QUEEN ALEXANDRA

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 November 1925, Page 5

QUEEN ALEXANDRA

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS. . FOUR Kims TO BE PRESENT. . '\ ■ SIMPLE SERVICE TO BE HELD. ay CABLE —PR.ES ASSOCIATION — COPYRIGHT Received Nov. 25, 10.15 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 24. At least four Kings will attend Queen Alexaidra’s funeral. Apart from. '(Kjing fijeorge, jhelr /soil, 'there will be present King Christian of Denmark (nephew), King Haakon of Norway (son-in-U'w), and Albert King of the Belgians. The coffin Will be taken from the chancel (of .Sandringham Church on Thursday afternoon and conveyed on a hand "bier id Wolferton station, the King and Queen walking behind the body, followed by a great procession of tenantry and villagers. There will be no ceremony on arriving at Liverpool Street Station, The remoVal of the casket to the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace will be carried out in the quietest manner possible, the King’s desire being to avoid all pomp. During the night the coffin will be watched by Gentlemen-at-Arms and Yeomen of the Guards. The procession from St. James’s Palace to Westminster Abbey will start at eleven o’clock, and will pass through the Mall, Whitehall. At Parliament Street it 'is proposed that the guncarriage ■ which bore the bodies of Queen Victoria and King Edward shall be used, drawn by 150 .bluejackets. That a woman remembered for her kindliness and generosity should be drawn through the streets on a hideous military contraption, the very symbol of meanness and hate, does not seem at all appropriate. The four Kings* will walk behind the gun carriage. In the Abbey the coffin will be placed at the foot of the chancel * steps. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct the simple service, assisted by Canon Carnegie and the precentor, Rev. L. H. Nixon. The service will last three-quarters of an hour, and will include the Queen’s favourite Psalm, the 23rd. The first hymn will be “Now the Labourer’s Task is O’er,” and the second, Baring Gould’s “On the Resurrection Morn.” As the mourners leave, Chopin’s Funeral March will he played. Admission to the Abbey will he by ticket, but after one o’clock the public Will he admitted and will file past the 1 coffin until nine o’clock, after which it will be taken quietly to Westminster. Mourning is everywhere apparent in London, women largely wearing black. Most shop windows were redressed at the weekend with black, grey, and purple dresses. The theatres throughout the country are closing on Friday.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. FESTIVITIES CANCELLED. (Received No. 2, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 24. The State banquet and other festivities which were to have been held on December 1 have been cancelled in consequence of Queen Alexandra’s death.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

HOUSE OF COMMONS PAYS TRIBUTE. “HELD THRONE OF PEOPLE’S HEARTS. ’ ’ LONDON, Nov. 23. The House of Commons decided that an address should be presented to the King, sympathising with him in the death of his mother, Queen Alexandra. In moving the motion, the Prime Minister (Mr Stanley Baldwin) said that all would ever remember her with grateful affection for the love she inspired among all classes. Looking back on the. Queen’s life, nothing was more striking than the way she indentified herself with the people and the country immediately she landed. Hers was a personality which impressed everybody. Every member of the House felt himself in the position of a mother’s son, and in that spirit sent' deep and heartfelt sympathy to the King, who was bearing the sharpest and yet the tenderest loss to which the son of man was heir.

The leader of the Labour Party (Mr Ramsay MacDonald), in seconding the motion, said: “We have felt for two generations the presence of a lady of a very sweet graciousness, humane consideration, and simple tenderness of heart, one Tevealing the dignity of Royalty and the close kinship of humanity, whether in the glowing blaze near the thfone or in the more subdued lights of widowhood. She won hearts that spring day in 1863 and kept them to the end.” The leader of the Liberal Party (Mr Lloyd George) said: “It is fifteen years since she reigned as queen, but she still held the throne of the people’s hearts because she had all the graces and charms that fascinated the people. Her whole life was marked by that charity which thinketh no evil and believeth all things.” Mr T. P. O’Connor said that, as “father of the House,” he hoped to be allowed to add the voice of Ireland, which loved her for her tenderness and sympathy. The motion was agreed to in silence, members standing. In the House of Lords, Lords Sansbnry, Haldane and Oxford and the Archbishop of Canterbury voiced the sentimentsi of the House in a resolution of condolence on the death of Queen Alexandra. Many peeresses in deep mourning sat in the side galleries. ALSO N.S.W. ASSEMBLY. SYDNEY, Nov. 24. The Assembly, having carried a motion of sympathy with the King on the death of Queen Alexandra, adjourned for a day as a mark of respect for the late Queen.