ASYLUM ESCAPEE MENACES KING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 42, 12 November 1937, Page 4

ASYLUM ESCAPEE MENACES KING

-Per Press Assoeiation-

REMARKABLE STIR AT CENOTAPH Silence Shattered as Police Grapple with Interrapter CR0WD SH0UTS: "KILL HIM!"

(By Telegraph—

— Copyright).

(Reeeived 12, 10.40 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 11. There was a remarkable seene during the Armistice ceremony at the Cenotaph. The silence had ,"just started when a man, middleaged, fair and hatless and Wearing a rain coat, hurled himself shoulder-first through the police into the baeks of the Naval guard, lurched through the guard into the open space, and began running toward the King, his arai raised. gesticulating and shouting. Cries arose of ^Hold him! Hold him!" By the time the police had flung him down the man was six yards from the King and three yards from Mr. Neville Chamberlain and members of Cabinet. The man continued shouting from the .ground. After a terrific struggle the police silenced him, holding tlfeir hands over his mouth. The noise, intensified in the profound silence of the crowd, was picked up by the microphone and broadcast to millions of listeners tliroughout Britain. The ceremony was also being televised for the first time, and the ineident was seen miles from "Whitehall. The man was dragged away apparently uneonscious and was held down in the Home Office doorway until the end of the service ; then he was picked up and taken to Downing Street through menacing crowds. After the silence the crowd gave vent to its feelings andboomed and shouted: "Kill him! Kill him!" But he was removed in time. . Th'e King, the Duke of Gloueester, the Duke of Kent and Ministers remained unmoved during the wliole ineident. , The vast tlirdng sang "God Save the King" wilh great fervour • at the close of the service. ' " ' • The ineident was watched by Quecn Elizabeth and Queen Mary from a window of the Home Office. - - - '• - - - -- - " It is understood that the King did not see the ineident. He called for a full report after returning to tbe Palace. The Home Office reports that the interrupter was Stanley Storey, an'escapee from Canehill Asylum, Surrey. He is unlikely to be charged in Court. He has been placed in the institution.

Storey said that he had thought of making this demonstration three days ago but had no intention of making an attack on the King or on anyone else. No weapons of any kind were found on him. The man was obviously suffering from deltfjions. He is at present in Fulham Infirmary under cbservation. No question of criminal proceedingB is under consideration.. The Cenotaph service at Spitalfields Markets was interrupted by the shouts of a middle-aged man after the twominutes silence. He was set on by the crowd and badly knocked about. A man narrowly escaped beating by the crowd at Ludgate Circus when his Ioud whistling broke the silence. Ha was chased but escaped. . . . A British Official Wireless message reports: King .George, for the first

time, was the central figure at the Armistice Day service at the Cenotaph at Whitehall, which was thronged with an exceptional crowd. In other parts of London, notably outside St. Paul's Cathedral and the Eoyal Exchange, there were also vast concourses. The service at the Cenotaph followed the usual lines and wa/ the model for thousands of similar services in cities, towns and villages throughout Britain and the Empire. • In every case .the service was preceded by an impressive observiance of two minutes' silence. Before the Cenotaph service began, wreaths were laid around the base of the ^ memorial by representatives of the various units of the fighting forces and others. The king, who was attended by the Dukes of Gloueester and' of Kent, laid a 'wreath in place a few minutes bofore the service began. At the conclusion of the service the King walked up Whitehall to the Haig Statue and laid a wreath at its base.