VICTORY ANNIVERSARY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 38, 8 November 1919, Page 6

VICTORY ANNIVERSARY

4 ARMISTICE DAY

MESSAGE FROM THE KING

Tho following message from His Majesty tho King has been received by His Excellency the Governor-General:—

To all my-people.—Tuesday next, November 11, is the first anniversary of the armistice which stayed tho world-wide carnage of the four preceding years and marked the victory of right and freedom. I believe that my people in every part of tho Empiro fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to nc-liievo it

To afford an opportunity for tho universal expression of this'feeling, it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the armistice came into force, the eleventh hour of tho eleventh day of the eleventh month, I hero may bo for tho. brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities. During that timo, except in the rare cases where (his may be impracticable, all work, all sound, and all locomotion, should cease so that in perfect stillness the * thought of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of Hie Glorious! Dead.

No elaborate organisation appears to bo necessary. At a given signal!, which, can easily bo arranged to suit tho circumstances of each locality, I believe that we shall all gladly interrupt our business' and pleasure, whatever it may 'be. and unite in this simple service of silence and .remembrance. (Signed) George, U.I.

The Prime Minister (li.ight Hon. AV. P. Massey) stated last evening that arrangements would be put in lrand to secure, as far as possible, a general observance throughout tho Dominion of the two minutes' silence on Tuesday next. Trains would bo stopped on the railways; a request would bo made that there should be a- cessation of traffic on tho streets, and every effort would be made to have work suspended in schools, shops, and factories, and to secure complete sileftce. This procedure would conform with what was intended to lie done in tho United Kingdom, and tho Brinio Minister said lie was quite sure that there, would be a ready acquiescence in the. desiro of HisMajesty on tho part of tho citizens of New Zealand as well a's in other parts of the Empire.