Coronation Eve

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 98, 12 May 1937, Page 5

Coronation Eve

— Preu Ahsb.-

PEOPLE'S VIGIL Crowds Take Positions On Route WEATHER CLEARING

(Br T«le»raph

-Copyrieht.)

(Received 12, 1,30 p.m.) LONDON, May 11. It is Coronation Eve and all London is expectant, cheered up by evcning sunshine following a day of drenching rain and Noyemher gloom. Thonsands of enthusiastio people took up positions early this evening along the coronation route, joining small groups who throughout the day had staked their claim at the best vantage point». Most of these people were equipped with campstools, waterproofs and thermos-flasks in preparation for an all night vigil. All night additional hundreda of thousands poured into the West End and it is estimated that over 2,000,000 subjects will aceleim the passage of their Majesties to and from Westminster Abbey. Even should rain come, it will not be allowed to dim the splendour of the pageantry. Every . part of the procession will proceed as planned. The thirty-five thousand Home and Empire " troops participating or lining the route will remain uncloaked. All is ready at the Abbey for the solemn pofiip and splendid ritual of to-morrow. Officials throughout the day had rehearsed t their duties and added the final touches. In a closed car, with a polico escorfc, the Crown Jewels, including the Imperial Crown and the Queen's Crown, were removed from the Crown jewellers in Albemarle Street to Jerusalem Charaber in Westminster Abbey where they will remain until taken by the Dean of Westminster and his clergy to the great west door of the Abbey to-inorrow. In the meantime they will be guarded all day and all night by yeoinan wardere of the tower of London, commanded by the King's Burgemaster, in accordance with the traditi # dating from the time when the Ciu>vn was brought by water along the Thames from the tower. Although it was still raining at 3 p.m., the carnival spirit was not diminished and the centre of London was jammed with a mass of pedestrians and vehicles. Traffio lights were useless and police were directing the traffic by hand. Traffic was crawling along at the rate of two hundred yards an hour in the busiest parts. Shops along the procession route are boarding-up their windows to protect the plate glass from tbfe surging crowds. " Hyde Park is being cleared in the expectation that thousands will defy the elements and sleep out there to-night. The sun hroke through late this afternoon and the decorations are drying out. The Air Ministry's forecast for to-inorrow is "thun dery and showery in the morning, clouds increasing, with occasionai rain later."