ARMISTICE DAY SILENCE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20088, 18 November 1930, Page 11

ARMISTICE DAY SILENCE.

j LETTER to originator. j TIIE KING'S GRATITUDE. j _ (t/Knzt) PtIKSS ASSOCIATION —p? ELECTRIC TSLBGP.APH COPVIiIGIIT./ (Kecoired November 17th, li p.in.j LONDON, November' 17. A letter written ut the King'-> t 'lection to Sir Percy Ifiizputrick, ot Africa, whu was imprisoned by 1 uul linger in 1895 for complicity '» the Jameson raid, reveals that Sir I ercy is the originator of the Two Minutes' .Silence on Armistice Day. He put the idea before Lord Miincr and the King, and the Government immediately approved it. It is passible that cjir I'ercy ViV/.patucli got tlio basic idea li'oin the piactieo at Johannesburg of blowing tie mine hooters at mid-day during lie ivar, when [teoplo stopped work tor a bi'Kil space, and thought <-' i those at tlio Front, i .1 ho letter irom Buckingham Palace ■sass: "The lving, gratefully reinemtho idea ot the two minutes' pause, which was duo to your initiation.'' James Percy Knzpatrick, who was born at King "William's Town in IWJ2, wont to the Transvaal in lrf ; H, and accompanied the Randolph Churchill expedition through Masboiiahind in 1891. lie was president ot Ino \V i twatersranii Chamber of Minos m 1902, and member for Pretoria East in the Union Parliament, from I'JlO 1920. His publications include: 'l r be Transvaal From Within,'' "The Ol 11 " span," "Through Mashonaland With Pick and Pen," and "Jock "f I he Hush void." i