MARSHAL FOCH GOES TO HIS REST.

Shannon News, 28 March 1929, Page 2

MARSHAL FOCH GOES TO HIS REST.

A MILLION MOURNERS. WORLD TRIBUTE TO ALLIED CHIEF. PARIS, March 26. . The world to-day paid its last tribute to the man who led ten million Allies to victory in the Great War. Every Ally of France was represented at Notre Dame and the Hotel des Invalides. Not since the Peace Conference has there been such a gathering in Paris. Rooms overlooking the route of the procession were rented for the , equivalent of £ls apiece. At least a million mourners thronged the streets, many kneeling in prayer from time to time, particularly soldiers honouring their well-loved Marshal.

' Men disabled in the war gathered in the Jardin des Tuileries to escape the crushing crowd. Elsewhere fashionable women rubbed shoulders with market women and smart men about: town with workers.

“SUBLIME GENIUS AND PIETY” SOLEMN HOMAGE IN NOTRE DAME BRILLIANT EULOGIUM IN LES INVALIDES. • Jj” PARIS, March 26. The PriircP of Wales, in the uniform of a Colonel of the Welsh Guards, accompanied President Doumergue to Notre Dame, where he sat ( at the head of the nave.with Marshal Foeh’s family, representatives of the Allied powers and the French Government. The Cathedral’s dull vast interior was *<lrapecl throughout with heavy black hangings relieved by tricolours. The coffin was draped in black and silver and covered with the French colours. The great bell of Notre Dame, tolling above, led a- chorus of bells of the churches throughout the city. Cardinal Dubois and two bishops were enthroned in the choir, but the actual Mass was said;by the Abbe Verdrie, curate of the late Marshal’s parish. Cardinal Dubois led the procession of bishops, and priests to the bier, where they encircled the cpffin, the Cardinal,' after pronouncing final absolution,) sprinkled holy water. Then the low chanting of the choir, suddenly ceased and the buglers sounded the “Last Post,” whereupon the eyes of many Britishers present sought the memorial to the Empire’s dead in Notre Dame. For a moment the Prince of Wales’s glance rested on the memorial and then he bowed his head. At the end of the service the President, the Prince and other distinguished representatives, including Sir James Parr, filed past the coffin. The procession left the Cathedral at 16.15 a.m. Marshal 'Foch’is charger was led by an orderly with accoutrements Reversed. His decorations were carried on a. cushion by an ..officer, followed by the funereal gun carriage and then his family. President Doumergue, wearing a black coat, the Prince of Wales, the Ambassadors, M. Poincare, Senators, Officers of the Legion of Honour, and finally forty thousand war veterans.

Overhead aeroplanes dipped in salute.

The crowds were so dense that hundreds of gendarmes were hurriedly collected to force a passage for the procession, which was two miles long. From time to time bands took up the strains of the “Marseillaise.”' The crowds fervently sang the Republican National Anthem.

The procession slowed down as the gates of the great courtyard of the Invalidcs opened to welcome the dead generalissimo, to his resting place. The Prime Minister, M. Poincare, in a funeral oration, said: —

“■The traits of the dead man’s character were valour, magnanimity, natural goodness, vivacity, penetration, grandeur, and sublime genius. To' these were added the inestimable gift of piety. He had no other ambition than to serve. Let us bow- before the sacred remains of a man, who, in serving France, served humanity, and will live, with youth ever renewed, in perpetuity ”

Standing bare-headed before the coffin, with French anid British troops massed behind him, M. Poincare incidentally eulogised the courage of the British troops, which, he said, had helped the dead leader to achieve supreme victory.

The final ceremony of laying the great soldier near the tomb of Turenne, and the service at Notre Dame were wirelessed throughout Europe and even to America. They wvere heard in London plainly, enabling listeners to follow the entire service.

A crowd of fifty thousand • gathered outside the Hotel des Invalides and also followed the service by means of amplifiers.