Olympic Cavalcade

PARIS, 1924 _ IJI the only place where the whole team could J:iaye been housed together was the centre of Paris, and there appeared to be no hotel which would ascom– modate more than roo or so people at one specified time. The responsibility of the British Commandant was, therefore, multi""_ plied, and the splitting up of the team somewhat adversely affected, as was noticed on the evjdence of the Antwerp Games, where the British team wqs assembled as a single unit. When the Appeals Committee, under the Ch_airmanship of the Rt. Hon. – the Earl_of Birkenhead, P.C., etc., met at the Army and Navy Club, it was discovered that the financial state of the B. 0 .fr. was decidedly unsatisfactory. There was the sum of between £400 and £5o<:> _due to various bodies for~ - the 1920 Gatl}es, but the available assets seemed to_he non-existent, whereas it would be necessary to raise at least £ r 5 ,6oo if we were to be adequatdy represented. It was then that ~e EarLof Birkenheacl acceded to the reqJJest - that he should become ~hairman of a str emg and influentiaL Appe~ls Committee. - - After a meeting helcf on 28 Mar~h, 1923, at ;J66 Piccadilly, at that time_ the offices of the B.O.A., a citcular, stating its policy, was sent out as a publi-e appeal for the sum required, i.e. £2o,ooo. This policy of levying on every -– city and town and by appealing to personal Triends and others knowp._ w be interested in the Olympic movement, had, it -was known, been work:e d with much success irt the U.S.A. It was not thought adyisable to ask either in9ividuals or populations to put their hands_fbo deeply into their pockets; The share of a populatiDQ of 10,000 WOrKed out, therefore, at £ro, Or 200,0QO at £200 and SO :on,– This circular in the first plaGe was' addresseG! to the Mayor as the first citizen of his borough. - - _ """' The replies received from 90 per cent. _o(the mayors were satis(actoiy. Much help was giyeh also by prominent local spoitsme_!:l. _ _ _- Whether -the scheme would have produced-the full amoul}t is, how:ever, a moot point, but in-_ the month of June the _Dai(y Mail, which bad helped so much when the r908 Games were in London, again came int9 the picture. - Earlier -in the year Lord Rothermere, whose sympathy with the move– ment was well known, h~d written from abroad, "Great Britain must-, aJ all costs, be well"represented at the Olympic Games", and stated that upon his return to England he would be prepared to discuss the whole question. This he did at an interview with Lord Birkenbeaa, Lord Cadogan and Lord Campden. He announced that hewould make a personal donation of £rooo to the Fund and suggested that Lord Birkenhead should write a letter for publication in the Dai(y Mail. The late Tom Marlowe, at that time Editor of the Daily M ail, who was present at the meeting, backed -up -the gesture of his prinGipal by_a personal gift of-£IOoo and promised that an Appeal would be made in th:e columns of the Daily Mail fo~ th(}-necessary funds. - The organization o_f this Specia1 Appeal-was entrusted to Mr. Memory, a _ ~- ... -- ~ ; - -~ ._, "'"' - .?' -.-~