VISIT TO BATTLEFIELDS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5229, 20 January 1928, Page 4

VISIT TO BATTLEFIELDS.

TEN THOUSAND PILGRIMS.

EMPIRE TO BE REPRESENTED.

A great pilgrimage of 10,000 British ex-Service men! and. women to the Western Front battlefields will take place in August.

The pilgrimage will commemorate the; tenth anniversary of the opening of the vast attack on the German lines that led to the end of. the Great War, and will revive the spirit of; the wartime contact between Great Britain, France, and Belgium. Three months ago thei suggestion was made that such a pilgrimage, ceremonial and sacred in nature, would be exceedingly appropriate, and the British Legion with Field-Mar-shal Earl Haig at its head immediately formed a Battlefields Pilgrimage Committee to give effect to it. MEN AND WOMEN. As a. result of the action taken by this committee in co-operation with the authorities in France and Bel-, gium, arrangements have already been made* for a British Expeditionary Pilgrimage of at least 10',000 exService men and women to disembark at Calais, Dunkirk, Ostend, and Zeebrugge in the first week of August next. Detachments of sailors, soldiers, nurses, and other war-workers from every Dominion and Colony in the Emp’re will be included in the pilgrimage. So that the. Empire representation may be thoroughly complete, the British Empire Service League is co-operating with the British Legioii The pilgrimage will leave London, Tilbury, and Harwich so that the 10,000 will land simultaneously at the northern ports of France and Belgium on August 5. Twenty battalions of 500 men and women will bejtormed, and each battalion will travel through the battlefields zone, for three days in special cruising trains, having meals and sleeping in such historic places of the war as Cambrai, Peronne, Amiens, Albert, Douai, Arras, Le<ns, Bethune, Armentieres, St. Omer, and Ypres. MARCH PAST LORD HAIG. On August 8, the date of the commencement of the British victorious offensive in 1918 that culminated in the enemy praying for an armistice three months later, thq 10,000 pilgrims will assemble outside the new walls of Ypres, and, .with Lord Haig taking the salute on the wa!y, will march into the city to hold a service, of commemoration in its streets and squares and to lay wreaths on the Menin Gate;-memorial. Colonial John Brown, chairman of the battlefields Pilgrimage Committee, defined the objects of! the pilgrimage as follows : — To honour the million of the Brit--ish Empire who made the supreme .sacrifice during the Great War. To keep before the, rising generation the effort made in the Great War by the British Empire, and to remind it of the tragedy of war. To spread throughout the Empire thq knowledge of the beautiful and dignified character of our war cemeteries, and by this means to afford consolation to the bereaved. To cement and continue the war friendships with France and Belgium. To eniable those who served under Field-Marshal Earl Haig to carry out under his leadership, and at a reasonable rate, a pilgrimage on the tenth anniversary of. the. launching of the victory offensive. To direct attention to the activities of the British Legion and its allied- legions. HOW TO JOIN. The British Legion will organise and conduct the pilgrimage, and all applications for membership of the 10,000 must be made to its local headquarters. Any man or woman qualified by service in the war can participate. The wives and bereaved relatives of ex-service men will also be able to join the pilgrimage, and all men who are accompanied by their Wives will be lodged as near to Ypres as possible. The cost of travelling from the British -port of embarkation, accommodation, and food, will, wot be more than £4 5s per person, and arrangements are being made where necessary for the. money to be paid by instalments. between now and next June.