THE LATE KING EDWARD

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 19

THE LATE KING EDWARD

INSPECTION OF THE WREATHS LONDON, May 23.

Thousands are visiting St. George's Chapel to inspect the 5000 wreaths, which cost £70,000. Queen Alexandra has arranged that every wreath shall be photographed. King George, the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of Cornwall, Prince Albert, and the Duke and Duchess of Argyll said farewell at Victoria station to the Kaiser. There were great crowds of ipeople. The German Emperor, in his farewell message, warmly appreciates the 6incere sympathy shown by the public i,n the nation's sad bereavement.

PERIOD OF MOURNING. LONDON, May 24. ' The King and Queen and the Queen , Mother desire, ir. order that trade may not unduly suffer, that full general mourning shall cease on June 17, and halfmourning on the 3Gth. INDIAN LOYALTY. A REMARKABLE DEMONSTRATION. CALCUTTA, May 26. A Hindu demonstration at Calcutta .in King Edward's memory concluded with the sumptuous feeding of 20,000 poor people, who were seated in two rows extending a mile on either side of the streets, and the gift of a piece of cloth to each. The Maharajah of Darbhangah (Bengal) presided, and there were 2000 spec tators, including the Chief Justice and .prominent English residents. The poor people dispersed after cheering the British Raj. A MEMORABLE MEETING. LONDON, May 26. Lord Rosebery, in a speech at Edinburgh, said that the meeting of the Kaiser and King George in Westminster Hall had struck the imagination of the world. Was it £oo much to hope that King Edward the Peacemaker had bequeathed a ,great legacy of peace ? He had left Parliament in a condition of acute division, but might we not hope by the solemn communion of parties in Westminster Hall that he left peace even in the politics of the United Kingdom. THE QUEEN MOTHER. LONDON, May 24. Queen Alexandra granted an audience to Sir G. Reid to-day, and expressed in most touching terms her gratitude for the loyal devotion shewn during King Edward's reign, and to his memory, as well as for the sympathy extended to herself by the Australian people. Queen Alexandra gave ain audience to Mr Roosevelt and Lord Strathcona simultaneously with that granted to Sir George Reid. Queen Alexandra, in reply to an unfounded rumour that hereafter she intended to reside in Denmark, declares that she will ever regard England as her home. It is officially announced that Queen Alexandra is very much grieved at a report which has been printed and circulated by some society papers that King Edward's death was caused by a vaccine treatment which he had received to prevent him from contracting influenza or pneumonia before his journey to Biarritz. Queen-Alexandra wishes it to be known that before King Edward left England he never felt better in spirits than after this treatment, for it had kept him in excellent health to his Majesty's entire satisfaction for no less than 15 months. The attack at Biarritz was in no way related to the course of treatment which the King had previously received. Baron Saye and Sele, presiding at the Association for the Abolition of Vivisection, expressed his profound contrition that a moment's anxiety should have been given Queen Alexandra by their leaflet stating that the King's death had been caused by vacine treatment. He said that a new rule, would be adopted to prevent a recurrence of such a thing. Queen Alexandra granted an audience to Mrs Roosevelt. ' Quprii Alexandra sends her sincere thanks to the women of Fremantle for tJifeir kind expressions of sympathy in her It>6teavemenfc,

! MEETING OF PEACE SOCIETY. LONDON, May 25. The Peace Society held a notable I gathering in the Guildhall. | Mr Carnegie paid a warm tribute to King Edward, and amid cheers Sir William Mathers proposed that the society should present a bust of King Edward to the Temple of Peace at The Hague. The Peace Society proposes to raise £50,000 in King Edward's memory to endow a ward in the St. Bartholomew Hospital, or to found Imperial scholarships in the city of London schools. Mr Carnegie and Sir W. Mather have each given £ISOO. LATE KING'S HORSES. LONDON, May 24. It is officially stated that King Edward bequeathed his racing and. breeding studs to King George, who will carry them on ! on the same lines. The Duke of Cornwall and Prince ! Albert have returned to Dartmouth and Osborne respectively. A SOCIALIST OUTBURST. SPEECH BY MR KEIR HARDIE. LONDON, May 26. Mr Keir Hardie, speaking at Pontypridd, said he hoped that the suggestion to indefinitely postpone the resumption of the fight wherein Parliament was engaged would find neither sympathy nor support from either side. The battle must be fought through at the earliest possible moment. He entered a protest against the glorification of militarism displayed at the Royal funeral to the exclusion of the civil side of the Government, and he objected to the enthronement of a fighting man. The military element was always destructive of civil liberty. During the last fortnight he i had been sick at heart at the mawkish I sentimentality shown. He could sympathise with the widow and family of the dead King, but his sympathy was equally keen for the widows and families of the victims of the Whitehaven disaster. • His opinion as a miner was that walls should have been built to extinguish the fire in the colliery while the victims were still alive. He was sick, therefore, at the mummery shown at the death of one man, while the deaths of the others were uncared for. RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY. Before ordinary business was commenced on Wednesday at the -meeting of the Waikouaiti County Council the Chairman (Mr John Foote) moved : —"That this council I put on record its deep heartfelt sorrow at : the death of King- Edward VII, and express its recognition of the great loss the Empire and the world have sustained by his death; and that this council also express its sincere and profound symnathy with Queen Alexandra and the Royal Family." . The council, in silence, carried the resolution, and it was resolved that a copy be ! forwarded to the Prime Minister.