OFFICIAL’S BLUNDER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 145, 22 May 1939, Page 7

OFFICIAL’S BLUNDER.

KING NOT INFORMED. OTTAWA, May 20. The special correspondent of the Australian Associated Press says that a blunder on the part of a Government official to-night caused the first unfortunate incident of the tour. It had been announced that the King and Queen would make a brief appearance on the balcony of the Chateau Laurier before the Government banquet. A crowd of 00,000 people jambed Connaught Square and waited for four hours. The King, however, had not been informed. Finally word reached the King that a crowd had been gathered at the front entrance to the hotel since early afternoon. He immediately asked to be excused and, with the Queen, went on to the balcony. Rain was falling, but, despite cautions from equerries, Their Majesties stood on the balcony for five minutes acknowledging the plaudits of the crowd. They did not return to the banqueting chamber, taking coffee instead in a private room. The crowd, drenching wet, stood for a further two hours vainly hoping for another opportunity to see Their Majesties. Sixty-five people collapsed and wero treated by ambulance officers. Margaret Rose Paquette, /lb in weight, was probably tho youngest person in history to attend a Royal procession, because her mother insisted on going to see tho King and Queen. She was born in a boathouse just as the State carriage appeared along the route skirting the lake. A doctor, hastilv summond from a first-aid post, rushed them to hospital when the procession had passed. Margaret's name did not present any difficulties as she I has an alder sister called Elizabeth.