London, Dec. 11.
DWARD VIII ceased (o be King of Great Britain and Emperor of India at 1.52 this afternoon, when his Assent to the Abdication Bill—his last act as monarch—was pronounced by the Clerk of the Parliaments.
His reign; which had begun at five minutes before midnight on January 20, 1936, on the death of King George V, was at an end, and Britain had a new King, India a new Emperor—Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York.
'The Duchess of York, formerly Lady Elizabeth' Bowes-Lyon, to whom the new King was married on April 26, 1923, was Queen-Empress, and their der. daughter, the nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth Alexandre Mary, Heiress Apparent.
The British Empire was still eagerly discussing the dramatic news of King Edward's abdication, when both Houses of Parliament, with all the stately courtesy of medieval times, passed the Abdieation Bill through all its stages in 2% hours.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.