THE TOUR
REVIEWED
"The Prince of Wales is to
arrive in London at 3 o'clock this afternoon after his
African and South American tour. We give the
arrangements for his reception and a plan of his drive
from Victoria Station to Buckingham Palace on the
following page. An account of the Prince's memorable
Journey appears below, and a map on page 16 shows his
route in detail. Page 18 is entirely given up to
photographs taken during the tour, including two, which
reached London yesterday, of the last stage in South
America.
The journey from which the
Prince of Wales returns to-day is the fourth of his
Empire tours. Like two of the other three, it has
extended beyond the bounds of the Empire, to countries
whose welcome has been as hearty as that given in the
Dominions. The first tour, lasting from August to
November, 1919, was through Canada, and included a visit
to the United States. The second, to Australia and New
Zealand, was begun in March and ended in October, 1920.
In October, 1921, the Prince set out for India, and
having continued his travels to Japan, returned in June,
1922. This year's tour, which started on March 28, was
to West Africa and South Africa, and took in the three
American Republics of Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.
The battle cruiser Repulse,
with the Prince on board, left Portsmouth under a heavy
sky, but soon ran into the sunshine. Early in the voyage
she met the Atlantic Fleet, on its wav home from the
Mediterranean, and in the neighbourhood of Vigo passed
between two lines of warships, three miles in length; a
stately scene enlivened by the traditional salutes and
the playing of ships' bands.
BRITISH WEST AFRICA.
The Prince's first
experience of West Africa was at Bathurst, the capital
of the Gambia, which boasts itself the oldest though the
smallest British African settlement. Only a day was
available, and its hours were crowded. There were
addresses to receive, greetings from the native chiefs
of the Protectorate, and cheers from the whole (as it
seemed) of the 100,000 population. Yet the Prince found
time, between luncheon and a garden party, to motor in a
hot sun over a good space of open country.
Another day and some part of
its morrow were devoted to Sierra Leone. After the
official welcome came a meeting with the people at
Cotton Tree. The slopes of the hillside were occupied by
a varied multitude, from paramount chiefs in the centre
to Boy Scouts on the outskirts. The Prince caught
glimpses of civilizing influence's in Sierra Leone on a
drive to Fourah Bay College, at the laying of the
foundation-stone of Government offices, at the opening
of Freetown's first agricultural show, and perhaps also
from the absence of mosquitoes at an entertainment at
Government House.
The stay on the Gold Coast
lasted almost a week. The Prince was the first person to
step ashore on the new break-water at Takoradi, and the
first to entrain on the Kumasi railway; his landing is
to be commemorated by a tower. At Sekondi, on an
umbrella-shaped dais, he took the homage of the chiefs,
who sat around him under umbrellas of red, gold, and
other rich colours. Good Friday was spent at Kumasi,
where the head chiefs welcomed the King's son at a grand
palaver amidst more magnificent umbrellas. The "talking
drums." such as have spoken at Wembley, beat their
salute; a golden sword was presented as a gift from All
Ashanti; and then native dancers gave an entertainment.
The former King Prempeb was a spectator of it all.
In this region and on his
return journey to the coast the Prince saw the contrasts
of the country; primeval forests and cocoa plantations,
woods and aluminium deposits, vestiges of past warfare
and evidences of present industry.
And so to Accra for Easter
Sunday. This was indeed a memorable festival for the
whole Gold Coast; since, after joining the British
community in Divine service, inspecting the hospital,
and going among the seething life of the native quarter,
the Prince inaugurated at Achimota a university college,
to be called by his name, where selected youths from
every race and tribe may get such an education as will
fit them to ensure and further the progress of British
West Africa.
A NIGERIAN DURBAR
It was feared that plague at
Lagos would prevent the arranged visit to Nigeria. So
grave a disappointment was avoided by landing at Iddo
for the journey to Kano, 700 miles in the interior. The
Lagosians, nevertheless, saw the Prince. They lined the
sea-front for three miles, and thousands waded far into
the water, as the tender conveying his Royal Highness
from the Repulse passed slowly to Iddo. And how they
shouted! It was on the railway to Kano that the Prince
drove the engine for 23 miles and received the proper
pay, amounting to 10d.; but the value of the whole
journey lay in the panorama it afforded of Nigerian
scenery - the swamps, the forests, the bush lands, the
plateaux, and the great River Niger.
Kano seemed familiar; it was
so like the West African town at Wembley, but on a
larger scale. As the Prince drove along the dusty lanes
within the 13 miles of mud walls, groups of natives
knelt at his approach in mute reverence. Later, on the
Kano plain, was held a Durbar, where 20,000 horsemen led
by the Moslem chieftains of the northern provinces gave
a quasi-medieval display in which jesters, dancers, even
lictors, mingled with chain-mailed cavaliers. The parade
over, the Prince addressed the Emirs, who had been
presented to him, and the people, recalling that during
the war they had generously contributed to the common
cause. A similar recollection occurred in his next
speech, spoken, during a break in the return journey to
the coast, at Ibadan, the populous centre of the palm
kernel industry. Hither came the rulers of Jorubaland
with their umbrella canopies: and here a wreath was laid
on a war memorial of the Nigerian Regiment.
Polo, tennis, and dancing at
Government House - in intense heat - provided the
exercise the Prince desired when he came again to Lagos
after this trip into the interior. The chief ceremony of
his short stay was the laying of the foundation-stone of
Lagos Cathedral. April was now far-advanced, and the
visit to West Africa was ending. The effect of that
visit was indicated by the Governor of Nigeria, Sir Hugh
Clifford, in a message to The Times given to our Special
Correspondent. After commenting on the unprecedented
enthusiasm of the natives, Sir Hugh said:-
The Prince, ot course, Is
himself; his personality would awaken enthusiasm
anywhere. Nigeria. however, has stood forth also as an
embodiment of British rule, and it seems to me that
through him it bas received a striking testimonial while
nothing could stimulate the spirit upon which the
efficiency and the justification of our rule alike
depend more vitally than his coming among us.
ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE
The voyage from West to
South Africa took rather more than a week. On a morning
of fog the Repulse was escorted by the flagship
Birmingham and other vessels into Table Bay. Soon the
mists gave place to warm sunshine, and the Prince landed
at Cape Town under the fairest conditions. In the group
that welcomed him, in addition to the Governor-General
(Lord Athlone), the Princess Alice, and their family,
were General Hertzog with members of the Union Cabinet,
Sir Thomas Smartt, and General Smuts. Such a union of
parties was but the prelude to an immense congregation
of white people and coloured people - English, Dutch,
Malays, Indians, and Chinese - in the beflagged streets.
The presentation of civic addresses, on a platform in
the middle of the Parade, was watched by many thousands;
and the Prince's reply, caught up by the wireless, was
listened to by many more thousands in distant towns and
country districts. Johannesburg, heard it, a thousand
miles away.
The Cape impressed the Royal
visitor with the loveliness of its peninsula; it gave
him diverse entertainment; and he entered thoroughly
into the ways of the place and the people. From the
abounding programme three events stand out
conspicuously. First in order comes the installation of
his Royal Highness as Chancellor of the University. To
this ceremony he was conducted, in a tented wagon drawn
by 12 oxen, by students strangely and wonderfully
attired, who, with their fellows, lightened the gravity
of the subsequent proceedings after the manner of
students the world over. The second event also was
associated with the University; with its new foundations
at Groote Schuur. In laying the stone of the new
building the Prince dwelt on the ideals of Cecil Rhodes,
to whose house, near by, he had naturally been taken.
Rhodes (he said) knew no
differences of race between the two great European
strains which together made up the history of this
splendid Union, and saw no barriers between that union
of which he was only privileged to dream and the great
commonwealth of nations within the British Empire.
This theme was further
developed on the third notable occasion, that on which
the Prince was the guest of the Union Senate and House
of Assembly at a banquet at Parliament House. He pursued
it, not only in his formal speech, ending with a
sentence in Afrikaaans, but less directly and perhaps as
effectively in private conversation with Dutch
representatives. The Dutch population, as a whole,
delighted to greet him in his movements about Cape Town
and the neighbourhood.
TRAVELS UP-COUNTRY
Early in May the Prince
departed from Cape Town on his travels up-country. At
Stellenbosch, that very early and very Dutch settlement,
he was dragged through the streets in a decorated landau
by students of the University, and at Paarl was cheered
by thousands of white and coloured school- children -
the forerunners of many such gatherings. The first
commando, composed of 160 English and Dutch farmers
awaited him at Worcester station. These bodyguards were
to be another familiar sight. So also, in the passage of
the cream-coloured train through the south-eastern
districts of the Cape Province, were the parties of
villagers who had come long distances on the mere chance
of "getting just a peep" at the Prince. The coloured
minstrels who serenaded the train at Colesberg had been
happily inspired, and went away enchanted with right
royal praise of their melodies. Companies of ex-Service
men - never forgotten by their "comrade " - were
frequent. At last Port Elizabeth was reached. Having
come through ostrich and sheep lands, the Prince was
once more at the coast, in a town of a century's
astonishing growth. Here he had his first great native
welcome in South Africa, a welcome in which poetry from
a native poet combined with music from native choirs.
For the next week the route
was never very far from the sea. Amid the festivities of
Grahamstown the Prince recalled the history of the 1820
settlers, of which he was again to be reminded when,
after a golfing respite at Port Alfred, he reached King
William's Town by way of Bedford and the chain of towns
in the Great Fish River valley notable from the old
Kaffir wars. Now came a series of meetings with Bantu
chiefs and peoples.
At King William's Town, at
East London, and at Umtata he met them in their
thousands. Many had made a several days' journey to hail
the "Rising Sun," as they termed the Prince. The chiefs
were attired in an infinite incongruity of European
garments. The Prince wore the khaki or scarlet of the
Welsh Guards. In his speeches he warned the natives
against mistrust of authority, advised them to learn how
to manage their own affairs through the council system,
and encouraged them to appreciate education.
Nearly 3,000 miles were
covered in the Cape Province. The next stage of the tour
was the Orange Free State. Into Bloemfontein, the
capital, the Prince rode at the head of a Boer commando
of over 2,000, most of whom had been active foes of
England in the South African War, and some, like their
leader, had joined the De Wet revolt in 1914. They were
pleased with the Prince's mounting the fine horse they
had reserved for him, pleased with his friendliness and,
above all, with his speaking to them in their own
tongue.
NATIVE GATHERINGS
From Bloemfontein the course
was eastwards into Basutoland where on the flats above
Maseru was a great clan gathering of the natives. The
whole manhood of the country was present, and the sight
of the 50,000 horsemen who turned their gaze on the
slender figure in the scarlet of the Guards was most
memorable. At Harrismith, having visited several rural
centres, the Prince bade farewell to the Free State,
thanking the inhabitants for a welcome spontaneous,
real. and unaffected.
He was in Natal at the
beginning of June, enjoying the Drakensberg crossing,
and at Ladysmith showing a keen interest in every
vestige of the siege and every site of a battle. Thence
to Durban, almost hidden in flags and packed with
shouting, singing people. The expressive loyalty of
23,000 Natal Indians, and the opening of a new graving
dock, the second largest in the world, were signal
incidents of the two days in Durban.
A contrast was afforded, on
the Prince's crossing into Zululand, by the indaba and
native dance at Eshowa. Another Zulu dance, but on a
smaller scale, formed part of the Maritzburg programme,
which included also the presentation of regimental
Standards to the Natal Carbineers, reputed the oldest
Volunteer Force in the Empire. Other pleasant spots in
the "Garden Province" were visited in a day, after which
some hundreds of bearded veterans of the Boer War gave
earnest at Ermelo of the welcome awaiting the Prince in
his progress through the Transvaal.
First, however, he went to
Swaziland, gaining further insight into the native mind
and customs. A wide circle was then made to the north so
that Pretoria was reached from Pietersburg. Pretoria
showed its determination not to be outdone in
enthusiasm, and, as the Prince remarked in a speech,
carried on what he had experienced throughout the Union.
The parade of children was especially impressive. It was
in response to an observation by Mr. Hofmeyr on the
friends made in the Transvaal that the Prince confessed
he had learnt more from wayside meetings and informal
talks than from set speeches, and he was glad to have
conversed with so many Transvaalers.
RAND AND RHODESIA
The weather was as cold in
Johannesburg as the people were hearty. This is saying
much, for the police had hard work to keep the zealous
crowds within bounds. The Prince opened the University
of the Witwatersrand, and received the honorary degree
of Doctor of Laws; he went down a gold mine; and on June
23 kept his 31st birthday. Three days later he was at
Mafeking looking at the memorials of the siege.
From Bulawayo the Prince
drove to the Matopos. He stood by the grave of Rhodes at
"The World's View." He saw, too, the ruins of Zimbabwe.
Rhodesia gave him some shooting. At Salisbury and other
points the Mashonas and natives from far afield came
with their homage and dances. The Victoria Falls were a
spectacle grander in their way than anything South
Africa had yet shown him. At Livingstone he met the
Barotse, and admired the discipline of the Northern
Rhodesian native police. Broken Hill marked the northern
limit of the tour.
The chief break in the
return to Cape Town was at Kimberley, though there were
several other halts. In the end the Prince had traversed
over 13,000 miles of South African soil, nearly
one-third of that distance having been by road. The
voyage from South Africa to South America must have been
a relief after so strenuous a time ashore. It was
interrupted by two days at St. Helena, which allowed not
only for a visit to Napoleon's tomb, but for an
examination of the relics and records of the island,
and, of course, Longwood.
URUGUAY
When, on August 14, the
arrival of the Repulse was greeted by the guns and
sirens of Montevideo, Uruguay might have been asking the
Prince to forget he was in foreign parts. An enormous
crowd welcomed him; there was an imposing military
display; and here as elsewhere youth did its best to
honour youth. Taranco House, a residence in the old
town, was set aside for the visitor's use; but he had
little leisure to spend in it.
A live-stock show and a
ceremony at the Military Academy were two of the
Prince's earlier engagements. Between the presentation
of an address from the British Chamber of Commerce and a
State dinner at Government House, followed by a gala
performance at the Solis Theatre, he held a reception at
the Parque Hotel. In the President's company he went to
the Pantheon Nacional and laid a wreath on tho urn
containing the ashes of Aetigas, "thinker, philosopher,
soldier." The British Hospital, the National University,
and the new Legislative Palace attracted him in their
several ways. At the last he was received by the
Presidents of the General Assembly and the Chamber of
Deputies. At a luncheon of the Anglo-Uruguayan Reception
Committee he expressed his thanks in Spanish.
"All Uruguayans, simple
citizens as well as the official world, are charmed
beyond words with the Prince, his democratic manner,
simplicity, and graciousness." Such was the message
which Senor Blanco, the Foreign Minister, asked our
Special Correspondent to send to England.
ARGENTINE REVIEWS
From Montevideo the light
cruiser Curlew bore the Prince up the estuary of the
River Plate to Buenos Aires. President de Alvear met his
guest on the quay and together they drove, in a carriage
drawn by four black horses with gilded harness, through
the crowded streets of the city. " Viva el Principe"
shouted the onlookers, whose numbers almost overpowered
the police and tested severely the crack regiments
guarding the Plaza Colon. Nor did the shouting cease
while the Prince was to be seen; it followed his visits
to the harbour, factories, and suburbs. One day was
spent in La Plata, and the chief business of another was
a military review, at which the parade of 12,000 troops
was led by detachments from the Repulse and Curlew
with
a Marine band playing "Hearts of Oak." This review
lasted two hours; at its conclusion the Prince
complimented the President on the military staff's
magnificent display.
A review of a different kind
was that of 50,000 national school children, who sang
"God Bless the Prince of Wales" in English. The
enthusiasm of the crowds, perhaps, reached its height at
the races in the Hippodromo Argentino, though it had
seemed nothing could be more tumultuous than the cheers
and shouts that rang around the yacht in which the
Prince was taken to the docks and given a glimpse of the
trade and ocean traffic of the great port.
A stay at an estancia, where
he rode, watched the roping of colts, and fraternized
with the gauchos, made a restful interval in the
festivities of Buenos Aires. Returning, the Prince spent
some time among the British residents. He inspected
ex-Servicemen on the Plaza Britanica, and in the Calle
Ituzaingo unveiled a Scottish war memorial.
The Prince met still more of
his countrymen on a 1,500 miles tour north of Buenos
Aires; a tour full of fresh interests. There were the
vast herds of the Argentine Mesopotamia, the sports and
songs of the gauchos, the processes of turning livestock
into meat extracts and soup cubes. There was also the
fascination of wide horizons.
ACROSS THE ANDES
After the plains, the
heights. The Andes were crossed, the Pacific slope
descended, and Santiago of Chile reached. Here the
Prince again found packed streets and a warm welcome
from the Chileans and their President. The head of the
Republic, at a Presidential banquet, referred in
eloquent words to the days " when your sailors and ours
together consolidated the independence of South America"
In his reply the Prince said:-
It was my hope that my visit
to Chile might have contributed to draw closer the bonds
of amity which, for more than a hundred years, have
united the two nations. I begin to fear that that is
almost superfluous, but not entirely so, I hope, for I
would like to think that my visit will set the seal on a
century of unbroken cordiality and will initiate a new
era of even closer collaboration.
These references to the past
were reiterated on the visit to Valparaiso, when the
ties of friendship with the Chilean Navy, dating from
the time of Cochrane and O'Higgins, were renewed by the
Prince's inspection of the Naval Academy and his welcome
on board the Almirante Latorre.
Valparaiso was the last city
on the long tour. The three Republics had been
magnificent hosts, and to the three Presidents -
President Serrato in Uruguay, President de Alvear in
Argentina, and President Alassandi in Chile- the Prince
offered his hearty thanks. The return journey to
Argentina was delayed by avalanches in the Andes. Some
days later than was anticipated the Repulse bore the
Prince from the shores which had given him so wonderful
a hospitality, and in which he had strengthened by his
personality the links of national friendship.
