THE QUEEN has received a letter from French President Jacques Chirac apologising for the desecration of a British War cemetery, Buckingham Palace said today. In the letter he described the anti-war graffiti plastered over the First World War monuments at Etaples, near Calais, as "inadmissible and shameful." The letter, delivered to the Queen at Windsor, read: "From the French people and from me personally, I offer you my deepest regrets." He also said the thoughts of the French were with British soldiers currently fighting in Iraq, despite recent opinion polls showing 80% of French people being opposed to war.
A reply was being prepared on the advice of government ministers, the Palace said. The letter comes a day after we reported how vandal’s spray-painted insults including "Dig up your rubbish, it’s contaminating our soil," at a cemetery containing the remains of 11,000 British and other allied soldiers. France’s Secretary of State for Veterans’ Affairs, Hamlaoui Mekachera, was today travelling to Etaples for a wreath-laying ceremony of remembrance, accompanied by representatives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. |