PARADE HELD AT WIGRAM

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 8

PARADE HELD AT WIGRAM

ADDRESS BY STATION PADRE

Members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at Wigram marked the Coronation with a wing parade and a march-past, after a short service conducted by the station padre (Flight Lieutenant K. Schollar), yesterday morning. Group Captain B. S. Nicholl, Commanding Officer of the station, took the salute.

The greatest periods of British history had been when a woman was on the Throne, said Flight Lieutenant Schollar. As instances he mentioned Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, and Queen Anne. There was every possibility that the British nation was on the verge of a new era of greatness, he said. Britain would possibly never again be the greatest military power in the world, but she had every chance of regaining and maintaining the moral leadership of the world. Never in the history of the Coronation had there been so- much in*

terest and enthusiasm in the pageantry of a monarch being crowned, and it was most significant that so much of that interest and enthusiasm should be found in nations that did not owe allegiance to the British Crown, said Flight Lieutenant Schollar.

After the service three cheers were given for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. after which the wing was inspected by Group Captain Nicholl, who later took the salute. The parade then gave a Royal Salute and marched past the Royal Standard before being dismissed.