FINAL RITES AT NOON TODAY

Professor Johnston's funeral rites will be observed in Appleton Chapel at noon today. The Reverend Prescott Evarts, Rector of Christ Church, Cambridge, will officiate.

Colonel Arthur L. Conger, who served during the war as chief of the Combat Intelligence Branch, Intelligence Section, G. H. Q., A. E. F., has made the following statement concerning the military work and influence of Professor Robert Matteson Johnson:

"Professor Johnston's growing interest in military history led him eight years ago to sound out what was being done in that line in our army. In 1912, as chairman of the Military History Committee of the American Historical Association, he invited the General Staff to send representatives to address the association at its annual meeting at Boston. This led to the offering of a military history prize and to subsequent sessions at Association meetings devoted to military history. It led on the army side to Professor Johnston's being invited each year to lecture at our War College. He also made several historical and staff rides with the War College officials over the Virginia battlefields. Nor was his fostering interest in the development of professional military studies in the army limited to the War College. He visited and lectured at the Army Staff College, Fort Leavenworth.

"Consequently, when he founded and began publication of the 'Military History and Economist' in 1915 in association with several army officers, he was already recognized in the army as well as outside as the leading authority on military history in the United States.

"Upon the return of the American Expeditionary Forces he was stationed temporarily at the Army War College, where he was demobilized in August of last year. But military duty again called when he was asked in November to return to give two lectures at the War College where he had the last memorable meeting with his military colleagues and friends. The General Staff had come to regard him as one of the foremost of our professional military group of experts."