PEACE SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1941, Page 6

PEACE SERVICE

ADDRESS BY POLICE COMMISSIONER AT FUNERAL OF MURDERED CONSTABLE. VOCATION EXALTED BY DUTY & DEATH. HOKITIKA, October 13. Included in the long procession at the funeral of Constable Edward Mark Best, the sixth victim of the Koiterangi killer, was a representative attendance of police officers from all parts of the Dominion. In an address at the graveside, the Commissioner of Police (Mr 'D. J. Cummings) tendered sincere sympathy to the bereaved relatives and said: — “Yesterday we stood here to witness the burial of two Home Guardsmen who fell victims to the same person as did Constable Best. The lips of the open grave beside which we now stand proclaim to the world the real nature of our vocation. We are banded together to preserve for civilisation the priceless boon of peace and to maintain the conditions that promote it. The police officer from time immemorial has been known to the law as the peace officer, and in trying to make peace in certain circumstances last week we lost four of our loved and esteemed comrades and two other comrades who came to assist us in the attempt to arrest the culprit responsible for the untimely deaths of six brave and courageous men who took their lives in their hands. •Our constables are at all times in the line of battle, ready always to risk their lives in the execution of the duties which they have sworn to perform faithfully according to their oath'of office and the law of the land. They may meet unexpected conditions at any moment —an unprepared encoun-

ter with a person with an obsession or with a person with an impaired mind who has in his possession loaded firearms and is intent on using them. At all times the police officer literally carries his life in his hands. “Our dead comrade here is witness of the truth of what I say. He is the last of a long list of men of our force who have Ijid down their lives in the execution of duty in answer to a request for protection. I wish I could adequately express my feelings on this very solemn occasion, and now to my officers and men I say: ‘From this graveside you return to your duties with your vocation exalted by the conduct and death of our comrades.’ We leave him here. Peace to his ashes, eternal bliss to his brave spirit, and also to the other five fallen comrades who fell victim at the hand of the same person. “I also wish to pay a tribute to the bravery of Mr G. S. Ridley, who came to the assistance of our comrades on that fatal day and who was also seriously injured by a rifle-bullet.' He now lies in hospital where he is doing as well as can be expected under the skilful medical attention and nursing of the Westland Hospital. Finally, to our fallen comrades: ‘Farewell, till the day breaks and the shadows fall away.’ ”