ROYAL WEDDING GIFTS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

ROYAL WEDDING GIFTS

EXHIBITION FOR CHARITY. There were huge crowds at St. James’ Palace, London, recently for the final day of the charity exhibition of the Duke and Duchess of Kent’s wedding presents. The queue of visitors extended round three sides of Friary Court throughout the afternoon, and it was decided to keep the doors open an extra hour in the evening. So many people made a last-minute effort to see the presents that the total attendance figure passed the 100,009 mark half-way through the afternoon. The final figure was stated to be 100,600. It has not yet been decided among which charities the profits of the exhibition are to be divided. The .total profits are likely to be about £4OOO.

Antique furniture comprised a large section of the exhibition, and many of the most valuable pieces Were taken after the exhibition to No. 3 Belgrave Square, the house which the Duke and Duchess have leased. It was understood that certain of tire presents were to be temporarily housed at Buckingham Palace and St. James’ Palace until the return of the Duke and Duchess from the West Indies. Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith, who arranged the exhibition, said that the authorities were very pelased at the large attendance which resulted. “One of the things which particularly struck me,” he said, “was the extreme good temper of all the visitors. The crowds were so large that commissionaires had to keep them on the more fairly continuously, but everyone accepted this with the utmost good nature and there were no complaints.” Throughout the exhibition not a single present was broken or damaged.