ROYAL VISIT TO SWEDEN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 9

ROYAL VISIT TO SWEDEN

Capital Decked With Banners STOCKHOLM. June 8. Enthusiastic Swedes camped all night on the quayside, where Queen Elizabeth is to land today to begin her State visit to Sweden with the Duke of Edinburgh. Vacuum flasks and pressure stoves were in use among the good-humour-ed crowd as the Royal yacht Britannia made its way through the archipelago leading to the capital, which is bedecked with banners in British and Swedish national colours. There was a last-minute change of plan during the night because of widespread fog on the Baltic coast The time for the meeting between Britannia and her Swedish naval escort was advanced by an hour and a quarter, so there would still be time for the Queen to arrive on time—at 11.18 a.m.—after a slower over-night voyage.

Queen Elizabeth is the first British reigning Sovereign to make a State visit to Sweden since her greatgrandfather, King Edward VII, In 1908. Final touches were put to the decorations soon after dawn, when flags were hoisted on several hundred specially erected flagpoles. The bridge over which the Queen will often drive when she leaves the Palace to visit points of interest in the centre of the city has become a bower of greenery, with interlacing garlands of birch twigs, studded with multi-coloured paper flowers, looped and inter-twined across the pavements.

The Queen and the Duke will be rowed ashore in the broad and gilded Swedish Royal barge Vasaorden by specially-trained petty officer cadets. First to greet the Royal couple at the red-carpeted landing stage will be 74-year-old King Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Queen Louise—who is an aunt of the Duke of Edinburgh. They will then be welcomed by other members of the Swedish family, by the Prime Minister, Mr Tage Erlander. and other leading figures. After inspecting a guard of honour the party will drive round the town. Queen Elizabeth will sit with King Gustav Adolf in an open State carriage. followed by Queen Louise and the Duke of Edinburgh in another. After lunch at the Palace, Queen Elizabeth will receive leaders of diplomatic missions in Stockholm, and in the evening there will be a State banquet. Stockholm newspapers have published appeals by the police to the public to keep calm today and to avoid pressure on the crush barriers along the route of the Royal drive.