CORONATION PLANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1936, Page 19

CORONATION PLANS

GREAT PAGEANTRY. HOTELS ALREADY FILLING. PRINCES AND PRINCESSES. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, April 11. The big London hotels are already dealing with thousands of advance bookings for the Coronation nfore than a year ahead. Kings and princes, Prime Ministers and foreign diplomats, rajahs from the East, and millionaires from the West will be among the multitude of visitors from the ends of the earth foi the greatest "show" in history. It will bo London's gayest season, with weeks of brilliant State pageantry and an amazing whirl of social events. Ceremonial processions, State balls, banquets, debutante dinners and charity balls. Mayfair hostesses will vie with one another in the lavishness of their hospitality and the brilliance of their guests, and everything will be done on a grandet scale than ever before.

London is expecting 3,000,000 visitors for the Coronation, and at least 1,000.000 of these will be from overseas. "I'm afraid most of the visitors will ha\ e to find sleeping accommodation in armchairs and on billiard tables," the manager of a West End hotel said this week. "Accommodation will have to be found for at least I'so Indian princes, nawabs and rajalis with their suites. In addition, there will be Dominion' Prime Ministers and their staffs, colonial officers and Civil Servants, and representatives of all the Royal Houses in the world. Already we ai'o spring cleaning rooms that have long remained unbooked, and dusting our 'house full' notices."

The day will be a public holiday, and special licenses are being applied for till three or four in the morning. Coronation night will be a night of revelry that will continue into the early hours. The bulk of London's overseas visitors are expected to come from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and America. They are likely to spend at least £00,000,000, of which £15,000.000 will go for clothing and merchandise, £15,000.000 to restaurants and cafes, £10.000,000 to hotels, and the rest in incidentals.

Peers and peeresses will spend £160.000 on their Coronation robes. It is estimated that the largest crowd London has ever known will want to see the procession, and the processional route will have to be the longest in modern times. Window profits alone are expected to reach the million mark.