PRE-WAR FREEDOM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19504, 3 February 1926, Page 7

PRE-WAR FREEDOM

COLOGNE REGAINS INDEPENDENCE ARMY OF OCCUPATION’S DEPARTURE SHROPSHIRES LEAVE AT STROKE OF THREE. PRUSSIAN FLAG AGAIN HOISTED. Bv Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright. LONDON, Feb. 1. The “Daily News” states that France and Britain have agreed to reduce the Allied troops in the Rhineland from 75,000 to 60,000. The Germans contend that 45,000 are sufficient. Thousands of Germans packed Cathedral Square, Cologne, to witness the departure of the British. It was a moving ceremony. The Shropshires paraded before the British headquarters at the Hotel Excelsior. Silence fell when the cathedral clock struck three. The troops presented arms, the Union Jack fluttered down, and the band played the National Anthem. Immediately the troops departed the Prussian flag was hoisted amid a tumultuous chorus of hochs and the singing of national songs. JUBILANT CITIZENS CITY SURRENDERS TO REVELRY. VAST CONCOURSE REJOICES. LONDON, Feb. 1. A Cologne message states that on the stroke of midnight on Sunday the booming of Deutsche Glocke, gigantic bell which replaced the Kaiser Glocke, which was sacrificed in war time, was the signal for an outburst of jubilation at the departure of the. occupation troops. Rockets shrieked joyously skyward, torchlight processions were formed, and the whole city, relieved from seven years’ occupation, surrendered to the spirit of revelry. The chief feature was a speech by the burgomaster, which was begun punctually on the stroke of midnight, before a vast concourse in the illuminated Cathedral Square.