GREAT NAVAL PAGEANT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 September 1924, Page 8

GREAT NAVAL PAGEANT.

A WONDERFUL SPECTACLE. LONDON, July 29. In 1914 the King reviewed bis Navy. Of the 196 ships at Spithead last week when his Majesty again reviewed' his fleet only one, the Centurioui, was in the lines ten years ago. The presence in London of the leading statesmen of Allied nations, striving to round off the peace, converted the review into something o.f au international aflaii. Among the guests to whom invitations were issued were the Prime Ministers of France and Belgium, as well as the principal representatives. Ambassadors, or Ministers at the Court ot St. James, of the United States, ij-razil, Cuba, Fiance, Greece, Italy. iapan_ Portugal, Roumania, and Siam ; and tne decks of the former C.P.11.’ liber Princess Margaret, bearing the principal guests, were also brightened ay the cocked hats and gold lace or be-medalled officers of . the principal navies of the world. A large number ol representatives of the Dominions were present, as well as crowds of spectators who had either gone afloat or had taken up advantageous places ashore. Probably never before , did so many eyes, British and foreign, look out .over the sunlit waters of Spithead and the Solent.

Early in the morning, while vessels lor sight-seers were filling up, while great crowds of people on the mainland and on the Isle of Wight were making shoreward to see the show, the King . the Prince of Wales visited ri.M.S. Victory. She was, like the ships of the active fleet, dressed over all; still, though docked, and in the hands of the repairers, a brave sight, flying an indomitable flag at the masthead. Meanwhile, seaward, countless craft of humble proportions and low degree puffed and* snorted hither and thither on a. miscellany of missions. Wherever a flagmast stood, there flew a string of flags. Yachts moved serenely o.ut towards the anchored ships of war. Hooters and sirens blew discordant interruptions. A shrill bugle cut across the tremulous notes, of a bosun’s pipe, and now and again! from across tbe water camg tlie sound of music where a. pleasure party was assembling. the Princess Margaret, as well as the ferry steamers Nimble and Harlequin, and the tugs Pert, Girappler and sprite, laden with guests, had moved out of the harbour soon after noon, in readiness to form the tail of the Royal procession when it was formed, and* it was shortly' before half-oast two that the nose of the Trinity yacht Patricia, emerging between Blockhouse and Sally Port,- told that the day’s pageantry of sea power was about to begin. Be~hind the Patricia, in accordance with ancient routine on such State oeeasious, came the vessel of the Kinp-, on board being also the Prince of Wales, and in attendance the Commander-in- ' Chief of Portsmouth. Admiral Sir Sydney Fremantle, a descendant of one of Nelson’s “band of brothers.”

It was a wonderful spectacle that was presented to those on hoard the ships in the King’s procession. There lay in lines of grey and black the ships of wa,r, seeming to fill the entire space between the mainland and- the Isle rf Wight. To the westward the cultivated highland, high Southampton, gleamed gold and green in the sunshine. From immediately overhead the shifting clouds cast shadows of e r e ! - Imnginrr depth on the slightly ruffled water. Beyond the island rose in a pyramid of blue and grey behind the rigid lines of ships—lines straight as a man might draw upon a piece of paper. No battalion of infantry in line ever dressed with an accuracy surpassing this. Here and there a shaft of sum light, bursting through a broken cloud, glittered on the many-coloured flags of the Fleet dressed over all, flags which a freshening wilid. kept ever fluttering. Down the steel-walled lane between the Queen Elizabeth and Resolution, -aid Royal Sovereign, Curacoa. and Oarysfort and Canterbury, the King moved on in that wonderful journey through the Fleet. As the Royal yacht went by guards aboard presented arms. Seamen were lined un on forecastles, upper and quarter decks. Officers, not otherwise stationed, took i.p their positions on saluting and signal decks and lower bridges, flag officers and captains on navigating bridges. In the capital ships the buglers fell m on the turrets. As the King approached massed buglers sounded “Attention.” The sailormen took a pace forward ana crossed hands on the rails. Bands played the National Anthem and the music laded into peal upon r.eal oi cheering, caught up and echoed a cam from ship to ship. The progress ot the Royal yacht uas slow, bat it was majestic. The slop, indeed,” gathered something of ausleie dignity to itself in ihe sharp contrast that ifc offered to the .-.curdy dour ci; It ol battle. Beyond the liiiiits of the reserve fleet to the westward the Roym procession turned again and u'O-entered the Lines. At a point exactly opposite R.vde the Victoria and Albert came abreast ol the Ursula, in which Prince rieorge is serving, the ship having a station on the very fringe of the Fleet. Passing at last between Barham, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Edwvn Alexander-Sinclair, and Spenser, tin. Royal yacht turned again north-west, and returned to the oiiav at Ports mouth with the attending Graft. The leview was over, it had been superbly dqiie.

Hie air grew swiftly cold,,and lieav masses or black cloud and white gathered low in the sky. Bain came with violence. It blotted out the is land, hung a pale curtain of near]., opaque grey over the men-o’-war, urn .vrapped them in that moist, chill at mosphete which four years of fighting in the North Sea- have led us to believe to he the true and only prope: habitation for our Navv.

The actual passage of the King through the Fleet took little more time than an hour. Although he passed onl between four of the’ten lines of the ships of war, the Fleet was so assembled that he saw every craft both of the, Atlantic and of the Reserve Fleet When the Royal yacht turned awav in the direction of Portsmouth Harbour the aircraft provided a final spectacle. Ten planes Hying in pairs swooped out 1 f the blue, dived low over the water in salutation to his Majesty, and then rose again, and whirled away over the Fleet.

M hen night fell the walls of steel became dim in the distance, till they suddenly leaped into light, and were seen as walls of fire. The last glimpse '■'•'•as of waving lieams and intercepted oat-terns of light against the dull blue of the night sky.—Christchurch Press r-f.rresrjondent.