PREPARING FOR PEACE

Evening Star, Issue 17085, 2 July 1919, Page 6

PREPARING FOR PEACE

BRITAIN’S PROGRAMME OP CELEBRATIONS. A WONDERFUL PAGEANT. The date of the celebration of peace in Britain is yet uncertain (says the London correspondent of tbo ‘New York Herald,’ writing at the end of April!. He is wise who refuses to prophesy, but it is safe to prophesy one thing, and that is when tho peace night revels do come off they will be fast and" furious, with bonfires and beacons and squibs and crackers, and, with the sanction of the War Office, a barrage of star shells and Vex-ey lights, with the long white beams from scores of searchlights illuminating the whole. There will bo no end of light and laughter, pageants and plays and shows, and the whole Empire, circled by a chain of fire, will rejoice. Under the direction of a committee of members of Parliament, peace celebrations, beacons, and bonfires committees have been formed all over the kingdom, which have arranged that tho general illumination of the whole kingdom will com-Xience simultaneously at 11 p.m. on the night fixed. As the use of valuable fuel is to be deprecated at this time, the Admiralty and WaxOffice are supplying the large surplus slocks of Dover flaxes, rockets, and hnndlights at the very lowest possible prices, so that for even the smallest communities they may be choap enough. The flares, iho invention of the late Wing Commander Brock, brilliantly illuminate an area of three miles radius. They burn for 7? minutes, weigh 901b, stand 3ft Ixigh by Bin in diameter, and non-explo-sivo, and are fired by friction, so that they are-safe enough even to the most inexperienced. Eight of these flares will maintain the illumination for an hour, and, conveyed to- mountain tops in sufficient number, the whole country should be made bright as day for an hour even on the darkest moonless and cloudiest night. GREAT PEACE PAGEANTS. But the bonfires will not be confined to the flares alone. AH the waste brushwood and hedgerow clippings, which at this time of year arc usually burned up, are being collected to make bonfires on “ the night.” They rill make a dull red glow, with a maximum of smoke, hut they will serve. Then there is to bo a wonderful series of peace pageants to ho given in various great centres in aid of Bt. Dunstan’s Fund. St. Dunstan’s, which has the patronage of Queen Alexandra, is striving now to enlist the help of 20.000 voluntary performers, for whom costumes are being prepared. It is to bo a gigantic nrorUiction, with seexxic and mechanical effects never before, attempted or even thought of in connection with open-air displays. This pageant, which will have a vast central arena and subsidiary stages on either side, will open with an episode showing tho Empire at peace. Then, with tho call to arms, come the “Old Contemptible.s” boarding a great, troopship. The early stages of the conflict will be realistically depicted, and it is proposed that in each city where the peace pageant is given the most notable deeds of local x-egi-ments shall he reconstructed, where possible, by the men who fought in the engagements. The Navy is the theme of the fourth episode, which will begin with the Spithead review of ISI4 and dose with the glorious attack on Zenbruggc. In the final scene of triumph all the regiments of (he Allies trill he represented in a parade of colors reminiscent of the days before khaki replaced distinctive and decorative uniform. As a finale, symbolic of the coming generation, a thousand children clad in red, white, and blue will form a living Union Jack. The League of Arts ia arranging for other entertainments on a colossal scale in London. Ou from 20 to 30 of the parks and commons stands are to be erected, each capable of accommodating about 1,000 instrumentalists and singex-s; and in addition there will ,he raised stages for the production of such plays as ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘As You Like It.’ The organisation of a choir of 20,000 voices to sing in the open air has brought Dr Charles Harriss to London from Santa Barbara, Cal., where he has been living for several years past.