ARMISTICE DAY IN LONDON

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21354, 22 December 1934, Page 23

ARMISTICE DAY IN LONDON

i ■—■" ■ —— KING AT CENOTAPH PRINCE OF WALES AND LEGION (FROM OUR own CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, November 15. Looking down upon the crowd which i assembled in Whitehall on Armistice ! Day the bystander is struck with the i I fact that a very large proportion of I the people—-perhaps more than half '< could have known little or nothing of ! the war. To this half the two minutes' I silence cannot have the same signifi- | cance as it has for the older members jof the assembled multitude, yet i throughout the last 10 years at least ; there has been no diminution in the i reverence displayed by the public, nor I apparently any diminution in the num- j i ber of people who attend the service, j | "How long will this 'moving cere-1 ! mony go on?" is a question asked. Tra- > | l'algar Day is celebrated 120 years after j > the event. It would seem that only : : "the next war" could bring this annual j i "Armistice Day" ceremony to an end. ; ; What is perhaps somewnat strange, the : : newspapers of London do not diminish j the space which they devote to the j ; descriptions of the events of the day, ( and their special writers describe the j ceremonies with undiminished fervour. , In this they reflect the sentiment of ; the people, for the ceremony round the Cenotaph and the service in the Abbey : are now firmly established in the life i of the nation. Moreover, on this day it would be a rare sight to see a man : or woman who was not wearing a 1 Flanders poppy. ; Last Saturday was such a d.iy as; i water boards delight in, for millions c£ i tons of rain had fallen over the London area. Monday was such another > j day, but Sunday dawned with the sun , shining feebly and the wind gently j ! blowing from an unusual quarter. , j Consequently, the King was able to j i lead his people in the Cenotaph cere- \ i mony. His Majesty wore the khaki; I uniform of a field marshal. He moved I I with the same alert step, and except j lor a slight stoop he appeared much \ the same as he was in the earlier postwar days, when he earned out his part at this same ceremony—a cere-: mony that has not changed in any j particular throughout the years. Even ' the flight of birds over the Cenotaph I during the silence was not missing, j On some occasions they are pigeons, on j , others seagulls. The cause of the rlight > : is probably no mystical one, but : merely the detonation of the signal ■ gun in the neighbouring Horse Guards : Parade.

In the Abbey the hour struck as the hymn was ended, and the sentences which were to have been recited became the unspoken but inwardly expressed prayer of a motionless and profoundly silent gathering. The words were: Thank God for this day Remember those who gave all they had. God give us grace to spread the spirit of comradeship throughout the world. In the City The hush of Sunday, which provides a striking contrast to the life of the City of London on week-days, gave a fresh atmosphere to the commemoration in and round St. Paul's Cathedral. The streets were comparatively empty and a peace brooded over the city which seemed appropriate to the anniversary of the Armistice. An address bt St. Paul's was given by the Rev. 11. R. L». Sheppard, Canon-designate. Ho said when he made his obeisance at the Cenotaph he wanted to kneel at its base and ask the forgiveness of God and man for his share of the blame that the peace which the men died for was not much nearer. No one outside Bedlam desired war. Among the millions of the nations ot the world there could not be found 10 reasonable men to declare in favour of modern war as a reasonable means of settling disputes between nations. Yet the responsible millions, ever since the disaster that converted them to this point of view, had been consistently overtaxing themselves in preparation for a more outrageously modern war still.

Festival of Empire The Prince of Wales attended (he impressive Festival of Empire and Remembrance at the Albert Hall. It was the sixth time Armistice Day had ended with such a demonstration of comradeship. The festival was organised b.y the British Legion. The old choruses were sung. "Tipperary," "Keep the Home Fires Burning," and the rest of them—songs made historical by the men who were fighting 20 years ago. The most impressive moment of the whole evening was when, with lights dimmed, 1,104,890 poppy petals came fluttering down from the sombre ceiling like crimson snow petals in memory of the Empire's dead. The Prince recited the lines "To the Fallen." He spoke slowly and with reverence. His every word was clearly heard. Ordered Liberty In opening the Armistice Day programme from the British Broadcasting Corporation. General Smuts said. "In this solemn and sacred moment of remembrance, when we, the living, line up with the dead and form one vast company with them, two thoughts specially move us; the thought of the ideal for which they died, and the thought of a new world order which would prevent their sacrifice having been in vain. The ideal for which they died has been put into our sacred trust, to carry out and see through to eventual victory. Opinions may differ as to how that ideal could best be expressed. But I think we come nearest to their simple faith if we say that they fought for freedom, for a world of free men, for a world which would not be dominated by alien force and compulsions. Their duty to their country was to resist this alien world which threatened to overwhelm the world of ordered liberty into which they had been born. It was then called Prussianism. Today it is called by several other names. The thing remains the same. "Let us shake off this spirit of defeatism which is abroad, and which is so unworthy of the great example set by our honoured dead. Once more let us rise -to the height of the great human task before us. Let us highly resolve to build a free, fair world, which will realise the vision and the dreams which led our young men in the Great War, and which will be the only true and lasting monument we could build to their memory.

Flanders Poppies The popularity of the poppy as an emblem of remembrance does not decline with passing years. The wearing of the flower so perfectly made by disabled returned soldiers was widespread. Unfortunately, Poppy Day was very wet, greatly marring the sale and making conditions most uncomfortable for the 325,000 sellers. Moreover, the flowers on the trays often got so wet that they were spoiled. This year 40,000,000 poppies were made. The King and Queen bought theirs at Buckingham Palace from Miss Victoria Lloyd, daughter of Colonel Wilford Lloyd, Standard Bearer to the Gentlemen-at-Arms, who received special permission to go to the palace, where she also sold poppies to members of the Royal Household. At the Field of Remembrance on the north side of Westminster Abbey, which is organised by the British Legion poppy factory at Richmond, disabled returned soldiers helped visitors to plant crosses and single blooms in the turf, which had been planned out as*' regimental plots, and which had received the blessing of the Archbishop Canterbury. Arrangements have been made this year by which crosses,

when lifted from the Field of Remembrance, may be incorporated in wreaths and placed on individual graves in Belgium or France. The Co-operative Women's Guild competed with the British Legion by bringing out white poppies with the word "peace" inscribed upon a metal centre. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe broadcast an appeal for the red Flanders poppy. He spoke of "our manifest duty to succour where necessary the men who fought and suffered in the Great War, and the dependents of those .who then gave their, lives," The British Legion refused to have anything to do with the white poppy.