ARMISTICE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLV, Issue 10431, 8 November 1919, Page 6

ARMISTICE DAY

FIRST ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE FROM HIS MAJESTY THE KING. A SILENT OBSERVANCE. The following message from His Majesty the King has been received by His Excellency the Governor-General: — To all my people—Tuesday next, November Tlth, is the first anniversary of the Armistice .which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years marked tho victory of right and freedom. I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it. To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the "Armistice came into force, the eleventh hour of the elevonth day of the eleventh month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities. During that time, except in tho rare cases where this may be - impracticable, all work, all' sound, and all locomotion, should cease so that in perfect stillness the thought of everyone may be concentrated on. reverent remembrance of the glorious dead. Hio elaborate organisation appears to .be necessary. At a given signal, which can easily be arranged to suit the circumstances of each locality, I believe that we shall all gladly interrupt our business and pleasure, whatever it may be, and unite in this simple service of si- , lence and remembrance. (Signed) GiUORGE, R.I. The Prime Minister (Right Hon. W. P. Massey) stated last evening that arrangements would be put in hand to secure as far as possible a general observance throughout the Dominion of the two minutes' silence on Tuesday next. Trains would be stopped on the railways; a roqueßt woul.d be made that there should be ,a cessation of traffic on the streets, and every effort wpuld be made to have work" suspended in schools, shops, and factories and to secure complete silence. This procedure would conform with what was intended to be done in the United Kingdom, and the Prime Minister said he was quite sure that there would be a ready acquiescence in the desire of His Majesty on the part of the citizens of New Zealand as well as in other parts of the Empire.'