ROYAL TOURNAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 26 July 1930, Page 8

ROYAL TOURNAMENT

LONDON’S FINEST SHOW. LONDON, June 6. Although some people professed to dout that under ,a Labour Government the Royal Tournament would remain such an imposing spectacle, Mr T. Shaw, the Secretary of State for War, declared the other day that as a convinced pacifist lie saw nothing in the tournament to, which he could possibly object. This commonsense view is all the more commendable since the object of the Royal Tournament is to raise money for service charities, in the same way as the great annual torch light tattoo at Aldershot, Mr H. A. Gwynne, president of the Institute of Jornalists, speaking at the Inaugural luncheon, described the tournament as “the best show in London,” and, added no other indoor entertainment arouses nearly so much enthusiasm among the spectators. , Each year a military pageant is staged, but it is always an incident ot the far-distant past and never evokes a recollection of modern warfare. Among the most popular features is the competition held annually between the Navy and the Marines to prove which team can first take a field gun to pieces, haul, the parts, pven obstacles including a stream, the lerigth of the arena and bacß again, reassemble the gun, and fire it off. The event is decided by heats, so that there is a thrilling display at each performance. The musical drjye of a battery of the Royal Horse Artillery, in which the drivers, in their gold braid and white cockades, carry out intricate manoeuvres with their gun carriages at full gallop, is another brilliant spectacle w'-'ile this year the 3rd Carabiniers, in burnished helmets, with pennons fluttering on their lances, give a display of riding their horses waltzing two by two and foxtrotting to the strains of the band. Actually the most thrilling sight is the charge of two bodies of Dragoons, who race towards each other down the arena. and swing round to face the Royal box. The young recruits of the Royal Air Force, in their sky-blue singlets and white shorts, give a wonderful display of gymnastics and drill, while ninety men up in the roof cf Olympia make geometric designs of themselves with precise attention to the music. It may be doubted whether such a tournament is to he seen anywhere else in the world.