ARMISTICE DAY

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 114, 11 November 1919, Page 7

ARMISTICE DAY

FIRST ANNIVERSARY

TWO MINUTES OP SILENCE

MARKED OBSERVANCE EVERY-

WHERE,

To-day was the first anniversary of Armistice Day, which marked the cessation of hostilities with Germany, and, as it proved, the conclusion of the Great War. In compliance with the wishes of His Majesty the King, the occasion was fittingly celebrated locally by the complete suspension of all normal activities for the space of two minutes at "the eleventh hour of the day," so synchronising with the exact moment at which" the Great Peace came into force. Those two minutes, the King, urged, should be marked by absolute silence and stillness, "to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of* those who laid down their lives to achieve it." A SPONTANEOUS OBSERVANCE. So little notice having been given of the King's appeal, and no arrangements having been made for any massed gathering, the observance was left to individual action, and there were many who wondered what the result: would be. Would the two minutes be observed only by- the few or practically by everybody? The answer was supplied at 11 o'clock promptly. ■ The effect was really startling—impressive—in the city streets. Before 11 o'clock the traffic was pro-, ceeding along busily, as usual—pedestrians were walking smartly along, each on his business bent; tram-cars, motorcars, and horse-drawn vehicles were 'hurrying to and fro. As the minutes flew by and the hour of 11 approached, dt was noticeable that there was a great deal of looking at watches. Everyone seemed to have the same thought in ■mind. The Post Office clock struck the first notes of the hour. The traffic seemed to alter, be affected somehow; the clock completed its task—all was still, the silence could be heard, and certainly was felt. The whole thing was spontaneous ! No organisation had been required. It was that which impressed, that which went home. There was everyone standing there, each left to his or her own thoughts. What were the other people thinking about? They had plenty of food for thought in these two ■brief minutes—four years and three months of the great war tragedy, which had cost each ami everyone the loss of someone they held dear. Who thought about the victory, the victory which had seemed never to have been coming, and then in ■Wellington was robbed so much of its joy? BEGINNING OF THE EPIDEMIC. For to-day, too, was the first anniversary of the beginning of another great tragedy which smote this city with the hand of death. It was on Armistice Day, 1918, that the influenza epidemic first made . its presence so greatly felt, so many hundreds went down with it, and so many died. There were few in Wellington to-day who were here a year ago who did not have sorrowful recollections of the terrible experience which followed, which seemed to be worse than the war itself,, arid still more deadly. » On the wharves, on the railways, in shops, warehouses, and factories the two minutes' observance was just as marked. The "wheels of industry" ceased for the time being, the. great majority of people simply stood' still, and very 'few talked. Such, at any rate, are the reports that have come in from all quarters. When the two minutes were up the city' resumed its . normal life. There wore few who were not impressed with the marked silence in the city.'