Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 4 May 1951, page 1


Their figg

waved

"Let's go!"

I London, Thursday

IA university stu-

dents' prank unofficially "opened" London's Fes-tival of Britain exhibi

__ tion today.

The students tied a large blue flag .to the top of the 295ft.-high skylon at the exhibition site on the south bank of the Thames.

They had used specially made climbing equipment and had planned the "prank" for

three months.

The flag was found by ex-hibition authorities at dawn.

They spotted it flying high-est of all among hundreds of flags and banners which adorned the exhibition site.

Workmen were sent to the top of the skylon and removed

it.

Later a student who said

I

he had taken . part in the prank telephoned the Press Association and described how it was done.

He said: "The flag belongs to the University ot London Ah* Squadron.

"We put it up there at mid-night last night.

"But we've been planning the climb for three months.

"We designed, and made ourselves, special climbing equipment after getting de-tailed plans and photographs of the skylon from the Festi-val authorities,

"The equipment included hook-irons and two long nylon ropes, which were combined with a special climbing re-lease book for safety."

The student, chuckling at the prank, added: "But we'd like to apologise, sincerely, for any damage done."

Festival authorities are ex-amining the skylon for signs of damage, but so far have found none.

.... and a few hours later, The King, officially opening the Festival from St. Paul*8 Cathedral, called it -