THE GREAT HUSH

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 185, 3 May 1929, Page 11

THE GREAT HUSH

EFFECT OF KING’S ILLNESS ON LONDON KILLED CHRISTMAS REJOICING “People out here, do not realise, even dimly, the way in which the Royal Family are regarded in London, indeed over all England,” said a Wellington resident recently returned from the Old Country and Europe. “It was a great experience to have been in the metropolis when the King lay in the valley of the shadow of death. There were few who thought he would pull through the bitter Christmas time. What an effect his illness had on everyone. It completely spoilt trade for a great many people, and most of the big shops almost ceased selling the ordinary run of goods. It was thought that the death of His Majesty was only a matter of time, and any day the whole of England might be plunged into mourning. “But whilst it affected trade in several ways, it also showed with what great-love and veneration His Majesty and Queen Mary are held by all classes of that vast community that make up the population of London. There was a great hush over the city. Constantly, night and day, there was a crowd before the gates of Buckingham Palace, and the Mall was always alive with motor-cars, belonging to people who made it their business to pass that way in order to read or hear the contents of the latest bulletin. “These were posted at certain stated times, as the case demanded, and when I first saw the crowd I imagined that a bulletin was due. I soon found that such was not the case. People would wait one or two hours for the latest news; and even after it was posted and they had read it, they did not feel inclined to go away. Something strange and intangible held them to the iron railings of the Palace wherein the Sovereign lord of the Empire struggled for breath—and all this in freezing cold weather. People need not have ventured to do this at all, for the papers issued special editions containing the latest bulletins almost as soon as they were posted on the gates of Buckingham Palaqe, so there was nothing to gain by this exposure. All one could say was that His Majesty had that much grip on the hearts of many of his people that they were prepared to risk fteir own health to hear the latest

news of his. Most people going to their hotels or homes in the suburbs by means of taxis invariably ordered the chauffeur to proceed by way of Buckingham Palace, so that all the day and right through the night there was a regular procession of taxis and cars past the Palace. Under these circumstances, can anyone wonder at the scene of rejoicing that will mark the return of the King to London/*