INTERNATIONAL: Armistice

Came Armistice Day, and as 11 o’clock ran around the world the former Allied peoples gave themselves up to two minutes of silence; for it was on that day nine years ago, that the truce was signed in a brown railroad car of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits in the Forest of Compiegne.

Former enemy peoples gave no thought to the occasion, made no beau geste to the memory of the millions they killed and maimed, showed no contriteness for the anguish and sufferings they caused to tens of millions of people throughout the length and breadth of the world. Neither did they heed the ninth anniversary of the end of their own Wartime sufferings; the bitterness of defeat lay heavily upon them.

U. S. From coast to coast and frontier to frontier the U. S. people hallowed the memory of their 126,000 War dead. In the national Valhalla at Arlington a granite Cross of Sacrifice was dedicated by Canada to those U. S. soldiers who lost their lives while fighting with the Canadian Expeditionary forces. The great cross, 30 feet in height was unveiled by Vincent Massey, Canadian Minister to the U. S., and accepted by Frank Billings Kellogg, U. S. Secretary of State, in a moving ceremony. Many dignitaries were present.

After mournful trumpetings of the “Last Post,” the formal speeches of gift and receipt were made and the 48th Highlanders of Canada, in their feathered bonnets, red doublets, tartan kilts and leopard skins, wailed on their bagpipes their famed “Lament,” which begins: “Flowers of the forest are wede awa’. . . .”

Then U. S. Secretary of War Dwight Filley Davis made a speech. Excerpts:

“The beauty of this cross is significant of the high motives which actuate this occasion, but marble [an error, it was granite] alone could not express the warm friendship and sympathetic understanding which are brought to us by these distinguished representatives of the Dominion. . . . Many of us imagine that the long peace that has existed between us is due to a treaty now nearly 110 years old for disarmament upon the Great Lakes. That peace is due not to the treaty but to the spirit that led to the treaty; it is due not to a formal bond of agreement but to the closer bonds of friendship.

“Canadians and Americans speak the same language, read the same books, think the same thoughts. Jointly they occupy the largest area of the earth’s surface where a single language is spoken. . . .

“This monument will always be a source of pride to the citizens of the United States. It shall constantly remind us of the friendship and cordiality extending along our northern boundary, guarded only by the common love of liberty and justice in the hearts of the people of both Canada and the United States.”

Next Colonel J. L. Ralston, Canadian Minister of National Defense,addressed the listeners. Excerpts:

“Every feature of this event deepens its significance. The day, with its never-to-be-forgotten memories; the place, with its wealth of historic and solemn associations, . and, above all, our purpose to do honor to those who, though dead, yet speak.

‘The day! Nine years ago almost to the moment a great silence fell over 400 miles of battle front. The uncanniness, the unreality of that sudden hush! It was too solemn for cheers. A sense of awe rather than of jubilation filled men’s souls. It meant that the greatest conflict ever waged between men was over.

“The place! This God’s acre, where is traced indelibly in these rows of glorious stones the symbol of the spirit of this great country, and the record of the nation’s sacrifice in the cause of freedom.

“Through the days to come, may the two nations represented here never forget the spirit of this moment, nor lose sight of the mutual glory of this cross, our renewed pledge of brotherhood, and the symbol of a fellowship faithful even unto death.”

Commonwealth. Two minutes of awful silence fell upon the 13,909,-782 square miles over which British flags fly. In London, in Whitehall, before the Cenotaph, the Commonwealth’s monument to her 946,023 War dead, stood, bareheaded, King George, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and three onetime Prime Ministers: Arthur James Balfour, David Lloyd George, James Ramsay MacDonald. Behind them, all bareheaded, were tens of thousands of loyal subjects, bowed in prayer.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier was the scene of an immense visiting concourse of people. Among the numerous wreaths laid was one of yellow flowers, bearing the inscription: “To the great unknown soldiers of all nations. From a German Girl.”

At Mons, Belgium, where the “Contemptibles”*made their famed stand, 200 veterans attended a commemorative service on the former battlefield.

France. Surrounded by 250 War flags, President Gaston Doumergue rendered homage to the Unknown Soldier at the tomb beneath the Arc de Triomphe and to the 1,393,388 men who gave their lives for France. Along the Champs Elysees swung a great military parade to the stirring tune of the “Marseillaise.” Despite the steady drizzle of rain, huge crowds converged on the Place de 1’Etoile, in the centre of which is the famed Arc de Triomphe. Through the land solemn memorial services were held.

At Rethondes in the Forest of Compiègne, a few yards from the spot where the armistice was signed, the famed wagon-lit was housed in a shelter provided by Arthur Henry Fleming of Pasadena, Calif.

Other Allies. With the exception of Italy, who celebrates her armistice with Austria on Nov. 4 (the official celebrations this year were held on Nov. 6, a Sunday, in conformity with Signor Mussolini’s recent decree prohibiting all celebrations, except on the Sabbath), all the former Allied nations held memorial ceremonies and exercises.

Germany. Armistice Day in Germany was a day of work. “It is best to bury bygones,” was the comment of the man-in-the-street.

In Washington, the German Embassy flew its flag in honor of the day—allegedly the only Allied capital in the world in which this tribute was paid by the former enemy state. The Legations of Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria also flew their flags.

The “contemptible little army” was a phrase coined by Kaiser Wilhelm II and referred to the first contingent of the British regulars.