TOC H. LIGHTS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1930, Page 7

TOC H. LIGHTS

• CHAltf AROUND WORLD. [United-Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] December 6. The Toe. H. world chain of lights, commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of its birthday, was inaugurated at Talbot House, at Poperinghe, in France, where the chapel in the upper room is now restored to its war-time condition with the original pride dieu at which twenty-five thousand soldiers received communion, and shell-marked harmonium remains there. Forty-five ex-soldiers who were among the originators of Toe. H. went to Poperinghe yesterday morning ,and they visited the Menin Gate, where Padre Clayton, at nine o’clock last night lighted a sympbolic lamp. Simultaneously a thanksgiving service was held at St. Paul’s, London, where, amidst silence, a lamp was lighted, a r ter which the links were set on travel eastward, and lamps were lighted at the same hours until a circuit of the globe had been completed. There also a mass meeting at the 'Albert Hall, London, at nine o’clock tonight, when Rev. Mr Clayton’s message signalling the completing of the chain was broadcast to the world.

ALBERT HALL FUNCTION. WORLD CHAIN COMPLETE. LONDON, December 7. Lord Stonehaven represented Australia, and the German and American Ambassadors were present at the gathering, which consisted of seven thousand people, at the Albert Hall, for the celebration of the Toe. H. festival to mark the completion of a world chain of the lights that wejre started at fTa'lhoij House, Poperinghe, on Friday. Those who returned from the ceremony in France received a deafening welcome 1 . The Rev. Mr Clayton read greetings from the Prince of Wales. He traced the trail blazed by the lights via Ireland, the West Indies, both of the Americas', Australia, China, India and South Africa. Thereafter, fifty unlit lamps, headed by the Prince of Wales’s perpetuallyburning light, were borne in procession and lit from the Prince’s lamp. Then all of the other illumination was quenched, leaving the fifty lamps burning in the centre of the hall nmjd fho hem of the surrounding darkness, while the whole gathering echoed Mr Clayton’s quotation of Runyon’s lines ending: “We will remember them!” After this a minute’s silence was observed. Similar Catherines were held at Nottingham. Gloucester, Newcastle, Cardiff and Belfast.