PRINCE AND WAR HEROES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 819, 13 November 1929, Page 9

PRINCE AND WAR HEROES

FERVENT DEMONSTRATION AT ALBERT HALL GREAT CROWD TAKES PART {United P.A. — Bit Telegraph — Copyright) LONDON’. Tuesday. The British Legion held an Umpire Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hull lust evening and drenching rain and a gale did not deter thousands of people from waiting outside the hall to take part. Within 10 minutes of the doors being opened the building was packed to overflowing. The Prince of Wales’s box. in which sat Karl and Countess Jellicoe, resembled a beautiful bower of Flanders poppies. The entry of his Royal Highness, who wore a lounge suit and was smoking a cigar, was the signal for an ear-splitting demonstration, ilie members of the audience rising and waving their programmes. Some of them commenced to sing “For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" until the organist took up the air and the building reverberated with the chorus. POIGNANT SCENES When the Victoria Cross heroes appeared on the stage and marched down the aisle the vociferousness of the audience was unbounded. There I were poignant scenes as heroes met comrades and many handshakes were exchanged. One ex-service man in the body of the stalls dramatically rushed up to a Victoria Cross holder and embraced him after the French fashion. As the evening progressed the aspect of the festival became like that of a concert, which rather wearied a section of the audience and slight interruptions marred the solos. This was contrasted with community singing of songs which were favourites at the time of the war. DEAD REMEMBERED The last part of the festival differed widely from tlie first. The entire proceedings became of cathedrallike dignity and solemnity. The silence could almost be felt when Colonel Robert Loraine recited Laurence Binyon’s noble poem, “For the Fallen,” beginning “They shall not grow old.” After that more than 1,000.000 poppies were showered over the audience, each poppy memorising tho Empire’s' dead. In the course of the evening the Prince read the following message from the King: “Please convey to ex-service men and women my sincere thanks for the loyal terms of the messagfe they addressed to me on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the Armistice. 1 am touched by the kind way in which they referred to my recovery. “1 hope on some future occasion that it may be possible for me again to be present at this great festival, of which I retain the most stirring recollections.” His Royal Highness said:—“l know, old comrades, how sincerely we hope his Majesty will be able to attend a similar gathering in a year’s time. “While Armistice Day once was a day of relief and rejoicing, now it has become a day of remembrance, full of inexpressible thoughts which will be W'itli us on each successive anuiversary until our da3 r s end." The Prince concluded with an appeal for support for the Legion’s sick, destitute and unemployed members. PRINCE SLAPPED ON BACK The festival was strikingly democratic. When the Prince and Lord Jellicoe walked from the platform toward the aisle ex-servicemen shook hands with them and slapped both of them on the backs, while the assemblage roared its appreciation. Nobody in the audience wore evening dress. One oflicial epitomised the sentiment of the gathering as “the greatest reunion of old comrades, relatives and friends, with just one touch of solemnity characterised by the last line of the poem previously recited: ‘We will remember them.’ ” ARMISTICE DAY IN INDIA CELEBRATIONS THROUGHOUT THE LAND Itecd. 9 a.m. DELHI, Tuesday. Armistice Day celebrations were held throughout India. The Calcutta Garrison paraded, and the Governor laid a wreath on the Cenotaph. In the evening nearly 400 ex-servicemen held a reunion dinner.