JOYOUS DAYS IN ENGLAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20102, 8 May 1935, Page 9

JOYOUS DAYS IN ENGLAND

HAPPY CROWDS FILL STREETS MANY DANCE THROUGH NIGHT United Press Association— Bv Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received May 7, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 7. The Prime Minister (Mr Ramsay Macdonald) and Lord Londonderry (Air Minister), taking an aeroplane from Croydon after midnight, flew over London to see the illuminations and distant beacons. Queues waited to secure similar flights. Trafalgar Square was crowded with revellers at midnight. Leading West End thoroughfares were similarly as lively as in the daytime. People, in evening dress, wearing carnival hats leaving the restaurants, mingled with the merrymakers. Many streets had groups of Lancers. Other popular forms of amusement were balloon bursting and confetti throwing. A dance band, leaving a well-known club, played in Regent Street, and set hundreds of couples dancing. The streets are still festive. The one-arm doorkeeper of a famous hotel, who remembers Victoria's jubilee and the later celebrations, said he had seen nothing to compare with tonight’s "whoopee.” Yet the vast crowds were orderly and eventually went home quietly. Chain of Beacon Fires Punctually at 9.55 p.m. the “master bonfire” in Hyde Park leapt into flames, amid , a roar of cheering, in answer to the King at the Palace pressing a button, and thereby performing the last official act of the momentous day. It was a signal for a chain of beacon fires to spring up at 2000 points throughout Britain, topping every famous peak. London’s ring of hills alone had twenty-seven bonfires. Edinburgh, with one pile, blazing at Arthur’s seat, could see fifty fires in five counties. Thousands of cheering people clustered at the braesides to witness the spectacle. Many went up in aeroplanes. The beacon at Snaefell, on the highest mountain in the Isle of Man, was visible in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE INTO NEXT DAY VAST FAMILY PARTIES IN LONDON United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received May 7, 9.35 p.m.) LONDON,. May 7. The celebrations in the West End continued until the early hours. Parties cruised in taxis, sitting on the roofs, singing and waving balloons, flags and streamers. The whole of Piccadilly Circus was still choked at 2 a.m., women predominating in the crowd. Some persuaded policemen to dance “ring a roses” and thousands joined in chorus singing at the foot of Nelson’s Column. Many merrymakers have not gone to bed since Saturday. The hotels and restaurants resembled vast family parties, and their Majesties’ health was everywhere drunk. Midnight was greeted like the beginning of a new year and the cinemas were open till 3 a.m. Work of Ambulance It was revealed to-night that members of the Saint John Ambulance dealt with 8000 cases, mostly faintings among the crowds along the route of the procession, mostly due to long waits in the hot sun. The majority quickly recovered. Forty were sent to hospital for further treatment. One person died. The worst accident during the celebrations occurred at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where 200 men, women and children, despite warning notices, mounted an incomplete stand being erected for the agricultural show. Suddenly the stand gave way like a pack of cards. The people were pinned in the woodwork. Forty-eight were injured, eighteen of whom were sent to hospital.

LONDON’S MOST BRILLIANT PAGEANT ENTHUSIASTIC PRESS COMMENT United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received May 7, 7.15 p.m.) LONDON, May 6. “The News Chronicle,” in a leader, declares that the pageant was the most brilliant London has ever seen, owing to the May sunshine, the well-behaved crowds and the efficient organisation. “The Daily Mail,” in a leader, asserts that nothing is recorded in British history like to-day’s spectacle for clockwork efficiency, splendour and public enthusiasm. It realised Bolingbroke’s dream of a patriot King leading a united people. It was a happy thought that the Dominion Prime Ministers were assigned so an important a part in the ceremony. “The Manchester Guardian,” in a leader, welcomes the background of hope, purposes and peaceful traditions behind the jubilee. “The Times,” in a leader, says: Was the King’s weather abroad, and in the hearts of the people, who in hailing his Majesty with the homely old chorus “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” indicated how much the monarchy means to Britain.