Haig’s Glorious Example

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 269, 3 February 1928, Page 9

Haig’s Glorious Example

“AN IMPERISHABLE MEMORY” Countrymen’s Debt of Gratitude British Wireless—Press Assn.—Copyright Received 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, Thursday. ‘'IIE has left to the Army an imperishable memory, and to II the Empire a glorious example.’’ Thus concludes the Army Council’s order issued "on the melancholy occasion of the death of Field-Marshall Earl Haig.”

“rpHE Army Council desires to place on record its sense of the heavy loss which the Army and the Empire have suffered. “The late Field-Marshal had already served in many campaigns with great distinction, and had held high appointments where he had had opportunities of training the troops whom he subsequently commanded in the Great War. “As the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, he bore through four long years, the heaviest burden which has ever been carried by a British soldier in the history of the Empire. He led the forces of the Empire to victory, and placed his countrymen under a debt of gratitude which is fully acknowledged now and the council is persuaded, will be no less fuly recognised by succeeding generations. “Always studious of the welfare of the troops under his command in the field, since the war he devoted, without stint, his time and great energy to promoting the interests of those who had risked their employment, health, and lives in the service of their King.”—A. and N.Z. NEAR SIR WALTER SCOTT HAIG’S RESTING PLACE TO LIE IN STATE IN EDINBURGH British Wireless—Press Assti.—Copyright Reed. 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, Thurs. It was announced to-day that the remains of Earl Haig will be interred in the family vault at Dryburgh Abbey in Scotland on Tuesday. Dryburgh Abbey is near Bemersyde House, the late Field-Marshal’s home. The vault of the Haigs is next to the burial place of Sir Walter Scott. After the funeral service in Westminster Abbey to-morrow, the coffin will be entrained for Edinburgh, arriving in the Scottish capital about midnight. It will be received by General Sir William Peyton, general officer commanding Scotland, and his staff. Two squadrons of Scots Greys and the pipe band of the Cam • n Highlanders will be in attendance. The members of (he British Legion will bear the coffin to a gun-carriage and the procession will march through the city to Saint Giles Cethedral, where the body will lie in state until Monday, then it will be conveyed to ■ Dryburgh Abbey. It is announced by the War Office that Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson has been forbidden by his doctor to act as pall-bearer at the Westminster Abbey service, and that his place will be taken by General Lord Cavan. Among the messages of condolence received to-day by the Foreign Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain, was one from the Brazilian Government.— A. and N.Z. • SILENT DEVOTION WIDOW KNEELS BY COFFIN By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. Reed. 12.15 p.m. LONDON, Thurs. Lady Haig, wearing a Flanders poppy, knelt for half an hour in silent devotion this morning in front of her husband’s coffin in St. Columbia’s Church. A few minutes afterwards a party of Scottish Bqrderers took over the guard. Meanwhile another queue waited outside, the earliest arrivals including crippled ex-service men, with their nurses, and Chelsea penisoners.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.

WREATHS .OF POPPIES FROM KINGS AND PRINCES STORY OF DEVOUTNESS By Cable. —Press Association. Copyright. LONDON, Wednesday. The Prince of Wales will represent King George at the funeral of Earl Haig at Westminster Abbey. The King, the Prince of Wales, the King of the Belgians and hundreds of other notable persons have ordered wreaths of poppies from the British Legion factory. The legionaries will line large sections of the route and will provide a guard of honour at Waterloo. “THINGS NEVER TOO BAD.” A new story of Earl Haig's intense devoutness is revealed by Professor George Duncan, of St. Andrews, who was a Presbyterian chaplain at British Headquarters. The Presbyterian Church consisted of a small wooden hut, which Earl Haig attended every Sunday morning. Professor Duncan says: “But on that black Sunday following the outbreak of the German offensive in March, 1918, I realised that he could not come. I could scracely believe my eyesight when he appeared outside the hut, as calm and resolute as ever. “I said I hoped things were not too bad. Earl Haig replied: ‘Things will never be too bad. It is what you read in the Second Book of Chronicles, “Fear not ye, neither be dismayed.” * (chapter 20, verse 15). He then went into the church. “That same evening Earl Haig did the biggest thing in his career. He had a fruitless consultation with Marshal Petain, which revealed that the French commanders were mostly concerned with the defence of Paris. Earl Haig returned to headquarters, and wired forthwith to London, urging the appointment of a generalissimo for the whole front. It was for him the supreme sacrifice, but it saved the Allied line.”—A. and N.Z.-Sun.

“NEVER WROTE A BOOK” GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S TRIBUTE WITH HAIG IN THE SUDAN Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday. “I would like to pay my respects to our old comrade. A very great man and a very great gentleman,” said the Governoi^General, Sir Charles Fergusson, at a conversazione given in his honour by the Veterans’ Association this evening. “It was my good fortune to have known Earl Haig, and it was also my good luck to have served with him in the Sudan War. He was then a subaltern in the 7th Hussars. After that we soldiered together, and I constantly met him. He was not a man who was showy, and it was quite contrary to his nature to go in for theatriealism. He did his job well and never cared what was said or thought of him. All that was said was less complimentary than it might have been, and that really was what he liked. “There was no one in the world who inspired such absolute faith and confidence as did Earl Haig in the years of war. I cannot imagine the feeling in 1917 or 1918, if one had heard that Earl Haig had retired. It would have been such a blow that we would have lost 50 per cent, of our efficiency. KNEW HIS JOB ’“He knew his job and did his. duty until the last. No man In history had such a burden as he had. He had not only danger and difficulty in front of him, but when there was war on a big scale he was hampered with politics behind him. He was an extraordinarily strong man, and never ga.ve in to a point that would risk his men's lives unnecessarily. He never wore more than six medal ribbons, though he could have worn 60, had he chosen. “He had never written a book or spoken a wqri regarding the war, with the exception of one occasion, when he remarked that everybody had found out who had won the war, but nobody had put down the right people who had accomplished this end, and that was the rank-and-file, who did the fighting.” , In six months they had lost two most valuable men, the President of the British Legion, Earl Haig, and the secretary, Majcr-C aaeial Sir Harold B'^gles-Brioe.