THE KING'S RECOVERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20300, 6 July 1929, Page 14

THE KING'S RECOVERY.

NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.

TO-MORROW'S SERVICES. ARRANGEMENTS IN AUCKLAND. " LOYALTY MADE MANIFEST." Loyal British subjects in every part of tho world will unito to-morrow in public thanksgiving for the recovery of King George from his most serious and prolonged illness. The King and Queen will themselves attend the central sorvico of thanksgiving to be conducted in Westminster Abboy by tho Archbishop of Canterbury. Tho postponement of tho dato of the servico from June 16 has allowed time for copies of tho official order of servico to reach Now Zoaland, and it will be very widely used throughout the Dominion. The purpose of the service is thus oxpressed: "Thanksgiving to Almighty God for His good Providence whereby our Most Gracious Sovereign has been delivered from severe illness to the comfort of tho whole realm, and for the signal lovo and loyalty ol his people mado manifest in tho time of trouble." To-morrow will be observed as a day of thanksgiving at all services in Anglican Churches. The central official servico will tako place in St. Mary's Cathedral at 11 a.m. The primate, Archbishop Averill, will officiato, with the assistance of the acting-vicar, the Rev P. T- Williams, and the Rev. J. M. Beaufort. This service will bo attended by tho Mayor of Auckland and tho town clerk in their robes, and by members of tho City Council, the chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, representative officers of the Navy and Army, and representatives of tho St. John Ambulance and of the Officers' Club. Tho form used will bo the official Westminster Abbey one, with the addition of a special servico authorised by the archbishop. Iho service will bo broadcast. The Town Hall Servico.

The first thanksgiving service in St. Mary's will bo at eight o'clock, when Archbishop Averill will have the assistance of the Rev. P. T. Williams and the Revs. J M. Beaufort and F. Carew Thomas. The note of thanksgiving will also bo prominent in tho evening service, and thero will be a special service for children in tho afternoon.

A citizens' service has been arranged to tako place in the Town Hall in the afternoon, under the auspices of the Council of Christian Congregations. Tho Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, will preside. The • proceedings will follow the official order of the Westminster Abbey service, with certain alterations appropriate to the special conditions. An address will be delivered by tho Rev. Dr. J. J. North, and the Revs. D. C. Herron, E. Drake and tho Archbishop will also take part. In place of tho To Dcum tho hymn, ' Oh, God, Our Help in Ages Past," will bo sung.

The official evening service to be attended by' the Mayor, town clerk and mcmbors of the City Council, will be held in tho Pitt Street Methodist Church, and tho preacher will be the Rev. W. Walker. Suburban Observances. Tho Mayor and council of tho Mount Eden borough will attend tho service at Mount Eden Congregational Church, the Mount Roskill Road Board tho Epsom Methodist Church, and the One Tree Hill Road Boaid St. George's, Ranfurly Road. Epsom, in the morning. _ The Mayor and council of Onohunga will be present at the service ■at the Onehunga Methodist Church in tho oveninp;. Tho official order of service will be used in tho morning at 1 all Persbytcrian Churches throuchout the city and suburbs, and will bo widely adopted in nil Protestant Churches. At St. Patrick' 3 Cathedral there will be solemn High Mass of thanksgiving at 11 a.m., and suitablo services have been arranged for other Roman Catholic Churches.

The order of service to be used at the Abbey and throughout the Empire is a briof one, having been purposely made so lo avoid submitting His Majesty to a long strain. It opens with Psalm 100, followed by invocation and first verso of the National Anthem. Then follow special and general prayers of thanksgiving, the service concluding with tlio To Dcum, tho Benediction, and the hymn "Praise, my Soul, the King of Heaven."

Courso of the Illness. The grave illness of tho King, which aroused such widespread sympathy and anxiety throughout the Empire and tho world, had its origin in a chill contracted at the Armistice Day service at the Cenotaph on November 11. Tho first bulletin was issued ten days later, but for some days tho reports were of a reassuring naturo. By the end of November, however, the critical nature of the King's illness was known, the diagnosis being congestion and extensive plastic pleurisy of the right lun„g. Throughout December there were alternations of hope and fear as tho bulletins recordod the wavering course of the disease. Tho utmost resources of medical scionco and skill wero concentrated in tho effort to console tho King's life, but tho issue was long in doubt. A relapse was reported on Boxing Day, and tho whole of tho Christmas -and New Year season was shadowed with tho peoplo's anxiety It was not until tho socond week ot January that tho extromo tension began to l>o relieved, and tho more hopeful bulletins of the King's medical attendants gave definite ground for hope of recovery. A wide variety of treatments designed to combat tho disease and to maintain tho Royal patient's sorely-drained strongth by injections and by ray treatment was applied by roremost specialists in these particular methods

Period of Convalescence. It is generally regnrded as a great triumph for medical science that the King safely passed the crises, and by February 10 was well enough to bo removed to a sunnilv-situated mansion at Bognor.

At Bognor the King's progress continued slow but unchecked, and a month later bo was definitely reported to be convalescent. On May 15 he inado a good journey from Bognor to the palace at Windsor, and shortly afterwards Juno 16 was fixed as the day of national thanksgiving for his restoration •to health Howover, on May 30 it was announced that ho had caught a chill at an open-air picnic party in the grounds at Frogniore in celebration of the Queen's Birthday, and for a week or more lie was confined to bed with a feverish cold o and slight lung trouble. This made it advisable to postpone the service of thanksgiving, which on June 22 was fixed for to-morrow Last Monday the King and Queen made a triumphal journey back to London, where they have since boon residing at Buckingham Palace. .