ARMED SERVICES PAGEANT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25934, 14 October 1949, Page 9

ARMED SERVICES PAGEANT

TENTATIVE PLANS FOR CENTENNIAL A tentative programme for the armed forces pageant to be held during the Canterbury centennial celebrations was discussed by the armed services centennial committee yesterday afternoon. The programme was referred to a sub-committee, which will present a detailed report by next March. The pageant will be presented first on the evening of February 27, ICSI, and will be repeated on the two following evenings. The pageant will be held in an arena, possibly at the Show Grounds.

The pageant will open each evening with a massed drum majors’ display, which will be followed by a display of physical training by 280 to 400 school cadets. At 8 p.m. three or four pairs of searchlights will give a demonstration of “spotting” aeroplanes. The aircraft will then fly in formation, illuminated by the searchlights. There will be an interval after a recital by massed bands of the three services, and possibly a fireworks display. The finale of the programme is entitled “An Old Soldier’s Dream—an historical march of time as recorded in the mind of an old soldier.” Past scenes in the military history of Canterbury will be re-enacted by some 250 men and women in appropriate costumes. This part of the programme will take about 45 minutes. Major H. McK. Reid, who reported on the programme for the sub-com-mittee which drew it up. said that it was purely tentative. The chairman (Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Worsnop) said that the committee could make no definite arrangements until Ministerial approval of the services’ participation in the centennial celebrations was obtained. The committee had been told in May that steps were being taken to obtain this approval, but advice from the respective Chiefs of Staff was still awaited.

A tentative plan of the services’ par in the centennial procession was submitted and approved.