The signing of the armistice that ended the First World War had a mixed response. For the Allies the jubilation was tempered by mourning for the war dead; while, away from the Western Front, fighting continued during the peace negotiations.
“The Great War ended.
ARMISTICE SIGNED.
King George’s Message.
FLIGHT OF THE KAISER.
ENTHUSIASTIC SCENES IN LONDON AND THE PROVINCES.
The Kaiser has abdicated, and has taken refuge in Holland. Prince Max of Baden, with the assent of all the Secretaries of State, has handed over the Imperial Chancellorship to Herr Ebert, a Majority Socialist. Herr Ebert has issued a manifesto stating that he intends to form a “People’s Government,” the endeavour of which will be to bring peace as speedily as possible. The Independent Socialists have been invited to join the Government.
Before Prince Max of Baden left office, he issued a decree announcing the Kaiser’s abdication, the renunciation of the Throne by the Crown Prince, and the appointment of Herr Ebert as Imperial Chancellor. The decree also proposed the election by general suffrage of a German National Assembly, which should settle finally the future form of government of the German nation, ‘and of those peoples who might be desirous of coming within the Empire.’
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An armistice with Germany was concluded on Monday – our 1561st day of war. The conditions were signed at 5 o’clock in the morning, after a discussion which lasted all night. They took effect six hours later. At 11 o’clock in the forenoon the last shot of the great war was fired. The duration of the armistice is for 36 days, with option of extension. Its conditions preclude the possibility of Germany resuming the war.
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HISTORIC LAST LINE.
When the last shot was fired on Tuesday, the Allies and Americans held a front of 320 miles. Near by one sector of them the Napoleonic wars closed dramatically in the few miles of the field of Waterloo. The last decisive scenes of the struggle just over were historic battlegrounds in France and Flanders. In their final marches British troops captured Malplaquet ; the Canadians, in the last hours of fighting, carried us back to Mons and the earliest memories of the war ; and French and Americans had reached and occupied Sedan.
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WELCOMING THE NEWS.
THE KING AND HIS PEOPLE.
London and the country generally received with fervent gratitude the news that the greatest war in history had come to an end. Churches, including St. Paul’s Cathedral, were filled to overflowing at the thanksgiving services which were hurriedly arranged, and cheering crowds thronged the streets till a late hour at night.
The King and Queen had an enthusiastic greeting from the great crowds which gathered outside Buckingham Palace when the news was known, and in the afternoon, when they drove through the City and the West End, they again met with a vociferous reception.
To the great rejoicings the King set a high note in various messages. In that to the Empire he recalls its pledge not to sheathe the sword until our end was achieved. ‘That pledge,’ he declared, ‘is now redeemed.'”
Excerpts from the Stamford Mercury, November 1918.