NATION'S TRIBUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 22, 27 January 1936, Page 7

NATION'S TRIBUTE.

AT MONARCH'S BIER. '! Constant Stream of Mourners Westminster. 250,000 PASS IN TWO DAYS. United Press Association. —Copyright. (Rcceivcd 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, January 26. By 10.15 a.m. to-day the crowd extended from Westminster Hall over Vauxliall Bridge and on to the • Albert Embankment, waiting to pass before the bier of the late King George, lying in State. The gathering included rich and poor, old and young, maimed old soldiers wearing medals, boy scouts, girl guides, ; nurses, Salvation Army lasses and p several blind people anxious to j "sense" the scene. For 16 hours yesterday, until midE night, tho slow and sombre tide of E humanity flowed through Westminster 2 Ilall. As on tho occasion of the death ) of King Edward VII., Saturday was t children's day. Thousands accompanied f by their teachers, many from convent schools, escorted by nuns, figured in the 1 queue which mustered at S a.m. in . drizzling rain. When Westminster Hall closed shortly ) after midnight, the day's admissions 1 totalled 150,770, making, with Friday's i total, over 250,000. Another queue r immediately began to form for the reopening to-day. l Among the crowd were many music j hall artists, including a man eight feet JI in height and a woman of three feet, | both dressed in complete mourning. [ | Visitors to London for the Soc:er Cup I tie removed their gaudy football favours ! before entering the hall. i j Steady rain transformed the queue, i j two miles long and ten abreast, into a L! vast arcade of umbrellas. Still the i dead march of London's citizens con- > ! tinued, 8000 passing the coffin hourly. i People fainted, but resumed their posi- . I tions on recovering. The procession ; after nightfall was allowed to enter the [ 1 hall only four instead of eight abreast. ' ! Queen Mary sent a cruciform wreath : i of white chrysanthemums to replace her own flowers on the Royal coffin. j The Duke and Duchess of Kent entered , I the hall at 5.30 p.m. and walked round ; j the catafalque. They stood with heads ; i bowed for a few minutes and then i departed by motor car. | Between four and five hundred diplo- : mats, defying the dismal drizzle, arrived at 10 p.m. and stood in groups before joining the concourse. At 9.30 the police prevented further additions to the • queue, which, swollen by charabanc I passengers and vast numbers arriving | on foot, was over a mile long.