A LETTER FROM LONDON

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 79, 27 December 1928, Page 10

A LETTER FROM LONDON

ARMISTICE DAY CELEBRATIONS

STRIKING SCENE AT THE CENOT/PH

Dominion Special Service.

■London, November 15. With a General Election certain either in May or September, Ministerialists are beginning to ponder rather anxiously as ro the banners under which they will enter the fray. It is very difficult to fix beforehand the actual issues which will weigh with the electors. Unexpected questions which may influence votes have a way of cropping up at the last moment to the confusion of party organisers, but the party in power has a certain advantage, because it can, at all events, make a tentative selection of the issues on which it desires to appeal to the electorate. So far, however, Ministerialists have not evolved any very attractive subject to put before the country. Derating was supposed to be the principal plank in the winter campaign preparatory to the bigger fight next year, but the more de-rating is studied the less it appears to be . likely to be a congenial subject for platform oratory. The whole subject bristles with difficulties and is highly technical, and there are'very few platform speakers who could give a rousing discourse with the rating problem as the theme. It requires a Bill of 110 clauses to give effect to Mr. Neville Chamberlain’s scheme, and a huge memorandum is necessary to explain the substance of the 110 clauses. It is hard to imagine the Conservative Party going “over the top’’ at the zero hour of the election shouting extracts from the de-rating ■ Bill as their battle-cry. Free Traders and “Safeguarders.” Something much more stimulating is required and so far it has not been found.- It is possible that before the electron Mr. Baldwin may give his party fl definite lead, but at the moment he is still leaving the position somewhat obscure, with the consequence that there is a certain liveliness among Ministerialists. Those who see in the extension of the safeguarding principle the solution of the unemployment problem are actively agitating with a view to persuading the Prime Minister to give an undertaking to widen the safeguarding policy in the next Parliament. It is understood that this group enjoys the sympathetic encouragement of at least two Cabinet Ministers, but while this group is active the modern representatives of the old Free Trade Conservatives who played such a prominent part in the years preceding the 1006 election are beginning to feel uneasy. They, too, have sympathetic support in the Cabinet. Mr. Winston Churchil has acquiesed in a certain amount of safeguarding, but he has made it quite clear that no extension will have his approval, and it would seem that Mr. Baldwin will have a delicate task if he is to harmonise the views of Mr. Amery and Mr. Churchill, and go into battle with a united front. The Opposition parties are in somewhat happier position. They are not called upon to produce a constructive programme, although they are free to do so if they please. But their main part in the battle will, be critical, and it is always easier to criticise than to construct. Armistice Day. Those who saw the King closely at the Cenotaph or as he motored into Buckingham Palace with the Queen after the great silence, remarked how well he looked. When Armistice Day fell on a Sunday, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square. Parliament House, and the Horse Guards Parade, were filled with a countless throng. When the mourners and sightseers dispersed without panic or mishaps the police authorities said thankfully that by the time another Sunday observance of the great silence came round interest would be less keen and-the crowds smaller. Sunday disproved that expectation. Though the day was overcast, though every borough in London, every Territorial headquarters, and every church now have war memorials, yet from all quarters a tide of people flowed towards the Cenotaph on Sunday morn-, ing. Buses, trams, and trains could not carry half of those who wished to attend the ceremony or to pass the Cenotaph later. From the National .Gallery to the Abbey and all around these • pilgrims filled the streets, and the marshalling of the crowds gave the police much anxiety. In the afternoon the people who wished to lay poppies or other flowers on the Cenotaph waited in the queue right up to Trafalgar Square, and late at night, In darkness and drizzle, there was still a great throng there. The broadcast of the ceremony at the Cenotaph was beautifully clear and Impressive, heard In Londoners’ homes or in churches which arranged to hear it before their own service. The objec-

tions which the Home Office so long took to a microphone in Whitehall during the great silence now prove to be unfounded. The Cenotaph ceremony is too noble and simple to be endangered by the appearance of a microphone. On some future Armistice Day the authorities may go further and place amplifiers and loudspeakers further up Whitehall, so that the crowds of would-be worshippers can all hear the services. A Famous Coach. In a world which worships speed there is little time left for stately ceremonial. Still, however, a few such ceremonies remain-—a legacy of mediaeval times—and from their very rarity maintain their popularity. Among such we may name the State opening of Parliament and the Lord Mayor’s Show. Both these are ceremonies which, in one form or another, bring the past vividly before our eyes. The Lord Mayor’s Show had several notable features, such as tableaux illustrating the development of the printing industry from the seventeenth century and a pageant of education from the time of King Alfred (this last a special tribute to the new Lord Mayor, Sir Kynaston Studd, for his devoted work for the Polytechnic). But though in detail the Lord Mayor’s Show varies on every different occasion, and though its date is now November 9 instead of the traditional October 29, it remains in essense the old mediaeval ceremony. The Livery Companies, the Guild of Freemen, the figures of Gog and Magog all have helped to make modern London live for a short while in the past. Londoners had the Jiovel experience last week of seeing within a few days the two most famous coaches in the world the King s State carriage in which His Majesty and the Queen drove to Westminster to open Parliament, and the Lord Mayor s gilded conch in which Sir Kynaston Studd was driven over the route of the show. Of the two the Lord Mayor’s, is the. more imposing. It is a coach with a history, for it was first used over 150 years ago. The cost of buildin!! it was defrayed by a subscription of £5O from each, aiderman who had not passed the chair, and subsequent aldermen were called upon to pav £6O towards its upkeep until the corporation took over the duty. It has. of course, been frequently renovated, and in ISI2 £7OO was spent nnon the work. It is a much more comfortable conveyance to inurney in than the Royal carriage, ■which sways considerably as it moves along at its leisurely pace. Barrie’s Skit on Himself. The secret of a practical joke played by Sir James Barrie—with himself as chief victim—has just been revealed af.er thirty-four years. The National Observer,” then under the editorship of W. E. Henley, printed an article, entitled “Barrie in the Chair” —a whimsical caricature of the novelist, who had not yet “grown up” to his present literary stature, as chairman of a Burns dinner at Greenock. The article infuriated many Barrie admirers, who bombarded Henley with letters of protest. It is now disclosed by Henley’s former literary assistant, Mr. W. 11. Spence that Barrie himself was the’ author of the skit to which his admirers took such exception. The “Glasgow Herald” reprints the article. “Meet J. M, Barrie, then slowly moving towards his place in the chair —as it might be in a tumbril, towards the guillotine. I was introduced to him (the article proceeds) and we both held out our hands. Having shaken him, 1 let go. His remained in the air as if.the ceremony was new to him. Several others ■ were introduced, and he gave to all his hand to do what they liked with it. This being over, he placed it by ,his side. We then adjourned with unwonted solemnity to the hall, where dinner was to be served. He was evidently anxious to please. . . . When a joke was made you could see him struggling, not with face alone, to laugh heartily. It was as if he tugged the strings that work the organs of risibility, but either the strings were broken or he had forgotten to bring the organs. Only once did he manage a genuine smile, but some of us forgot ourselves and cheered, and it fled. On his table was a large epergne of flowers. I saw him move his chair stealthily ineh by inch until he was fairly behind this epergne. On the right and left he shut himself in with bottles and cruets. He then settled down for a jolly evening.” Temple Bar to Return. Efforts are being revived to secure the restoration to the City of London of the old Temple Bar, the historic Wren Gateway which, until 1878, marked the City boundary at the junction of Fleet Street and the Strand. Ten years, after the structure was demolished, owing to traffice requirements, the late Sir Herbert Meux obtained permission to remove the stones and re-erect the Bar on his private property in a pleasant avenue at Cheshunt, Herts, where it now marks the entrance to Theobalds Park. Two attempts—one bv the London County Council in 1912 and one by the London Society in 1919 —have been made to have it brought back to the City, but neither met with success. If the present efforts, inspired by the forthcoming sale of the estate on which the gateway stands, are successful, the historic relic will at last adorn the Embankment site, at the foot of Middle Temple Lane, which for many years has been reserved for its reception.