LONDON PEACE PLEA

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 December 1936, Page 3

LONDON PEACE PLEA

VICAR AS “UNKNOWN WARRIOR.” LONDON, November 21. The Unknown Warrior was impersonated by the Rev. Vincent Howson, vicar of St. James’s, Ratcliffe. E., at tl;e end of the evening service at the Church of St. Edmund, King and; Martyr, Lombard Street, London, this week. Dressed in the mud-encrusted uniform of a “Tommy,” Mr. Howson, who was once a member of .Sir Frank Benson’s Shakespearean company, walked I slowly from the vestry to the altar.' Onh r one light shone iii the church.) The organ played soft music. | Standing before the altar, on which was a cross of scarlet poppies, Mr. Howson, with arms stiffly outstretch? ed, recited a plea for peace. Speaking sadly and deliberately, the “Unknown Warrior” said: “ . . . . Look on me, Do you not know' me. The Unknown? . . . I am their son; your son. I am the teeming mil-!

lion, . Yet am one.,, ■“Where is the peace 1 fought for, died to seal? "If 1 came back, where could I enter > in?” . He -concluded with a passionate appeal to the living to strive for peace for the sake of the thousands who died for it. At the end, the sombre, ghostly figure moved slowly away. ; Mr. Howson stated that to him the ■portrayal of the character of the Unknown Warrior was in itself a sacrament. , . , lie was not an.amateur actor, ‘ but an artist who' haff-leaned ,his arts in ’ the best possible sphool. Mr! Howson | was for two years a prisoner of war in i Germany. ; 5 L . -’>• ; ’ I • ?— ls