CELEBRATION OF CORONATION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27052, 29 May 1953, Page 11

CELEBRATION OF CORONATION

PARTICIPATION BY WEST GERMANS

SPECIAL ARMY PARADES IN GERMANY

(From a Reuter Correspondent.) FRANKFURT, May 10. Countless Germans, including many who think that Germany would be better off if she had a monarchy like Britain’s, are following with growing interest preparations for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth IL

Prominence is now being given in West German newspapers and picture magazines to reports from Britain about preparations for the crowning. Many Germans look upon the British Royal Family as being of German orgin, A widely-read West German picture magazine recently devoted an article to examining its ancestry. Hundreds of thousands of Germans are expected to take part in the Coronation celebrations by attending one of the 15 special public parades which the British and Canadian armed forces in Germany will hold in West Germany and West Berlin on Coronation Day. Taking the salute at ceremonial march-pasts will be General Sir Richard Gale, Com-mander-in-Chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s Northern Army Group, Sir Ivohe Kirkpatrick, the British High Commissioner, Major General C. S. Sugden, the Northern Army Group’s Chief-of-Staff, and Major General C. F? C. Coleman, British Commandant in Berlin. Troops of the 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade at Hanover will march past Mr T. C. Davis, the Canadian Ambassador to West Germany,

Air Force Celebrations, Germans in many parts of Northern Germany will watch fly-pasts of Royal Air Force bombers and jet fighters. Some of the Queen’s soldiers, men of the Welsh, Irish, Coldstream and Life Guards, are being moved from Germany to Britain to take part in the Coronation parades in London. Other regiments stationed in Germany are sending regimental bands to play in the Royal procession On the Queen’s return from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace. Some Irish and Scottish regiments are sending pipers and drummers to join the 80-strong massed pipe band in the procession. The Royal Air Force is sending 25 men, picked for their “outstanding qualities” from units of the Second Allied Tactical Air Force in Germany. The men are undergoing a special course in ceremonial drill at Guetersloh, in North Rine-Westphalia. Later they will move to Uxbridge, Middlesex, for more training. The United States Army Headquarters in Heidelberg has announced that it will restrict duty travel to Britain during the Coronation period to “emergency missions only.” Many American servicemen on leave are, however, expected to visit London during the Coronation period. Young girl workers in a West Berlin factory are playing their part in the celebration of the British Queen’s crowning. They are sewing silver threading on to Coldstream Guardsmen’s uniforms. The 150-year-old factory received the order because “British embroidery specialists are so scarce,” said a factory official. It takes one girl 80 hours to prepare one uniform, using half a pound of Frenchimported silver threading. Ornaments on the uniforms include a collar star with the inscription “Honi soit qui mal y peflse,” the ageold motto of Britain’s Royalty. The inscription must be clearly readable although the letters are only a sixteenth of an inch high. Krefeld’s centuries-old velvet industry is busy providing the correct “Coronation red” velvet that will adorn members of the Peerage. One West German firm, which supplied London tailors with material for the Coronation in 1937 of King George VI, said it was supplying London firms with several hundred yards of the cloth.

Heavy Air Bookings Airlines operating in Germany report heavy bookings to London during Coronation week. The Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) are running a special Coronation service between Amsterdam and London, with connexions from West German centres. The service will take visitors to London early on Coronation morning, and return them to their homes the same night, to save them hotel difficulties. It will be known as the "Moonliner” service, as most of the flying time will be by moonlight. A British European Airways spokesman at Hamburg said that the demand for the week beginning May 31, though heavier than usual, was “nothing exciting.” He blamed lack of accommodation in London for the dearth of Coronation travel applications. Most Germans will hear radio commentaries of London’s glittering pageantry, as West German radio stations are sending special commentators to Britain to report the event. In addition, West German televiewers—not more than 5000 in number because television only began for the West German public last December—are expected to watch the crowning and the festivities from ten o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock at night. The Germans also hope to erect a special receiver on the West German-Dutch frontier to relay a direct British television relay to the Netherlands. Forty German boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 18 are likely never to forget the "Coronation of Britain’s Queen, for they have been invited by a number of London boroughs to stay with London families over the Coronation period. In return for London hospitality, they will give folk dancing displays. As another German contribution to Britain’s most impressive post war pageant, hundreds of crates of top-quality wine from the Rhineland Palatinate are being shipped to Britain.