TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 115, 12 November 1930, Page 11

TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY

.CENOTAPH CEREMONY

EMPIRE REPRESENTATION

(British Official Wireless.) '(Received 12th November, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, 11th November. Throughout the British Empire £nd British communities in foreign countries the anniversary of the Ar■%i£&!ice, which twelve years ago 4>rought the hostilities of the Great War to an end, was commemorated with the customary services 'in churches of all denominations and before the memorials to the fallen. Two minutes' silence at 11 o'clock, the hour at which the Armistice took effect, was a feature common to all the services, and was universally observed, also by those who were unable to attend the public services. The great central ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall was more than usually representative of the Empire, for the King, who was unable to attend last year's service, was present, and the Empire Prime Ministers and their colleagues, who are in London for the Imperial Conference, attended with the British Prime Minister and other members of the Government. INDIA AT WHITEHALL. The Indian prices who are attending the Bound Table Conference were also present, as well as other distinguished delegates to that Conference. Never before has India been so fully represented. Immense crowds thronged Whitehall, and a solid mass of people had flocked into the square and streets in. the neighbourhood. Detachments representative of the services, with those from the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets, and a contingent of ex-servicemen and women formed a hollow square about the Cenotaph, upon the base of which shortly before 11 o'clock, the King, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and Prince Arthur of Connaught, placed a wreath. Wreaths ■were also deposited on behalf of the other members of the Royal Family, His Majesty's Governments in the United Kingdom and overseas and the colonies and protectorates, and by the Defence services. QUEEN TAKES PAKT. The Queen, with Princess Mary, the Duchess of-York, and others, occupied a window overlooking the scene, and took part in the simple ceremony which in former years opened with the firing of guns as a signal for silence. Silence was ended by the sounding of the."Last Post," and crowds led by choirs then joined in a service conducted by tho Bishop of London, at the close of which the "Reveille" was sounded by buglers and a verse of the National Anthem sung. Then followed the- pilgrimage to tho Cenotaph, which will probably continue throughout the day and late into the night, of thousands of mourners who laid wreaths at tho base of the monument in memory of fallen relatives and friends.