IOC-president closes London Olympics

After the final event Mr. Edström, the president of the IOC, gave a closing speech. Meanwhile the sun broke through what was another cloudy day.

Mr. Edström emphasized the friendly atmosphere that reigned during the past seventeen days: "Ties of brotherhood and friendship have been formed. Not only on the field of competition but also in the various Olympic villages. These ties will always remain. The Olympic Games cannot enforce peace in the world, to which all humanity aspires, but they give the opportunity to all the youth of the world to find out that all men on earth are brothers.

Thus the Games help to obtain peace, particularly if you consider that the young men who have competed here will one day become the leaders of their nations. In the Olympic Games one is striving for the highest result in each sport: one does it of one's own free will, not in order to obtain monetary advantages. We exercise our sport not only for the joy we obtain and for the physical advantages il gives us, but also to improve the physical health of our nation. To attain this goal all the youth of the world must unite.

Then the president of the IOC handed the Olympic flag to the Lord Mayor to keep it until the time came for its transfer to Helsinki, the host city of the next Olympic Games in 1952.

A fanfare of trumpets sounded, a salute of five guns was fired, and, while the choir sang the Olympic hymn the big flag in the arena was lowered, and the flame extinguished for another four years.