The King in France.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 May 1922, Page 4

The King in France.

VISIT TO iiATTI.KKIEI.PS. [llf TKI.KCnAI’U— i*EB I* It ESS ASSOCIATION'] LONDON, .May 13 The King and Queen’s visit lo Terliuethun Cemetery coneuded their tour ul the battlefields. The King delivered an oration, including a message to the war bereaved, saying: “For the past lew days,. 1 have been making a solemn pilgrimage in I mnour of the people who tiled for till free men. 1 should like to send a message to all who lost those dear to them in the Great War. In this, the Queen joins me. Amid surroundings so wonderfully typical of that single-hearted assembly of nations and races forming our Empire, lor over in their last rpiarters, lie here the sons of every portion of that Empire, across, as it were, the threshold of the mother island which they guarded, that freedom might lie served in the uttermost ends of (lie earth.” Touring around Ypres, and beginning with tlie Ypres battlefield, the King stopped for some time at tlie grave of an Australian, Sergeant McGee, a posthumous Y.C.

The King reached Arras on Friday, and motored to Notre Dame, do l.oreTte Unitmi, where 100,000 Frenchmen fell in a battle lasting one year, and where a memorial, pith a lighted lantern, is to keep oyer (hem a perpetual vigil. The King met Marshal Focli there, and they visited several cemeteries, depositing wreaths of red hpupls. The King also visited Vimv Ridge, which the Canadians captured, and they met tlie Canadian High Commissioner and Mr Rudyard Kipling. \\’hile at lmrette, the King listened eagerly to Marshal Focli and Lord Haig, when they were describing various famous points, and explaining thy details of the stupendous battle, lie turned to them once-confidently, saying, in French, “Toujoiirs lions amis, nest ee. pas! J ” (“You were good friends always, were you not!-'”) Marshal Focli replied, with fervour: “Tonjours! Toujoiirs! l’our les monies chosos et les memos raisons!” ("Always, always! For tlie same objects and tlie same ends!”) .Marshal Focli then grasped Lord Haig’s hand. As the two Marshals held hands in a grin of comradeship, King George placed his hand over theirs. The scene was worthy of record by a great painter. O.u (lie hillside, scarred with graves, and overlooking devastated France, the Hritish King sealing the eoturades|iip of the two great war leaders made- a historicscene.

X X