EVE OF ROYAL CROSSING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 133, 8 June 1939, Page 13

EVE OF ROYAL CROSSING

HUGE CROWDS GATHER

AMERICANS JOIN IN SINGING NATIONAL ANTHEM

(By Telegraph—Tress Association —Copyright.) (Received June S, 11 a.m.) N.l Ad AHA FA LLS (Ontario), June 7. The greatest crowds in the history of Niagara—half a million people, including* thousands from the United States— gathered to witness the historic crossing* of the King1 and Queen into America. At 9.35 p.m. Canada will surrender their Majesties for a four-day visit at the middle of the arched span which links the two countries below the mighty cataract. In this cradle of Canadian achievement, where monuments on many hills chronicle three centuries of history, the international demonstration today was particularly significant. From the grizzled ruins of the Canadian Fort Erie, where the boundary ol: the Niagara River begins, from the hilly field of the sanguinary battle of Lundy's Lane in 18J4. and from the American Fort Niagara, where the stream flows into Lake Ontario the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes flew side by side. In the streets of the city of Niagara Falls, Americans .•joined in the National Anthem and cheered to the echo of the Niagara Canyon the Royal couple, whose Canadian tour has drawn expressions of loyalty and affection from the remotest corners of the Dominion.

The "Buffalo Times," in the first souvenir edition ever published by an American newspaper for visiting Royalty, said:

"Today, for the first time in history, the reigning Monarchs of the British Empire will set foot on the soil of the United States. They will not pass any border guards, and none of the decorations we hang out for them will be there temporarily to conceal the frontier barriers. They will not pass any Maginot or Siegfried Lines, and the only military they will see will be there only for show, to honour them. We think they will find in walking about much the same things and people thinking in much the same way as the people they have been visiting fn the past couple of weeks. We think they will detect in us the same unyielding love of human liberty that marks their own people. They may find our curtsies a little bit stiff, but when they shake our hands we will be offering the same sincere friendship with which jthey have been welcomed to their own Dominion. They will find that this country and theirs are good neighbours, and that 'good "'\ghbour' is more than a phrase."

Arriving at the Falls their Majesties decided not to descend to the base of the Falls, as had been arranged earlier, but contented themselves with viewing^tbe Falls from the brink. As a midshipman the King had crossed the honeymoon bridge. le could not take the Queen to that sentimental span as he had done many years before, but he did take her to Table Rock, where he also stood as a youth. It was only half the rock that jit was then. He also showed the Queen where the wire was strung when Blondin crossed the falls in the presence of his grandfather, Edward VII. Their Majesties dined informally with the United States Minister to Canada, Mr. Daniel Roper, and Mrs. Roper, in the Rainbow Room at the top of the General Brock Hotel, and sat at a horseshoe table overlooking both the Canadian and the American Falls. During dinner the 400,000.000 candle power floodlights illuminating the falls were turned on. STRENUOUS DAY'S TOUR. Their Majesties reached Niagara after one of the most strenuous days of the tour. They received addresses ;.nd drove through the streets of London (Ontario), Ingersoll, Woodstock, brantford, Hamilton, and St. Catharine's. As yesterday, the train proceeded all day through an almost unbroken lane of cheering people. At Brantford, which is the hub of the huge reserve which in 1784 Britain presented to six of the nation's Indians for loyalty during the American Revolution, the Queen signed a Bible which was given to the Indians by Queen Anne in 1712. Among the crowd was Angus McChellan, his wife, and their five-months-old baby, who flew 1100 miles from Yellowknife, in the North-west Territory, to Timmins, Ontario, and then by train 500 miles to Brantford. Their Majesties entered cars at St. Catharine's and drove fourtepn miles to Niagara via the new four-lane highway. En route, an electric eye operated by the car dropped a string of flags, so christening the road "Queen Elizabeth Way." The sight of the Union Jack flying with the Stars and Stripes on Fort Niagara across the river, to symbolise 125 years of peace, was the first welcome from the United Stales. ALMOST UNBROKEN RANKS OF PEOPLE. A heavy guard of mounted police was stationed at the London railway yards, where their Majesties .. slept aboard the Royal train last night.

The passage down the Niagara Penin-

sula, the most heavily-populated section of Canada, was almost like a Royal procession through, a city.

Almost unbroken ranks of cheering people lined the railway right-of-way today. In some places people were standing knee-deep in a swamp.

At one place someone shouted: "How ya, King?" The King laughingly replied, "I'm fine! How are you?"