PRINCESS SHOOTS RAPIDS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27593, 25 February 1955, Page 11

PRINCESS SHOOTS RAPIDS

Raft Voyage Down Rio Grande

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) PORT ANTONIO (Jamaica), February 24. Princess Margaret, on the eve of her departure from Jamaica, drifted down the Rio Grande last night on one of a fleet of nine bamboo rafts.

The shooting of the rapids of the Rio Grande was the most exciting event of her last full day in Jamaica. On a nearby raft was a police officer who maintained constant contact by radio with river headquarters. On the eight-mile trip down the twisting river, the Princess wore a light green skirt with floral decorations and a green blouse.

The two-hour trip is more spectacle than adventure, but at one point the rapids provide a real thrill as the raft gathers speed in the swirling waters. Earlier, Jamaica’s Chief Minister (Mr Norman Manley) presented the Princess with a poetic bouquet borrowed from Hillaire Belloc. Mr Manley recited the words at a hospital opening ceremony:

Of three in ’one and one in three, My narrow mind would doubting be, Till beauty, grace and kindness met, And all at once were Margaret. The hospital, which was named after the Princess, has 150 beds, and cost £200,000.

Princess Margaret flunked the Jamaican people tor the "gay, lively welcome” given her. On her way to the hospital she drove through the crowded streets of Kingston, where thousands gathered to see her off. She will sail in the Britannia tomorrow for the Bahamas.