THE NATION'S TRIBUTE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1920, Page 2

THE NATION'S TRIBUTE

THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS,

fAUSTRALIAN & N.Z. OABLB ASSOCIATION

LONDON, Nov.. 6/ Final arrangements have been made for the burial of an unknown warrior at Westminster Abbey. Lord Curzpn states that the Government is satisfied the precautions taken are ample to maintain that this soldier’s identity will be unknown to anyone.

It has been decided to make the ceremony entirely domestic, hence the Allies will not participate, but as the French desired to take part, the French destroyer Verdun, .has been selected to convey the body to England,- as a compliment to France. The French will hand the body over at Boulogne with military honours and a )field-marshall’s salute will be fired at Dover on the arrival of the body on the afternoon of the tenth. The body will lie in a specially-prepared chapel at Victoria Railway Station and a military guard will be posted all night.

Another field-marshall’s salute will be fired when the body is placed on a gun carriage at 9.40 on the morning of the eleventh (Armistice Day). The coffin will he inscribed, “A British warrior who fell in the Great War, 1914-18, for King and Country.” It is not even known if the body be that of an Englishman or a Dominion soldier.

Besides representatives of all services, detachments' of the mercantile marine men who saw service will participate in the ' procession. The coffin will be conveyed with a Union Jack from the battlefield which was used at many military funerals at the front. The pall bearers will be Admirals Beatty, Jackson, Sturdee, Madden, Lord French, Lord Haig, Lord Methuen Marshall Henry Wilson, Generals F.orne, Byng, and Hugh Trenchard. When the procession reaches the cenotaph in Whitehall, the gun carriage will halt before the King. The Primate and Bishop of London will conduct a service at which massed choirs will assist. The King will unveil the cenotaph as Big Ben chimes the last stroke of eleven. Elsewhere maroons (crimson lights) will be fired in the metropolis in order that the minutes may be synchronised. At the expiration of two minutes thq procesion will be reformed, tli King marching to the Abbey immediately behind the coffin, followed by the Prince of Wales, and the other. Princes, the Rreipier, and other Ministers. *

The Dean and Chapter of Westminster will receive the coffin at the Abbey and conduct it to an open grave, where a short service will he held. After the coffin is lowered, muffled drums will roll out. Then massed buglers will sound the reveille. The ceremony thus ends with a note of hope. If » black fog should prevail, the ceremony at the cenotaph will be omitted, the coffin being brought from Victoria Station to the Abbey by the shortest route.

Over fourteen thousand applications have been received from relatives of war victims for 1050 seats in the Abbey. These will be decided by lot. Only bereaved women will be given seats at the windows of Government offices overlooking the cenotaph in Whitehall.