Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-17
London Papers Alarmed Over
Coronation Prospects.
PUBLIC IS DISGRUNTLED
OFFENDED AT THE GREED OF
SEAT SELLERS.
Police Precautions Are Also a Source
of Dissatisfaction-P Will
Not Attend.

LONDON. June 1.-THE coronation. fs
public spectacle. threatens to be a fasco.
So serious and imminent has this possibli-
ty become that the London Times and other
papers are printing alarmist letters. urging
the authorities to take steps to prevent its
failure before it is too late The rapaCity
of the hotel keepers and the greed of the
seat spectators are the reasons. With
ScarCly more than week before the COro-
nation not 30 per cent of the seats on the
huge stands have been sold. Frightened by
the exOrbitant demands thousands of peo-
pie residing in the suburbs and country
who had planned to come and see the king
crowned have now decided to stay away.
while large proportion of Londoners will
avail themselves of the opportunity to en-
joy a holiday at the seaside or elsewhere,
in preference to submitting to the incOn-
venience of the extraordinary police regu-
lations which will be enforced on the coro-
nation days
The hotels and health resorts on the
south coast and rooms in quiet country
clubs throughout the united kingdom
which are generally empty at the hefghth
of the season, are all booked for coronation
week
What the Public Demands.
1t is freely said that unless the stand pro-
plIcLOlS duIlit JIlt pubic III Il DOuE ana
gratis, or practically gratis, the king will
pass to his coronation through an array of
half filed benches. But what chiefly con-
tributes to today's serious state of affairs
are the police precautions to make the
procession to Westminster Abbey one
which ticket holders only can witness ex-
Cepu in the case of St. James Park, where
but a few thousands will be able to see the
royal party. The published regulations
whereby an tcdthc within about a mile of
Tho first days route Is TO stopped at 3
O'Clock In the morning and pedestrians are
inklins of what remarkable indignitfes Lon
don will have To submit to-
Precautions Against Anarchists.
personal survey of the streets as they
are today could alone convey an idea of
the extent to which the authorities intend
to go From the appearance of Westmin-
ster the capital might well be preparing to
resist an invasion or he concentrating n
commuuistic risiugs. Solid timber barricades
twenty 10 thirty feet high rise at the en-
trance of all streets and alleys leading any
where near the route, and barrier entrances
for foot passengers and archways for We
hicles await the gates which are to be
swung them. BY the eve of the corona
ton these Will be in place. The number
ugliness and sOIidity of these barbados
cause bitter reflections regarding the opin-
ION which the authorities must have of the
unruliness of the loyal British crowds who
VIII be huddled together by thousands and
be unable to See anything but the bare
SIDES of these barriers. Westminster bridge
Victoria street. the Thames embankn1ent
and all the purlieus of parliament. the gov
ernment Offices and the approaches to
Whitehall already present these unsightly
evidences of a siege As a CORRESPONDENT
in toiay'S Times points out. the police be
cause they bUngled badly in the case of the
taIal CITY lmptrlal volunteer ndrdNR IN JV,-
now framed rules calculated in effect if
not in design to keep hundreds from tax
ing their places, owing to the proha biIity
Of being unable to get to their destinations"
and this applies TO the seat holders. who.
having perhaps been foolish enough to
pay several guineas for places on stands,
will be unable to occupy them.
Protests in the Papers.
What will happen TO the unfortunate gen
eral public is a problem which has caused
many of these protests in the papers In
the first place even ticket holders must all
sleep in London on coronation eve and then
get out in the streets at about 8 a m
According to the present arrangements.
only ticket holders will be allowed through
the barrier wickets so the streets within
these are likely to be the scenes of camps
OF patient enthusiasts who will take up
their places June -. Even these may be
driven out by the police should they think
the route too thickly lined. AS these CON
ditions are becoming known thousands are
relinquishing all idea OF trying to see the
sAow.
Another factor which adds 10 the general
disgruntlement is the bedraggIed annear-
ance OF the decorations. These already
mark the streets in unprecedented duanti-
ties. but owing to the perpetual rain, they
are now almost ruined.
KING EDWARD IMPROVING