SOLDIER LIES IN STATE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 11

SOLDIER LIES IN STATE

HUNDREDS FILE PAST BIER LADY HAIG PAYS TRIBUTE ALONE By Cable. — Preta Association. — Copyright. Reed. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Wednesday. LONG before the door of Saint Columba’s Church opened this morning hundreds reverently lined up awaiting an opportunity to pay their last respects to the late Earl Haig, whose coffin was guarded by a detachment of the Royal Horse Guards.

Lady Haig entered the church before the public was admitted, carrying two wreaths of Flanders poppies. It was her desire that nobody should see her tribute to her husband. She remained a few minutes and then departed through the silent and bareheaded crowd. A steady stream filed past the coffin, which was covered by a Union Jack, on which lay the late Earl’s plumed helmet, field-marshal’s baton, sword and medals. Visitors were representative of every section of the community and included hundreds of ex-servicemen, many of them disabled. By noon 4,000 had passed the bier, and many thousands more passed during the luncheon hour and afternoon, piling up hundreds of poppy wreaths. FUNERAL ON FRIDAY It is officially announced by the War Office that Earl Haig will receive a military funeral in London on Friday. The procession will go from the Scottish Church of St. Columba, Pont Street, to Westminster Abbey, via Grosvenor Crescent, Constitution Hill and the Horse Guards, Whitehall. After a service in Westminster Abbey, the procession will go to Waterloo, via Westminster Bridge, for entrainment for Scotland. Earl Haig’s body will lie in state in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, from Saturday to Monday. The remains will be buried at Bemersyde, in Scotland, among his ancestors, and not in St. Paul’s Cathedral, as had been expected. Following the precedent of the burial of Thomas Hardy, a suggestion has been made that the heart be buried in Edinburgh, but the family disapproved. The Scottish executive of the British Legion is arranging memorial services throughout Scotland. INDOMITABLE LEADER The American Legion has sent the following message to the British Legion:—“Earl Haig was a great soldier, and an indomitable leader. His gentle spirit was tenaciously courageous and serene in the darkest hour.** A message from Berlin says that General von Kluck, who led the German Ist Army in the early advance in Belgium, stated that he always held Earl Haig in great estimation, both as a corps leader and an army commander. He regretted exceedingly that he had not had an opportunity of making his personal acquaintance. He had previously asked Viscount D’Abemon, then British Ambassador in Berlin, to invite Earl Haig to visit him in Berlin. —A. and N.Z.Sun. FUNERAL PAGEANT FAMOUS PALL-BEARERS HISTORIC GUN-CARRIAGE Reed. 1.6 p.m. LONDON, Wed. The late Earl Haig’s pall-bearers will be Field-Marshals Lord Methuen, Sir Claude Jacob, Sir William Robertson, Generals Lord Horne and Lord Byng, Sir Hubert Gough, Sir Herbert Lawrence. Air-Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard, Admirals of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe and Earl Beatty, Marshal Foch and the Belgian General De Meunlnck, and Marshal Petain. The gun which fired the first British round in the war on August 22 1914, will fire the salute. The Union Jack covering the coffin was formerly flown at the cenotaph. At Lady Haig’s request the funeral marches will not be played during the service at Westminster Abbey, which concludes with the hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” Pipers will play the lament, “The Flowers of the Forest," during the service. Sir James Parr will represent the New Zealand Government, and Major Stevens will represent the New Zealand Army. , , Eight superior officers, including five generals, will carry Earl Haig s insignia. Troops in the procession will include four battalions of Foot Guards, a battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, a battalion of the •London Scottish, and also a battalion of the Seventh Hussars (the late marshal’s regiment), the 17th Lancers and the Horse Guards. A lancer and a hussar will lead the dead warrior’s charger, and Sargeant Secrett, who for 30 years was Earl Haig’s personal servant, will precede the horse. ' The gun-carriage will be that which bore the unknown warrior and belongs to the gun which fired the first shell in the war. —A. and N.Z.

MONUMENT TO HAIG PARLIAMENT’S PROPOSAL BELGIUM WILL NOT FORGET British Wireless—Press Assn. — Copyright Reed. 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, Wed. It is stated that Parliament, when it meets next week, will not only pass resolutions recording the sense of loss felt by the Empire at the death of Earl Haig, but will also be asked to vote an address to the King, praying His Majesty to direct that a fitting monument be erected to the late Earl Haig. The Belgian Embassy, on behalf of the Belgian Government, has communicated to the Foreign Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain, a message of condolence with His Majesty’s Government. The message states that Belgium will never forget the eminent part played by the late Field-Marshal in the victory of the Allied armies during the Great War.—A. and N.Z.