TOUR OF INDIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 178, 11 May 1935, Page 8

TOUR OF INDIA

GREAT DEPENDENCY VISITED.

SCENES OF ORIENTAL BEAUTY.

A TRADITIONAL WELCOME. In the autumn and winter of 1905-6 Their Royal Highnesses visited India., leaving Genoa on October 21, 1905, in the Renown. On November 9 they reached Bombay, the coincidence of His Majesty's Birthday toeing noted aftd welcomed throughout India as an aftigury of good fortune. The welcome to the Prince of Wales in Bombay was_ warm and unmistakable, and everything contributed to make the landing of the Prince one of the most brilliant occasions that om- great dependency has ever known. After a stay of four or five days in Bombay, the Prince and Princess proceeded in the luxuriouslyequipped train to Indore. Here at last Their Royal Highnesses encountered the real India., for such is the clash of race and creed in Bombay that it should fairly be called a microcosm ot the Eapt rather than specially characteristic' of Hindustan. From .Indore the Royal visitors travelled rapidly and easily to that dream of all Oriental beauty, the lake city of Udaipur. the Makarana, the unquestionable chief of all the kingly caste of India, 250th in direct descent from the Sun himself, welcomed their Royal Highnesses in the traditional manner, and all one warm Indian evening iJie lines of palace and town, island, landingplace and bridge, glittered nr rays-of quivering flame against the still purpleof the night. ,_..•', n At Jaipur, His Royal Highness like his father before him, shot his first 1 ]3ikanir, the rose-red city, anchored in the centre of the shifting desert sand: Lahore, where the Sikhs made brave show of entertainment, and the patriarchal Maharaja of Nabha was presented; Peshawar, the key of India, in which the very stones seem to drip with the blood of the immemorial frontier fights; Rawal Pindi with its en-eat manoeuvres; Jammu, the gate of Kashmir; Amritsar, with its blend of holiness and trade; and, finally. Royal Delhi received the Imperial travellers. Then came a visit to Agra, with its world-famous Taj, which deeply impressed both the Prince and the Princess, neither of whom had set eyes on it before. Gwalior with its brilliant and courteous chief, detained them for a while, but in so pleasant a fashion that afterwards the Prince, denied by an unfortunate outbreak .or cholera, the possibility of hunting in Nepal, of his own motion, honoured Scindia with a second visit. Lucknow, with its deathless memories ot gallantry and success, was inspected, and then Calcutta, the centre and metropolis of all the Peninsula, entertained Their Royal Highnesses for a week or more. _ Burma and Benares.

Leaving Calcutta on January 13,. the Prince and Princess of Wales rejoined the Renown at Diamond Harbour Three days' easy steaming brought the Royal travellers to Rangoon. There is, nerhaps, no more picturesque edifice in Si the East than the Shwe _ Dagon Pagoda, which lifts its huge extinguisher of gold and gems from the nest ot exq uisitely,carved tazounds at its base. A,/ exhibition of the now almost defunct art of timber-piling by elephants was given in the Prince's honour and then the Royal train set.ont for_Mandalay. In Southern India the Pnnce spent some pleasant weeks. He was able to obtain some good shooting, and a kheddah of captured elephants inteiested him intensely at A stay was made at Hyderabad and the Thtish troops at Secunderahad were ieviewed. After a farewell to the hospitable Nyzam, a long tram journey across India brought the Koyal party once more amid the more familial scenes of Northern Indian travel. Benares put on her gayest holiday attire in honour of the visit, and both Prince and Princess showed the keen est hiterest, not only the religious ceremonies practised on the bank of the holy river but in the ancient Buddhist remains which still exist at Sa uath, a few miles away From tins point the last stretch of the lone San journey was begun, and after a stay at Alizarh and Qnetta, the ftnVal nartv re-embarked on the Kenown at Karachi for their journey h ° mC ' The Guildhall Speech.

Their Royal Highnesses were four months in India, during which time they covered 8000 miles by rail, besides the sea voyage of 2000 miles from Calcutta to Rangoon, and thence back to Madras. Hie tour was admirab y dimmed up by the Prince in his Guildhall .speech on his return home I was SrriS? he said, "with the immense size of India, its splendours, its numerous races, its varied climates, its ,no -capped mountains, its boundless Shs, its mighty rivers, its arehitectZ\ monuments, and its timis I have realised the patience, Jhe simplicity of life, the loyal devotion, and the religions spirit which characterises the Indian peoples 1 • not help thinking from all I have heard and seen, that the task of &ovcrnincr India will be made the more SSSf if we on our part infuse into at «, wider element of sympathy.