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from The Times, Thursday November 11, 1999

Paris misses 1914-18 veterans

FOR the first time yesterday there were no First World War veterans at the Armistice Day ceremony held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

While there were a number of those who fought in the Second World War, many of them in wheelchairs, veterans from the 1914-18 conflict were either too sick or too old to sit through the ceremony.

Last year six First World War veterans attended the eightieth anniversary ceremony. Earlier this year the Invalides national military hospital, which has helped ageing combatants to attend the annual event lost its last First World War veteran.

The Great War claimed an estimated 10 million lives, about 20 million more were injured. For France, which lost some 1.4 million troops, it was far more devastating than the 1939-45 conflict.

Yesterday's ceremony followed the same pattern as those in previous years. President Chirac arrived a few minutes before 11 am to preside over the event, timed to coincide with the 11th hour of  the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when a bugle call sounded to signal the ceasefire.

M Chirac, who wore a cornflower buttonhole on his coat was joined by Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister, and Alain Richard, the Defence Minister, for the ceremony.

After the traditional minute of silence that followed the wreath-laying, President Chirac proceeded to the statue of former Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, who was Minister for War during the First World War.

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