CORONATION CAVALCADE

Evening Star, Issue 22683, 24 June 1937, Page 15

CORONATION CAVALCADE

" KALEIDOSCOPE OF COLOUR " WAYSIDE INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS AN ENTERTAINING LETTER-WRITER A vivid and colourful description of Coronation scones in London is contained in an interesting letter received in Dunedin. From early morning until after the Abbey service the writer witnessed one of the most eventful ceremonies of this century, and her remarks and impressions are most entertaining. She writes as follows: “The Coronation procession is quite indescribable. You will see pictures of it, but no pictures or words could adequately portray, or in the least convey, any idea of the marvellous pageant. We had scats on Liberty balcony in Regent street. “ All I can duds to give yon a resume of our day. Called at midnight and breakfasted (?) at 1 a.m. About an hour later we started for London. It is no easy matter to drive in the dark and fog, but we got to a garago not long after 3 a.m The underground was closed, so we had to walk to Netting Hill Gate, from where we got to Oxford Circus without the least trouble, as the trains were nearly empty at that hour. AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE. “ Although Libertys was open when wo arrived, wo decided to take a walk down Regent street, to have a look at the decorations and crowds. The people were lying two or three deep, singly, in couples, in families, and in piles, along the edge of the pavements. Most of them were still asleep, others beginning to wake up and have their breakfasts. Milk in cartons, hot sausages, fruit, etc., were being hawked. There were not a great number of police about at that hour, but as we retraced our steps from Piccadilly Circus they began the box-and-stool hunt. When they discovered these articles they took them and thrust them into the roadway, and the police vans collected them. All was singularly quiet in the dim light, of lamps and flares, for the mist still hung over the city. We entered Liberty’s by a back door, found our seats (wooden planks about nine inches wide, although small cushions were provided), studied our programmes, read the daily papers wo had bought, and waited for the dawn. The mist lifted a little, and the flares burnt out the _ daylight came, and it turned quite chilly. “ Seats began to fill up, the crowds got to their feet, and others joined in behind. More police appeared, and the St. John Ambulance men took up their positions. At 7 a.m. breakfast was served. That and lunch were not well organised. The crush was awful. After breakfast when we returned to our seats, the Boy Scouts started putting up steel harriers across the entrance; to some of _ the side streets, and the troops arrived to lino the route. They wore for the most part dark blue, except some rifle regiments.

AN UNTIRING ENTERTAINER. “ There was a fat woman in tho front of the crowd opposite who kept the whole place alive. She danced to the music, waved a little Union Jack, cracked jokes with those around her, with the police and the troops, poked fun at the passers-by, especially the “ hlrdies ” wandering about in evening dross, bigwigs of tho police, and even officers in plumed hats came in for her chat. Some chaffed her back, and one and all smiled on her. How she kept it up I do not know. She was there when we arrived, and it was not until the Abbey service was broadcast that she became quiet. BREAKFAST FOR THE TROOPS, “ Presently up the street came the sound of a military band, and into view appeared tho leaders of the procession —the band of the Rifle Brigade, followed by the colonial contingent. The Burmese and Rhodesians were just below us when they halted, and there they remained at ease. People in the windows threw down cigarettes, slabs of chocolate, and apples, although the police repeatedly broadcast a request for them not to do so, Someone in a shop opposite sent out a huge box of chocolates, which an officer in a kilt handed around to the Burmese. The Tommies lining the_ street jibed at those who, in their opinion, were greedy and took too many. During the morning an A.S.C. lorry passed slowly up the route distributing big tea cans filled with paper bags containing the troops’ rations. Later they came along and collected the paper bags. “ The loud speaker announced the pending departure from the Abbey. A stir, all expectation, a word of command, a roll of drums, the clash of martial music, and the Coronation cavalcade was under way. One was almost giddy watching the moving kaleidoscope of colour, men in joyous uniforms marching, beautiful horses prancing or keeping step to the music as detachment after detachment of troops from every corner of the Empire passed by. LONG LIVE THE KING. “ Unfortunately we were a little too high to see into the closed carriages. Mr Baldwin received a good reception. Then tho excitement grew; as the Royal Family, in glass coaches, wont by. The Duchess of Gloucester did not bow or wave. Next came Queen Mary with tho little Princesses. How the crowds cheered and cheered. One felt it could not have been louder, and yet, as she passed from view, the roar swelled and swelled to our left. “ Looking down the street I saw what at first sight, in the dull light, looked like a grey mist, followed by a golden cloud, vrhich gradually resolved itself into grey-white horses and the golden coach. The tumult of cheering was stupendous. The King, what one saw of him in the all-too-brief moment of passing, looked very solemn. The reception he received and the loyalty of his people, demonstrated by the acclamation with which he was greeted, must have given him courage to carry on. And so the great, never-to-be-for-gotten spectacle passed before us. When one thinks back on it one is still amazed that it could be real and not a fairy show or an extravagant dream. “ We hastened down from the balcony to a room on the first floor, and with some difficulty in the closelypacked space saw the procession again passing out of Hyde Park on the television screen. Then we made our way out into the crowded streets and the downpour of rain. Queues four to six deep were stretching to goodness knows how far waiting for the undergrounds, so there was nothing for it but to wallk. When we got as far as Queen’s road we managed to obtain a taxi to the garage, and the car, and so home. CORONATION AFTERMATH. “ Our Queen, not Queen Elizabeth! What a lump I got in my throat as she went by. Two years ago at the jubilee there did not sedm to be a line in her.

face. Regal still, and every inch a Queen, but all that she has gone through has left its mark. “ AVhat amazing staff work, that tremendous length of procession passing on without a hitch ; what wonderful police: and what an amazingly good-tempered crowd the British mate. No country but England could have done it. Thank God, I’iu British.”-