to one intimate friend outside the family circle. He is a famous racing peer. A DANE’S GRATITUDE. LONDON, February 5. A Dane named F. K. Keilberg, whose wife is English, has sent £IO,OOO to the British Legion appeal fund m appreciation of the services of Lord Haig and his armies in helping Denmark to recover the Danish portion of Schleswig.—A. and N.Z. Cable.

mmmi services

FIRST CHURCH An echo of the national mourning which found expression in an impressive ceremony in Westminster Abbey yesterday was heard in the First Church of Otago last evening, when a memorial service Was held to commemorate the passing of Earl Haig. The Rev. Dr E. N. Merrington preached the memorial sermon, and was assisted in the pulpit by che'Kev D. Dutton. Dr V. E. Galway presided at the organ and .played , Beethoven’s Funeral March, renderings an ‘ln Memoriam ’ composition of his own as a postlude, Mr L. A. North, sang ‘Crossing the Bar,’, and Pipe-major J. C. Smith, of the Dunedin Pipe Hand,, and Piper G. Begbie. formerly of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders’ Band, cast a spell over the crowded church with their rendering .of .that"most poignant of Highland laments ‘ The Flowers of the Forest.’ The Defence Department was represented by Major-P. H. Bell, Captain F: L. Hhnt, and Captain S. Satterthwaite. of the General Staff, and Major A. Falconer, Major S. G. Scou-

lar Captain J. Kernohnii, Lieutenant M.’Harvey, Lieutenant H. W. White, and four n.c.o.s of the First Battalion, Otago Regiment.’ The’ Otago Mounted Rifles were represented by Captain Bruce Smith and Lieutenant J'. AitchiSon. The Dunedin. Returned Sob diers’ Association and tfie South African War Veterans’’.Association were also represented. • • The sermon was based' oil a text taken from tho second Book of Samuel, chapter »»•> verse 33—“And'.the king said unto his servants, know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” Dr Merrington said that the news of the death of Earl Haig, the Comman-der-in-Cliief and Field-marshal of the British Army during- the later and most intense period of the war, had come with startling suddenness, and the sad event had brought home to the hearts and minds of the people, tire .real greatness of the man who led their soldiers through much tribulation to ultimate victory and peace. Sir Douglas Haig as he was best known during the years’ of conflict, was a silent, strong leader, almost statuesque in his ■selfsought obscurity at General Headquarters. and one whom, most., people accented as of the order of things, and, so to speak, took for granted But that was all part of the grandeur of the man, upon whom, more than upon any other person, rested the’ appalling load of responsibility and labor for the achievement of the great ends which the British Empire, in common with the Allies, had set before the world. It was all part of the grandeur of Ins character that he never sought the plaudits of tho Press or the populace, but carried out tho plans formed by his own genius in collaboration, so far as possible, with political requirements at home, and with French and Allied programmes on the broad fields ot battle. , “A great man, yes, said the preacher j “ not as some are nhose meteoric sparkle brings a multitude out of doors to see the bursting flare become extinguished in quickly gathering blackness, nor as some who have shone so long as artificial luminaries in the eyes and streets and houses of their generation that it seems almost as if the sun had been eclipsed when their candlestick is removed out of its accustomed place; but Haig was great with a greatness that shall increase as the years go by; as a fixed star in the firmament of fame; as a star which becomes more lustrous as tho centuries roll. A great man as a soldier, typically and inevitably British, every inch of him, in mind and manners as in bearing and feature; but an even greater man in’the rare achievement of character on the slippery summits where place-hunters so often fail. It was this combination of outhority with character that steadied the harried armies of freedom for their long-awaited order to advance all along the lino; it was the incarnation of idealism and tenacity which represent the noblest spirit ot our race; the inability to know when we are defeated, as Napoleoiy put it; the dogged endurance and fortitude expressed in Haig’s stirring order in the dark days of April, 1918: | With pur backs to the wall, believing in tho justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to tho end.’ One can see in Haig’s devotion to duty at all costs, in his self-forgetfulness and self-renuncia-tion when ho nobly stood aside for Marshal Foch to become generalissimo, and also in his identification with the cause of his comrades, the ex-servicemen, since the war, something of the same spirit that animated the dying Captain Scott and his gallant comrades after their journey to the South Pole, when they lay dying.” . .. Under God, he continued, it was this spirit, magnificently present in Marshal Haig, as in the British Army as a whole, that won the war, -with the co-opera-tion of all our gallant Allies. It was the speaker’s privilege to have been on friendly terms with the chaplain of Field-marshal Haig, Professor George Simpson Duncan, now of St. Andrew’s University, Scotland; and, while travelling with him to Edinburgh, lie ascertained from him the very high estimates ’ which’he ■ had'_ formed of the British leader as a soldier and a Christian man. As a military leader Duncan considered that Haig was fully the equal of Foch, given the same opportunity. F asked: “ What pt the tragedy of Messines and Passchendaele, and the limited offensives which caused such casualties among the troops, including our dominion soldiers?” _ He had said: “I am glad you mentioned that, because I’ll tell you how it came about. In tho middle of 1917 the morale of the French army in the centre had broken down, and General Nivelle visited Haig and told him that there was nothing to stop an enemy advance' in the centre if the Germans came on, for his men were disaffected and would not fight. Haig considered for a few minutes, and then said, with determination; ‘They will not come on, for I will hammer their right flank so that they will not advance in the centre.’ And he thus organised those constant attacks on the northern front which saved the Allied line.” These statements of" Padre Duncan’s had since been substantiated, and they might bring comfort -to sorrowing New Zealand hearts, for the dead of Flanders died to save the whole battle line of humanity. Professor Duncan also give the preacher a fuller account of the incident which” had been cabled out to the newspapers regarding the church service at Haig’s headquarters on the Sunday following the huge German offensive in March, when it seemed as if the British and French armies would he divided, and possibly defeated. Staff officers told Duncan that there would be nobodv at the service, because they were all too busy. A few batmen might turn up. Duncan determined to hold the service, and he could scarcely believe his eyesight when the Field Marshal himself appeared at the little Presbyterian Church hut as calm and resolute as ever. Sir Douglas Haig spoke to the chaplain, who expressed his surprise at seeing him there, and the great commander replied to his query as to the state of the battle and his hope that things were not too bad: “Things will never be too bad. lam only trying to carry out what you read in Second Chronicles last Sunday (xx., 15): ‘Thus saltli the Lord unto yon, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for tho battle is not yours, but God’s.’ ” Not yours, but God’s—that is the essence of the character of this servant of the nation, losing sight of self in devotion to the duty of acknowledging God and serving the world. It reminds'us of Wordsworth’s reference in his noble ‘ Ode to Duty ’ to such true-hearted ones:—

Glad hearts! without reproach or blot! Why do thev w'ork, and know it not? Long may the kindly impulse last! But Thou, if they should, totter, teach them to stand fast! The biggest thing in Earl Haig’s career was his willingness to stand down; to sacrifice his personal and national and military pride for the.cause which was greater than . all;. unity of command, throughout the Allied operations, one supreme will, while he fulfilled his own great command in subordination to the. generalissimo. On? had to be head, but which one? He might have insisted upon his claims for long and supreme service in the .field of France and elsewhere’.; He who humbly acknowledged God in the little church service among a fed orderlies was" big enough to do the heroic thing; and did it matter to him whether it was Haig or Foch? It was God, humanity, national life, freedom from militarism and autocracy. It, was brotherhood and world-peace that mattered, not mine or thine. And so Haig rose to the full height of his greatness -’when he stooped to take the second place for the sake of victory! ; ' : • Such. was the, man who devoted his strength during 'the war to'the colossal tasks of leadership and .whose retirement as our own Governor-General (a worthy comrade of the late Field Marshal) has said, would have caused consternation in the critical years .of the

war. And such was- the man who devoted his time and energies since the armistice to the reconstruction of the. disordered social life of his ex-com-rades-on active service, as tho president of the British Legion of Ex-ser-vicemen and the soldier’s friend. Such was the man, whoso last speech was an appeal to the Boy Scouts to play the game and to learn the real meaning of citizenship and public spirit. : ■ ■‘‘We of the southernmost capital city of the King’s dominions,” he said, “ hold this service in the New Edinburgh of the. south not only to, follow in spirit the touching procession from St. Columba’s Presbyterian Church, of which Earl Haig was a devoted elder, through the crowds of London, with warriors as pall-bearers, to the ancient, historic Abbey which enshrines the name and honored dust of so many of our national heroes and great men, or the entraining of the dead marshal to Edinburgh, where ho lies in state until the last simple rites are said amid the graves of his ancestors in the venerable Dryburgh Abbey. Nor are we assembled hero merely to do honor to a man who lias indeed deserved well of his country ; but we are here to offer up to God our thanksgiving for tiie great deliverance which He wrought through His servants, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; and to earnestly pray that tho example of faithfulness to duty and service of our fellows in need may bo followed by those who are to enjoy the liberties which Earl Haig and all who died in the war paid the price to secure as a most sacred trust for the future. And we are here also to pray that God will bless the League of Nations and every international and Imperial instrument of world peace; to entreat that never again shall men be called uppn in their thousands to fight against their fellow-raeu or participate in the cruelties and horrors of armed conflict. Such was our calm Field Marshal’s aim and endeavor; for this he strove with all his might; for this lie lias paid the price and made the splendid sacrifice within a decade of the order to cease firing. “His might well be the warrior voice that speaks on safety in Rupert Brooks’s poem:— We have built a house that is not for Time’s throwing. We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever. War knows no power. Safe shall be my going, Secretly armed against all death s endeavor; Safe all _ safety’s lost; safe where men fall; And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.” The service was concluded with the singing of ‘ Onward Christian Soldiers,’ the” hymn which brought to a close the historic service in St.. Columba’s Church, London.

WESLEY CHURCH

At Wesley Church, Cargill road, the Rev. W. B. Scott made reference to the passing of Earl Haig. He stated that no one was fully able to realise the great burden that was placed on Earl Haig’s shoulders during the period of tho war. Mr Scott concluded by emphasising three points that called for special admiration. The first of these was his readiness to sacrifice Ins own personal ambition for the benefit of the Allied armies and the British Empire; the second was his studious consideration of the lower ranks of the Army, both during and after the war; and the third was that Earl Haig was not only a groat soldier but was a true Christian.