KING VISITS POPE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17038, 11 May 1923, Page 11

KING VISITS POPE.

BRILLIANT CEREMONY AT VATICAN. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. ROME, May P. King George and Queen Mary had .1 private conversation with r His Holiness , the Pope at the Vatican, the interview lasting twenty-live minutes. The King v ore a full-dress military uniform, and the Queen the reguiatiou black dress i cud veil which are obligatory for ladies visiting the Pope. Great crowds thronged the routes to ; sec their Majesties’ Papal cars. The whole splendour of the Papal Court was called upon for the ceremonial reception. In St Peter’s Square twe regiments of cavalry rendered the i military honours. At the entrawe to | th<- Palace a Swiss . Guard presented arms, while in St Damascus Court was u company of Palatine Guards, with music and the Papal flag, together with ! it platoon of Gendarmes, who rendered ; military honours whiie the baud played j the British Anthem. ! At the loot of the stairway leading I to the PapaL apartments the Royal visitors were welcomed by Prince Rus- | pole, while at the head of the stairway a large crowd of prelates, who are members of the Pontifical Court, surrounded them, forming a. brilliant and picturesque gathering. Preceded bv six palfreys and flanked bv a detachment of Swiss Guards, they pieceeded to the Clementine Hall, on the threshold of which was another gjioup of prelates. Officers of the Vatican A rmed Corps joined the escort, and i proceeded through the Tapestries Hall, which was lined by noble guards in red i uniform. ‘ As the cortege entered the ante-room of the Papal apartment, the Pope advanced unescorted, welcomed the royal guest*, and escorted them to his private parlour. Kubsequemlv their Majesties received at the Villa £atrian n number of Eng--1 lish ecclesiastics ax>d representatives of ; various English philanthropic institu-

tions in Rome. Cardinal Gasparri. the Pontifical Secretary of State, arrived at the legation at noon for the purpose of returning the Papal visit. He remained x«, luncheon with the King Other representatives of the Vatican i a i e o attended, the oompanr numbering i twenty. . At three o'clock Cardinals Bipieti. Vawoutelli and Merry Pel Y al conveyed to the British Soveaoigrs tiic ©teofeing* ,it the Snared College. This was quite unprecedented, and was-tiot done on the occasion of the Kaiser s visit. RECEPTION AT EMBASSY. MEMBERS OF BRITISH COLONY. LONDON May 10.

King George and Queen Mary gave a reception to seven hundred, members of the British Colony at the Embassy, and later attended a gala performance of -The Barber of Seville in the Constanzi Theatre. FEW PREVIOUS VISITS. The visit of King George V. and Queen Mary to Home, the first of the present reign, ha* not a great many precedents iu English history, wrote the Rome correspondent of the *“ Morning Post” recently. The last visit of a King of England was that, of Edward VII.. in the spring of 1903, when three days wore spent in Home on the King’s way home from Naples alter a cruise in the Mediterranean. Edward VIE was the guest of Victor Emanuel HI. at the Qmrinal. and, starting from tho British Embassy, according to the protocol—for we then had no Legation at- the Holy See—drove through the streets lined with Italian troops to visit Pope Leo XIII., then in the last year of bin Istig pontificate. Once again Edward VTJ. set foot, hut only for ten minutes, on Roman soil, at the outlying Tuscolana railway station, in 1909. while returning to England from Baia, on the bay of Naples. 'Hie present writer was. a witness of his meeting on the platform with King: Victor Emmanuel, whom he had also met at Baia a few day* earlier, and at Gaeta the year before. Before King Judwaid’s visit no King of England had been in Home since the time of Canute, in 1027. although Richard T. landed at Ostia on his way to the Crusade in 1190. But tho Stuarts long resided here in the eighteenth century. “ .Tames 1.11.,” the Old Pretender, arrived in the Papal States in 1717: it was at Monteftascone. above the lake of Bols-ena, that he was married, and in Rome were born Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, and Cardinal York tx Henry 1X..” whose name is still associated : with his diocese of Frascati, which h© governed for forty-three years.