On This Day, 8 November 1918

Birmingham Mail 

Friday 8 November 1918

WHEN PEACE COMES

HOW WILL IT BE CELEBRATED IN BIRMINGHAM?

LORD MAYOR INTERVIEWED.

THANKSGIVING SERVICES, BANDS, BONFIRES AND FIREWORKS.

The end of the war may come upon us any day now, if Germany should decide to sign the Allied armistice terms for which she has applied, and which she has been informed most categorically will utterly preclude the possibility of her reopening hostilities.

When that fateful hour comes, the greatest hour, many people will think, in human history, how are we in Birmingham going to celebrate it? There will be a sudden relaxing of the tension to which we have all been keyed up during these last four tragic and eventful years; there will be a loosening of that native restraint which has saved us from premature jubilation or depression, and has kept our teeth hard set, our muscles taut, our nerves well in hand through all the vicissitudes of the struggle. We shall all feel that we want to let ourselves go for once and at last; we shall be excited and enthusiastic; we shall want to cheer and make noise; to give free expression to our feelings; shout and to shake each other by the hand. Are going to let the celebration of this great occasion degenerate into more license and “Mafficking?” or are we going to express our joy and our relief at the casting off of the grim burden of war in a manner more worthy of the great cause for which we have fought, and for which many thousands of our gallant sons, and brothers, and husbands, and fathers have given their lives, their health, their limbs, or their sight? Can we escape this last sobering reflection? Must it not remain with us to elevate our demonstration to a worthier level than that reached during the final stages of the last war in which this country was engaged?

It was to gain an answer to these questions which are exercising the minds of many of our citizens that the Editor of the “Mail” sought an interview with the Lord Mayor yesterday, and discussed with him various proposals, first for informing the public officially and unmistakably of the fact that the armistice has been signed and the war brought to end, and then for organising and giving lead to the natural desire which will possess all our hearts celebrate the glorious triumph of a glorious cause.

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