ARMISTICE SIGNED HOSTILITIES CEASE
After lasting nearly four years and four months the Great European War, carefully organised and provoked by Germany, virtually came to an end yesterday by the signature of an armistice. This event was notified to the British public by the subjoined official communiqué issued from the Press Bureau at 10.20 yesterday morning: The Prime Minister made the following announcement: The armistice was signed at five a.m. this morning, and hostilities are to cease on all fronts at eleven a.m. to-day. This was followed at 10.50 a.m. by the issue of the following: Admiralty, per Wireless Press.
News transmitted through the wireless stations of the French Government: Marshal Foch to commanders-in-chief. Hostilities will cease on the whole front as from Nov. 11 at eleven o’clock (French time).
The Allied troops will not, until a further order, go beyond the line reached ion that date and at that hour. (Signed) Marshal Foch. Admiralty, per Wireless Press.
News transmitted through the wireless stations of the French Government: German Plenipotentiaries to German
High Command.
To be communicated to all the authorities interested. Radio 3,084 and G.Q. 2, Nov. 11, 386 received. Armistice was signed at five o’clock in the morning (French time). It comes into force at eleven o’clock in the morning (French time).
Delay for evacuation prolonged by twenty-four hours for the left bank of the Rhine, besides the five days; therefore, thirty-one days in all. Modifications of the text compared with that brought by Helldorf will be transmitted by radio.
(Signed) Erzberger. At 2.5 p.m. the following American official communiqué was published: France, Monday morning.
In accordance with the terms of the armistice, hostilities on the fronts of the American armies were suspended at eleven o’clock this morning. KING AND QUEEN AT THE PALACE
ADDRESS FROM BALCONY
News of the signature of the armistice was communicated immediately to the King at Buckingham Palace, and was received with feelings of deep thankfulness. In the course of the morning Viscount Milner, the Army Council, the General Staff, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Naval Staff, and Lord Weir and the staff of the Air Board, waited upon his Majesty, who held an informal reception, and received congratulations on the cessation of hostilities and the prospect of peace. In response to the ovation by the enormous crowds which all day long gathered about Buckingham Palace, the King and Queen twice came out on the balcony. On the first occasion, obtaining a moment of comparative silence, his Majesty, addressing the people, said: “With you I rejoice and thank God for victories which the Allied arms have won, and have brought hostilities to an end and peace within sight.
THE KING’S APPEARANCE
By noon the great open space before Buckingham Palace and far up the Mall was packed densely with a crowd, eagerly anxious to manifest their loyalty and thanksgiving.
Not a few in it could recall how they had stood there in August, 1914, when there was still a hope that war might be averted, and had promised themselves to be there again when victory was won.
Great lorries were filled with girl munition workers, who had left their ordinary headgear at the works and had knotted the ribbon of the Allies into their hair, or had devised coifs from small flags, that were curiously becoming to their happy faces. Taxi-cabs were drawn up, and women as well as men clambered up on the top to wave flags from the end of walking-sticks or umbrellas. Men had climbed up the pedestal of the statue of Queen Victoria, and some American sailors found a place beneath the arms of the great figure that symbolises maternal love, while others even more daring secured a perilous vantage along the very wings of the representation of Peace. For the ceremony of the changing of the guard officers in uniform and the women of various branches of the national services were allowed into the Palace forecourt, but presently it was found necessary to close the gates, and deny further applicants. The people gave expression to their feelings in a volley of cheering. It was a tense, eager half an hour before the King and Queen, with Princess Mary and the Duke of Connaught, came out on to the balcony, hung with crimson and gold. The crowd wanted the supreme moment to arrive, and meantime you caught the familiarly affectionate phrases, not too courtly of diction, but infinitely more expressive as to the view which the London crowd expresses: “How our King is one with us, first among his peers.” As their Majesties appeared they were met by such a roar of cheering as London has never heard before. It was obvious how radiantly proud and happy were the King and Queen. Her Majesty was carrying a silken Union Jack, such as one as those below were waving. Then followed a crash of sounds – the band played the National Anthems of the Allies, the grand old hymns, “O God our help in ages past,” “Now thank we all our God,” followed by “Land of hope and glory.” Sometime the crowd joined in for a line or two; sometimes it cheered, and no one will ever give a very connected account of that quarter of an hour into which so much pentup enthusiasm was crowded. Then, in the clear, resonant tones which the King knows so well how to use, the few words from his Majesty given above were caught by those who were nearest to the rails. The guard and the band had been fairly imprisoned. Still the crowd and the enthusiasm increased, and when the Royal family had withdrawn there was no sign that the people were satisfied. Cheering, singing and shouting continued without intermission, and so matters went on until, just after one o’clock, when their Majesties, with various other members of the Royal family, appeared again on the balcony. They had once more a most fervent reception, and there was a repetition of the scenes that marked Britain’s entry into war.