Triumph Over Death

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 428, 9 August 1928, Page 9

Triumph Over Death

KEYNOTE OF MENIN SERVICE Dignified and Impressive “WAR LAID LOW AND DETHRONED” British Official Wireless Received 11.56 a.m. RUGBY, Wednesday. DEEP emotions were touched among the 11,000 British Legion pilgrims, headed by the Prince o£ Wales, at the service of remembrance at the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres to-day.

The impressive two minutes’ silence 'so affected the multitude that women sobbed, and men had difficulty in keeping back the tears.

Beside the Prince of Wales on the platform by the magnificent ruin of the old Cloth Hall, there were present at the service Prince Charles of Belgium, Admiral Lord Jellicoe, president of the British Legion, and a number of distinguished French generals. The service, which was conducted by the Rev. Dr. A. C. F. Jarvis, Chap-lain-General to the Forces, v as beautiful in its simplicity, and contained no note of triumph, beyond that of the triumph over death. It concluded with an address by Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of York and Archbishop-Designate of Canterbury. He said: “We meet here to revive the memories and the spirit which have made this place for ever sacred in the hearts of the British race. Yet when we remember the sacrifice of toil and treasure and precious blood poured out on the fields of Franco and Flanders, the yuestion springs unbidden to the mind, ‘Was it all worth while?’ Here at this Gate let there be no faltering in the answer. Yes. A thousand times, Yes. The spirit was active, and menacing which used war or the threat of war as a normal instrument of policy. It has been laid low and dethroned in the very lands where once it seemed to reign. It will soon be renounced in solemn and deliberate pledge by all the nations who ten years ago were locked in the throes of war. Through the sufferings and sacrifices of war there has been won, as never before in human history, a settled will to seek peace and ensure it.” The Archbishop added: “Ten years ago our hearts were frill of high purpose, full of hopes for a better and a richer life for all our people. What has come of them? How do they meet the challenge of insecurity, of unemployment., of depression, which lies like a blight upon the industrial North of England from which I come?" He declared that the bettering of the life of the British Commonwealth was a cause demanding sacrifices no less real than these which were offered in the stress of war.

The last scene of ceremony was the march of the British legionaries past the Prince of Wales, which occupied over an hour. Some of the legionaries limped on crutches. Others were armless: all wore medals. The Prince noticed that Lady Haig, widow of the late Field-Marshal Lord Haig, who led the British forces to victory, was marching with the women pilgrims. He at once asked her to join him on the platform, and share the salute. It was a gracious and spontaneous action, which was particularly appreciated by the wives and mothers among the pilgrims. In the afternoon, the Prince, accompanied by General Sir Fabian Ware, visited the cemeteries in the neighbourhood. His Royal Highness returns to London to-night.