'ARKING up to a poignantly tense finale as the sombre but confident, pi liveness of "Abide with Me" gave way to the sonorous loyally of the National Anthem, the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, 2nd Battalion Loyal Regiment and Shanghai Volunteer Corps (pleasantly and tunefully assisted by the Fourth United States Marines Band) brought thunderous cheers and applause from the densely packed stands at the Naval and Military Displays otherwise the Tattoo-at the Race Course on May 11 and 12.
Considerately toning down their stronger glare, the mass of buildings in the middle distance formed a velvet black packcloth flecked with twinkling lights of white and red, and streaked here and there with blue and crimson, To the green-sward stage, with its immediate backing of a well-propos ned castle and a rustic church close by, this setting was graciously effective.
The whole handling of the scenes by searchlights and flood lights was perfect and evoked frequent commendation.
Soldiers showed how massed chorus movements should be performed, sailors proved that they could march with no less than soldierly precision, marines proved themselves equal to the Guards in small arms drill, the Russian Regiment acted the part of old~ time Volunteers but threw into it its own machine-like accuracy, Scottish Volunteers piped like true Highlanders, Light Horse drifted across the scene in veritable mounted infantry style and infantry and machine-gun volunteers skirmished with zeal, while the Armoured Cars in Walt Disney mood floated behind like half-disembodied spirits.
Naval and Military discipline had its vivid foil in the gay abandon of "physical jerks" in modern vein, in the jollity of Cumber land Shanties.
History found its place' in the massed Bands' "1812" and in the Loyal Regiment's contrast of the Napoleonic with neo-Georgian methods.
'The glamour of torches spelt the loyal greetings proper to the occasion as the two hours' entertainment, marvellously marshalled, sped to the climax and the greenness was blacked out for the last time, while the air still tingled with the last notes of "The Kinj
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.