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7, AUDLEY SQUARE, W.l.

DICTATED

all the ceremonial with the assured dignity of a well-trained veteran.
As regards the management of the crowds, there are very different opinions.

It is quite certain that as it happened the wet and stormy morning
proved a blessing in disguise. Had the weather been radiant, it is
quite possible that another quarter of a million people might have tried
to witness the procession, with devastating results. The Police are a
little puzzled why control should have broken down. It is true that they
only had a week in which to prepare their scheme, compared with ample
time available for the Jubilee. I fancy, however, that the Police ought
to have noticed, from the phenomenal efforts of the public to witness
the Lying-in-State, that something unique in assemblage was inevitable .
There has been a good deal of criticism, though very little public complaint.
At one momen t it looked as though the gangway at Marble Arch
would be obliterated, as troops and police were completely enveloped
and scattered in the pressing crowds; once the roadway was closed,
it would have been impossible to re-open a passage for the procession,
and actually the funeral might in fact have been stopped. A friend of
mine who controls Special Constables, told me that at King's Cross,
where his men were looking after traffic, he was instructed at 9 a.m.
to collect every available man for service at Paddington. I suppose we
shall react to the other extreme for the Coronation next year. I sympathise
with the Police, who have a very difficult task.

By-the-way, there was a figure in the funeral procession which