REPLICA OF MACE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 16

REPLICA OF MACE

Use On Lord Mayor’s Tour {London Correspondent of “The Press”) LONDON. The six-foot silver and gilt mace which adorns the Lord Mayor of London's ceremonial and travels throughout Britain will not be taken by Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen on his tour ia July of the Far East, New Zealand and Australia. The mace is too precious a treasure to the City of London and the security risk too great for it to be taken abroad. A London silversmith is making a replica which, with a replica of the Sword of State, the Lord Mayor will take on tour. The tour will be the most distant and the largest-staffed visit undertaken for many years by a Lord Mayor in office. The real mace has never left Britain. The main difference between the 1735 original and the replica is that, to the relief of its bearer in processions, it will be much lighter—a mere 191 b. The Georgian coat of arms will be replaced by those of the Queen and. for easier packing, the mace will be in three parts. During his 30.000 mile tour. Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen expects that he will have to make between 120 and 150 speeches. “Thank God they are to different audiences every three days," he told guests at the Masons’ dinner at the Mansion House this week. In addition, he is embarking. on a series of visits to various towns and cities tn Britain, too often neglected, he feels, by Lord Mayors in the past