SCENES IN THE SQUARE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13168, 29 January 1936, Page 5

SCENES IN THE SQUARE.

CROWDS BREAK CORDON. United Press Assn.—By Electric Te leg ra ph—Co py ri gh t. LONDON, January 28. The early morning scenes' in St. James’ street and Piccadilly were amazing. At 5.30 a.in. hundreds of men. women and children were still asleep on the pavements, in shop doorways and behind hoardings. Drizzling rain commenced at 6.30 and the waiting multitude were soon beneath a forest of umbrellas. Though the rain increased the people did not attempt to leave their places and those lacking umbrellas huddled under newspapers. When dawn broke Hyde Park, viewed from the main carriageway, appeared a solid mass of people and it was impossible to walk on the pathways on either side. Emergency ambulance stations were established and furniture vans filled with stretchers stood ready to deal with fainting cases.

\\ aiting in those dreary hours of a January morning the thoughts of all instinctively reverted to the blazing sunshine of June sth when the city and nation acclaimed King George ;is lie drove to his Jubilee. The weather later improved, but the mournful crowd seemed alreadv indifferent to it. By S o’clock the spectators had brought the traffic to a standstill in the neighbourhood of the funeral route. Lines of stationary traffic were seen in all directions, and a detachment of the Guards was obliged to break its formation in order to force a way through Apsley Gate, Hyde Park, to take up duty. As the late-comers poured into St. James Square the troops and police had to link hands to preserve their swaying lines. The Royal servants watched from the roof of St. James Palace.

Those waiting for the coming of the Royal mourners saw the windows of Buckingham Palace light up long before dawn.

Ihe dockers of Surrey commercial doc k which intended to remain open for reasons of public necessity refused to work, thereby sacrificing a day’s pay. Sheer weight of numbers broke the cordon of police and soldiers and the crowd poured into the roadway near Jermyn street. Mounted men vainly attempted to force them on to the pavement and ambulance

men rushed to remove fainting women. Extra Guardsmen were summoned to deal with the situation when the police, despite pushing their horses into the crowd, failed to move them.

A loud-speaker van was rushed to St. James and appealed to the crowd to move. The situation was eased somewhat half an hour before the cortege left Westminster.

Before 9 o’clock the head of the procession, including detachments of all the regiments of which King George was Colonel-in-Chief, and the representatives of the Dominion Forces, had taken their positions and formed a line extending from St. James street. Parliament Square and the Mall in a symphony of grey.