MIXED RECEPTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 860, 2 January 1930, Page 9

MIXED RECEPTION

LONDON’S GREETING TO NEW YEAR PAPERS PESSIMISTIC LONDON, Wednesday. London welcomed in tlie New Year in the most hearty fashion. In spite of the great extension of facilities for 111 door celebrations, immense crowds concentrated in Trafalgar Square, in Piccadilly Circus and at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where the old-time features of roasted chestnuts, balloons, paper hats, singing, dancing and cheering prevailed. The newspapers are glad to be rid of the old year, and they do not seem to he enthusiastic about the prospects of the new year. WILD SCENES IN CHINA REVELRY MARKS CHANGE TO WESTERN IDEA Reed. 9.5 a.m. SHANGHAI, Wed. Official China today joined in the Western World observance of New Year’s Day. having decreed the abolition of the ’ancient lunar calendar and the adoption of the Western system. A mammoth programme of festivities was carried out at Shanghai, Nanking and elsewhere. Nanking’s influence permeates the celebration of this epoch-making change. The oldfashioned moon month was officially farewelled. Tens of thousands of Western cultured Chinese vied with Europeans, Americans and other Westerners in celebrating the New Year, unprecedented crowds jamming the city’s scores of ballrooms, cabarets and night clubs. The wildest celebration since the armistice was accentuated from the foreigners’ viewpoint, by the receipt of messages from Washington and London saying that Great Britain and U. were not submitting to immediate cancellation of extra territoriality rights. KING’S MESSAGE FACING DIFFICULTIES OF NEW YEAR Reed. 12.20 p.m. RUGBY, Wednesday. In a telegram to the Lord Mayor of London, acknowledging New Year greetings, his Majesty King George V. says:—■ “I deeply value the affectionate allusion to my restoration to health and to the Queen and the members of my family. I fervently join in the hope that God’s blessing of peace and general well-being may be vouchsafed to the nations of the world. May the New Year inspire the people of our Empire with a solemn resolve to secure an increasing measure of prosperity. “There are difficulties to be overcome, but these I know will be faced with courage and enterprise traditional to the citizens of London.” VATICAN FESTIVITY OFF POPE’S BROTHER DEAD Reed. 11 a.m. ROME, Wedensday. In consequence of the sudden death of the Pope’s brother, Count Fermo Ratti. the usual New Year festivities at the Vatican were cancelled.