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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Lest we forget Salt & Spice by Rohan Jayetilleke The words of Her Excellency President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at the dedication of the National Remembrance Park are of timeless relevance. "Let it not be said that in our earnest quest for peace, that we left behind forsaken, like a spent force, our soldiers, our airmen, our sailors and our Police. Let it never be said that we used them and forsook them". At the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, 'the war to end all wars was finally over, and Armistice was celebrated in towns and villages across the length and breadth of England. But the end never came. The Second World War lasted from 1939 to 1945. Now in our present times the invasion of Iraq by US/UK forces in search of weapons of mass destruction is still raging. This war, my friend, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy commented as, 'democracy with the US - UK governments is a whore to be dressed down and up as and when they wish and search of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, with more fiercer arms'. The British Peace Procession marched through London. Prime Minister Lloyd George attended a similar function in France. He felt a focal point was needed for remembrance of the dead and those lost in action and as the procession of London passed through Whitehall, that seemed to be the obvious location. The War Cabinet immediately appointed Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869 - 1944), a private architect to design a suitable memorial. Prime Minister, in a moment produced a sketch and was accepted as the basis for the design. Lloyd George suggested a Catafalque, but Lutyens persuaded him that a Cenotaph, would be better as the word was derived from the Greek 'kenos' meaning 'empty' and taphos meaning 'tomb'. It was first a temporary structure and unveiled on 1 July 1919. A peace procession with more than 16,000 troops from many countries paraded. It was then decided on public agitation, a permanent Cenotaph be erected. The new Cenotaph cost 7,325 pounds and Sir Lutyens refused to accept any fees for his service. No religious emblem was incorporated into the design, the only words being 'The Glorious Dead'. The permanent Cenotaph was unveiled by King George V on November 11 at 11 am. The original idea of the Unknown Warrior came from Revd. David Railton, Vicar of Margate in Kent. The idea was accepted by the Dean of Westminister. On November 9, 1920 six bodies all in graves marked 'unknown' were exhumed from the Western Front-Aisne, Arras, Cambrai, Marne, Somme and Ypres. The six bodies were placed in coffins and taken to a hut. A clergyman received the coffins, an officer blindfolded touched one of the coffins. This was the soldier, who was brought across the English Channel on HMS Verdun. After the unveiling of the Cenotaph, the body was taken to Westminister Abbey, and following a short service, interred. A year later a black marble stone was laid on the tomb, with the famous words, "They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and toward His House". On the cessation of the Second World War another Cenotaph Ceremony was held on November 10, 1946, when King George VI unveiled the newly sculpted dates MCM XXXIX (1939) on the west side and MCM XLV (1945) on the east, at the same level as the Great War Dates.) President Kumaratunge's decision to raise a suitable memorial in the metropolis of Kandy is most laudable, as the present one at Hanguranketa is far away from the city centre. The ideal site in Kandy is the present Prisons' premises of 14 acres, where in addition to the memorial, a conference hall named - Ranaviru Memorial International Conference Hall, be built with a good park as both parks in Kandy, namely George E de Silva Park is now a shopping complex and the Veera Madduma Bandara Park has made way for the extension of the Maha Malauwa of Sri Dalada Maligawa. It is best if this proposed hall is a donation either from, India, Japan or China. |
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