Battle Of Britain Parade

Press, Volume C, Issue 29635, 4 October 1961, Page 7

Battle Of Britain Parade

Sir,—Who in the Transport Department could have been responsible for the deplorable affair in the Square during the most solemn momments of the Battle of Britain parade? While everyone was standing silent at attention during Last Post and Reveille, over a dozen buses circled the Square in close formation, their engines sounding the louder because of the dead silence. Three traffic officers at the north end made no attempt to halt them. Everyone present must have been appalled iat such an inexcusable blunder on such a solemn occasion. I hope our City Council will look into this stupid breach of decency. No excuse about timetables will suffice in explanation. Let us hope that the performance is not repeated next year.—Yours, etc., DEPLORABLE BLUNDER September 18, 1961. The general manager of thb Christchurch Transport Board (Mr J. F. Fardel! l replies: “I am indeed very sorry to hear of the compaint lodged by the writer and assure him that arrange, ments would have been made to switch off engines during the sounding of Last Post had the organising authorities let us know the approximate time it was likely to take place. However, the traffic control at that time was not under our jurisdiction, but we shall be quite hpppy if the organising authorities will contact us in the future before the day of the parade and give us the approximate timings of their programme and we can issue the neccessary instructions. I would ask all who took part in this service to accept my sincere apologies tor the incident.”