THE KING’S HOMAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1923, Page 4

THE KING’S HOMAGE

TO OUR DEAD. TRIBUTE TO GREAT ITALY. (From J. M. X. Jeffries). MONTECCTIIO (on the Asia go battlefield). MAY 13. "Uv God’s help,” said the King some few minutes ago, in a firm and resonant voice, looking up as lie spoke from the text of his speech m his gloved hand and gazing for a moment at the British graves in the little cemetery below him, at the reverent country folk clustered in the meadow rising beside it, at the eternal plains of Italy swimming in heat, and at the lowers of Vicenza dim in the distance, “by God’s help, and as far as lies in the power of men entrusted with power, war shall not henceforth he accepted as a burden recurrent and inevitable upon mankind.” While the paper in his band shook ever so little the sun glittered upon 'la' Imperial crown embossed upon it. There was utter silence as he spoke, and the burning light of Italy fell lull and undeviating upon the Stone ot Remembrance and upon the British banner lying atop of it, all stark and outstanding and crossed by no shadow hut the King's.

This was the great moment of the eereiaonv io-dny. when the King and (Jiit'eu came up into i lie foot-hills of .Meali'chio by Vicenza "in render, in oar people’s name, gratitude and reverence to uiir death A I.OVELY CEREMONY.

Tie cemetery, where some .‘lllO British soldiers lie, i~ a lovely one. where the now familiar details ol the Cross of Sacrifice and the Slone of Remembrance and rows of equal headstones arc set oil a hill slope. The Cross at the highest point lowers against the sky. The Stone of Remembrance is 1” steps beneath it, and then come the rows of graves, planted with pansies and many-coloured pinks and flowers of the hills. The War Graves Commission has placed all in a frame of English turf, double rare and sweet in its unwonted surroundings of vineyards and of close-pressing mountains. • The Queen, all in white and lilac, and the King, in his khaki, came through the gates of the cemetery. The architect and the superintendent commissioners, British or Italian, all of thorn who have so finely executed or so thoughtfully tend or care for our cemeteries, were presented to them, and then, striding tin the incline ot turf, while point-device Italian soldiers from the Brigade of Abrnzzi dipped their Hags and -aluied. the King laid his wreath upon the Cross of Sacrifice, a wreath of roses.

lie stood silent at the salute, and then turned down to the Stone ol Remembrance, and standing before it made his short but noble speech—tv past tribute to Great Italy, and a tuturo promise to our dead.

It was in a way strange to heai these words, destined no doubt to slir feeling through the world, delivered to but a small audience ol officials and some hundred villagers, women with hair hound with black handkerchiefs, men in their rough, cleanly best.

But none could perhaps have represented better the millions whose lives are hound tip with the hopes ol the King’s speech. Their reverence and silence during a speech which they could not understand was beyond all praise. They seemed to have an iin—nression of the dignity of the occasion.

When the King, with a filial glance over his audience, ended, the Queen laid her wreath of mourning—purple flowers and rosemary—upon the Stone of Remembrance. T hrotigh the graves came a little lil" of tiny girls and hoys —the girls m while dresses and mittens, the little hoys ill furbished Sll’tS, all from the village school —and while the Kmg and Queen beckoned them on ami encouraged them with word ami smile they formed in a row in from of the grtai Stone hearing the words “Their name liveth tor evermore," and there laid each a small wrc-Mh ot' hillside flowers. It was a most lunching sight, a- tip. Hue In lie bodies bent with flowers beneath the kind eyes of the King and Queen. “Tlmifk the dear little children." said the Queen in Italian to their mistress. As the King and Queen walked down the lines inspecting the graves, one especially of a British officer horn in Florence -Roger de Yore, she waved to the villagers to come closer, and they poured from the upper part of their meadow to the road level. As the King and Queen departed, bundled- of handkerchiefs floated out to greet them. There was no jarring shunting or hand-clapping, but instead a beautiful understanding of what the ceremony mean I to ihe King and Queen, come thus to honour at Mnntecehio the three lu tonr thousand British warriors lying in Indian soil, in land which is the gift to Britain of the Italian people. ITALIANS' REQUEST'. Tie last scene of their Majesties' visit to Italy was the most touching ot all. Letter alter letter had conic to the Quirinal Palace while the the King was in Rome saying, “Will your Majesty, when paying your visit to the cemeteries on the Italian trout, take our place, as distance makes it impossible for us to pay a visit to the grave u| our soil, who fell there;'' In such or analogous terms parents humbly begged the King to represent them at. the far-off tombs, and this wfs most especially iti his mind, I |,..-rn, when alter the ceremony at M.mteeehio Cemetery he and the Queen went to emit the small conic-1 tones lying in the heart ol the great j Asiago Plateau, so long held by Bn-ti.-h troops in Italy. I

To roach them he ami the Queen drove about 111 miles into the heart oi the mountains. As a sign oi "hat. Indian hospitality can be, every inch (l f that 10-iniles road had been water-

They visited three cemeteries, ouch most characteristic. At .Magnahosohi the cemetery lies like a rock amid the rocks surrounding it. Thick low walls are its boundaries. The Cross ol Sacriliee is no longer a slender one, as in other cemeteries, but is a great, rude, simple carved mass, with its ante upheld by massive pillars, so that in it nil the rude strength of the surrounding mountains is inset. At its base lay hundreds of bunches of wild (lowers, a tribute from the children of the few scattered mountaineers of the district, and flowers from those in whose bouses British officers had been quartered nearer the plain. “stone boulders and outcrops ol stone make up the landscape around, with distant ]teaks on the horizon. Near by lies an Italian cemetery, and hero tlie King and Queen laid a wreath on the tornhs of Italian heroes who had died beside their English comrades. SILENT TRIBUTES.

At Bnscon and Bnrental cemeteries the world, for which the men who lie there fell, seems far away. At Boscon particularly, the cemetery lies in a clearing amid high forests of pines. Before the Cross of Sacrifice in each cemetery the King and Queen stood in a reflective silence, which would have signified much to those who had

written them such touching letters. : After motoring back down tbe mountain side from the Asiago plateau,

rdong the wonderful roads which cross like Loams of light, the King and Queen paid a short visit to Dueville cemetery (where 123 British dead lie), and thence came into Vicenza. They left their car to walk awhile in the celebrated central piazza, where Palladio’s wonderful basilica occupies half of one side.

Then amid loud cheers, hand-waving and clapping, and much really genuine emotion, they drove to the railway station and left Italy for home. One who has followed all their visit may venture to say that wherever they have been they have awakened esteem and admiration. The King’s straightforwardness has been much a]>preciated, and as for the Queen, sinhas so touched a susceptible nation, that if such things were possible, they would make her an honorary member of their own Koval Family. THE'SPEECH.

The full text of the King’s speech at the Montecehio Cemetery is:

The Queen and T are come here today to render, in our people’s name, gratitude and reverence to onr dead. In a world whore all men are each * other’s debtors, the Western World’s i debt, to Italy begins at each nation’s birth, since it was from Italy, old in unconquerable youth, that they received the first framing of their laws, life, and arts. And the long centuries of unbroken peace between us j make Britain and her soils not least of ; Italy's debtors in civilisation. : Wo who have lived through the past dolorous years have seen the whole edifice of that civilisation threatened—its : very soul and aim denied and proscribed—as we have seen the nation’s ! unite against that menace and, alter I sacrifice inconceivable, remove it from ! i heir path.

The ebb and How of the vast strife, and the disposals of onr common forces [’gainst our common foes, decreed that, men of our blood also should lay down their lives both in these plains here and m the mountain barriers above it-., where through the ages -o many assailants have been stayed. And now Italy. her-olf grievously stricken in the Ins- of her own children, has added to our debt by generously giving us for ever the ground which entombs our dead within her borders. In the years that have passed since they died, a world, riven to its foundations, has been granted time and breathing space to look upon the future, with most sober thought indeed. hut without terror or the unreason born of terror. This respite, and every gain that each year of it baa brought, we owe to the living and the dead of the great hosts who, terribly goaded into war. made war terrible. PRICE OF VICTORY.

For these men took arms, not. I rum lit.-l of conquest or satisfaction of hatred. hut in the one desire to make sale the common and worthy things which they and their forefathers held most dear. Neither their battle nor theit victory was soiled by ungenerous deedor triumphs.

The end they wrought lor i- won. '■ill at a price which, in the heai ol conflict, was scarcely uitdefslood. aim we -ee now that it is not merely the holocaust of ihe dead or the ruin oi multitudes with which we must reckon. One black ■•tllermath of this war ot wars 1,,-is been the warping of men’s minds io devise, and the poisoning oi men's souls to receive, destruction, moral and material, a- part of the reasonable machinery of life. In this lies peril io both life and reason. But the open admission of the peril may he our best safeguard against it : and I dare to hone as the wi#hl steadies anew in its orbit and realises what gulfs of horror il ha- overpas-ed it will resolve that, by God's help, its far :is lies in tlie power of men entrusted with power, war shall not henceforth he accepted a- a burden recurrent and inevitable upon mankind. For their honour's sake and in token of our love and pride we have -u built the graves of our fallen that, they may endure—a visible sign ot tin* our hois'. Italian wounded ex-soldiers deeuiut-

■d the British graves with flowers. In the cemetery at MonleCebio they had placed a bronze wreath with the inscription. “In ivmeiiiliranec of Ihe fraternal Iru ed-bin of two peoples enit-e----erated he blood."