A MIGHTY SPECTACLE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 January 1928, Page 7

A MIGHTY SPECTACLE.

NIGHT MARCH lO' WHITEHALL. PILGRIMAGE OF THE' TGRCiIEB. .uuNDUN, Nov. 12. The Prince or \> urns iie-aued. LUC m ii.nni cx-,ser v ice jneu irom trio moert Trail uie cenotaph, last night. mere were nanus <h the brigade of Uuaius m iiont ei him. nn. Gnurelihi was on his let l, w alknig with, Head bene lor warn, a, smile oh his lace, w.onuer in ills# eyes, imrd Lav an marched, on the Tmnce s right. t lags oi too inrush uegmii, organisers oi -the procession, tossed in the air nil the nanus ol tne co.lumn, borne with munite pride. Torches narneci. as a bodyguard ol lire to the Prmce. He niarcued looking about him, one not only of his comrades ei the war, but one of the surging, cheering, adoring crowd ou the pavements that iought to catch a glimpse of him. He was at once the simplest and. the most fascinating of the Emg’s subjects, taking Els way through the heart and the hearts of an empire. . ' The' men emerged from the mighty mass of the Albert Hall in high spiiits. Their thoughts were on the wing in that .rarefied air ol memory which knows no imperfections and cherishes no liate. , They plunged straight into the rhythmic, electric joy of the march, she joy of bodies swaying, arms mg, the joy of p'urely physical esetasy of regimental feet crashing to the beat of drums and the shout of brazen music. Their spines tingled—there is eternal truth in platitudes—with the fever of a great parade. They were drunk again on the old wine. NERVE CENTRES. Men from the second Remembrance Festival In Hyde Park joined the column, it was bv that time' a' ii'Um.iicr thrilling nerve of the immense body of humanity, pulsating and mak>n«■ "Ardent contact with thousands on thousands of other nerve centres along the street sides. A chain of Legion of Frontiersmen proceeded on either side of the Prince and those immediately following him. They linked hands when a wave - of oeople broke on them from the pavements. They put hands on shoulders and stepped closely round comers where the pressure Qf the masses threatened to overwhelm the I cince and all in a tide of excitement. There has never been a spectacle like this in the history of London. It was superb, immense, staggering in ’ts primitive appeal to the emotions ami its stirring of the soul. The bands, grey in their greatcoats, with bearskins nodding above their instruments, bored through the streets like a bluff hammer head. Ihere was military majesty. Behind them marched the bowler-hatted Prince, a walking-stick carried at the trail m his hand. And behind him swung the procession of flame and ardour. There was the church of humanity moving like a mighty army. . . Omnibuses, v taxi-cabs, private °^, s j 'Triavs,' and lorries, were packed like driftwood along the banks of the streets. The procession nosed its "ay between, „ _ . •_ Handkerchiefs fluttered from wi dovvs and house-tops. Flushed faces, and wide-opened gleaming eyes were lit bv tlie passing of hho< torches to a hot ' welcome. Cheers on cheers, shouts on shouts, boomed and echoed from Knight,shridge to Wlntetha 1. The people of London had loosed their feelings in a storm of demonstrativeness. ” Never again shall the British be called wholly unemotional. MAKING A REIOORD’ . The column approached Birdcage Walk and found the sky violet with lights. A haze was focussed on it from a lorry where cinema cameras whirred to make a record of the Night of Hearts and Remembrance. Mounted police loomed like contains against the glow of Whitehall. . A suro-e from the crowd set the Legionaries rippling like a. twitching chain, but with grins and jests, with pushing and cajoling, a- way for tho- Prince and the men was made through, the narrows of the' gates. So the head of the column reached Whitehall while the end was still in Belgravia, and a change passed over tlmhead, as it was to affect all. They had been drunk on the old wine, but now they were sobered and with a catch in their throats. They had come, us the torches were dying, to a holy place. The Cenotaph, pure, glorious, sweetly austere, stood, before them like a young bride. She was the memory oi an Empire, and she was wedded to eternity.

An d * her dowry had been a million dead.