MEMORIAL MASS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1940, Page 8

MEMORIAL MASS

FOR LATE PRIME MINISTER. OBSERVANCE IN CAIRO. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) March 30. The loss, in the death of the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, of a man who we knew had done much to safeguard our well-being as soldiers came as a sudden shock to most of the members of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Word-of-mouth reports of Mr Savage's illness had been heard in the camp for some time previous to his death, but it was not until we read late official bulletins and newspaper reports that the majority of us realised the critical state of his health.

■ All units were represented today at a Memorial Mass for the Prime Minister in St. Joseph’s Church, Cairo. Distinguished civilians present included the British Ambassador to Egypt, Sir Miles Lampson, and Lady Lampson, together with representatives of the British Consular and Australian Trade Commissioner’s offices in Cairo. Officers representing the British troops in Egypt and the Royal Air Force also attended.

The celebrant was the Catholic chaplain of the N.Z.E.F., Captain L. P. Spring. Almost in the heart of the city, yet cool and quiet, the church provided a fitting setting for the solemn ritual of the Mass. High above the robed figures of Captain Spring and his attendant priests, and the drifting smoke of burning incense, a dove fluttered now and again across the doomed roof. The clear voices of q choir of boys from a Cairo orphanage echoed softly through great marble pillars. That it seemed right and proper for New Zealand's soldiers to join their people at home in paying their tribute and respects to one who had so faithfully and for so long served his country. was a thought expressed by Captain Spring in a eulogy of Mr Savage. The chaplain traced the career of the late Prime Minister and showed' how his popularity had increased. For the past two years his health had been under a cloud, and he had evidently been a very sick man, but his courage had held fast and he had carried on.

“I think I can truthfully say—and even those who did not agree with his politics will agree with this—that Michael Joseph Savage was one of the most popular and universally loved Prime Ministers New Zealand has possessed,” Captain Spring added. “Truth was his motto, justice and charity his ideals. His loyalty to the Crown and his efforts to cement the bonds of Empire could never be questioned.”