ARMISTICE DAY IN LONDON

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21939, 13 November 1936, Page 9

ARMISTICE DAY IN LONDON

IMPRESSIVE SILENCE CEREMONY AT THE CENOTAPH (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received November 12, 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 11. No previous Armistice Day ceremony has equalled in impressiveness London’s stillness to-day, when the pulse of the greatest city in the world was stilled by the custdmary two minutes’ silence. The surge of sound when the vast city boiled into activity again was almost as impressive as the silence. Even the trans-Channel air pilots took part in the silence by throttling back their engines and dipping their machines in salute to the fallen. King Edward, who appeared for the first time at this great public assemblage as King of England, left Buckingham Palace in an Admiral’s undress uniform for the Cenotaph at 10.35 a.m. Queen Mary, robed in black and accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke and Duchess of York, drove to the scene, and seated herself at a window overlooking crowded Whitehall.

As 11 o’clock began to chime, maroons sounded and a gun thudded from the Horse Guards’ Parade. The observance of the traditional ceremonies proceeded with devout and majestic calm, the yearly repetition being powerless to render commonplace so great a homage. The Guards’ Band played solemn music until the King, attended by the Duke of York and the Duke of Kent, with the Bishop of London (Dr. Winnington Ingram) with bowed head behind him, placed a wreath on London’s most significant memorial. The King stepped back and stood motionless at attention as the silence spread through his Dominions. Suddenly “Last Post” roused London from its dream. The singing of “Oh God Our Help in Ages Past” followed, and “Reveille” was sounded, after which the Bishop’s blessing sounded the nation’s amen. Dominion Tributes The High Commissioner for Australia (Mr S. M. Bruce) and the High Commissioner for New Zealand (Mr W. J. Jordan) placed a wreath on the Cenotaph on behalf of their respective countries. The New Zealand Minister for Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) and Mrs Nash were present as the guests of the Secretary of State for the Dominions (Mr Malcolm Mac Donald). A New Zealander, Lady Mackenzie, wife of Sir Clutha Mackenzie, who was blinded in the war, marched to the Cenotaph with a contingent of V.A.D.’s and laid a wreath on it on behalf of the New Zealand soldiers who were blinded. Leicestershire miners, stripped to the waist, observed the silence 1000 feet underground. All the lights were extinguished and the machinery was stopped. A socialist speaker in Edinburgh was mobbed by the crowd for ignoring the signal for silence. At the foot of the Marshal Foch statue in Grosvenor Square, General Sir Frederick Maurice, president of the British Legion, placed a wreath of poppies decorated with tricolour ribbons and bearing the inscription, “In proud memory of a great soldier and a good friend to ex-servicemen.” KING EDWARD JOINS MOURNERS VISIT TO FIELD OF REMEMBRANCE CROSS IN MEMORY OF HIS FATHER LONDON, November 11. In pouring rain, a few minutes after the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey was floodlit this evening, the King arrived unnoticed and unheralded, and planted a plain wooden cross inscribed, memory of his Majesty King George V.,” in the middle of a plot of poppies dedicated to those who died in the service of the Empire. Women who brushed slowly by were unaware of his identity, and the first to discover his Majesty’s presence were children. After standing bareheaded, the King walked along the pathways by the side of the field, trudging with other mourners through pools of water and bending down with them to examine the miniature field of poppies set in the form of a cross. The King then entered an ambulance in which Major D. Howson, chairman of the British Legion poppy factory, was lying. Major Howson, who underwent a severe operation in August, had insisted on being brought to the field, as he was prominent in starting it in 1928. The King asked Major Howson about his health and _ then chatted with returned soldiers who were selling poppies. He bought two and put a bundle of notes in the collection box. The King, before leaving, placed a poppy on a tiny cross in the field at the entrance to the Abbey. As he was entering his car, a crowd surged round, necessitating police control. Later a notice was placed in front of the King’s cross indicating that he had planted it, and many visitors took the poppies from«their buttonholes and placed them alongside. The King also attended the annual British Legion Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hall, which was crowded with returned soldiers. Shortly after leaving the Albert Hall, his Majesty travelled by rail to Portland in preparation for his visit to the Fleet, which will extend over two days. After a dinner party on the Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, the King visited H.M.S. Courageous for the ratings’ concert. There was a dramatic moment at the great British Legion festival at the Albert Hall when the King, standing alone in the Royal box, recited the poignant verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem beginning: “They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.” It was the first time since the Armistice that a reigning monarch has publicly recited this verse. Dr. Binyon, who occupied the adjoining box, heard the King recite his lines.

OBSERVANCE IN PARIS PARIS, November 11. Children for the first time participated in the Armistice Day ceremonies in France, boys and girls filing past th* President (M. Lebrun) at the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb at the Arc de Triomphe in precisely the same way as did the troops of the Paris garrison. The Bishop of Arras celebrated midnight Communion at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Lorette, dominating the great Flanders cemetery, where lie the French, British and German dead. Torches lit respectively on the graves of the Unknown Soldiers in Paris and Brussels were borne by returned soldiers from one capital to the other across the battlefields. The colour of the poppies sold in Paris was changed, because of- political considerations, from red to yellow. Many people, however, declined to wear the yellow poppies.