QUEEN FLYING TO LONDON

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28963, 3 August 1959, Page 11

QUEEN FLYING TO LONDON

Lons Canadian Tour At End (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) HALIFAX (Nova Scotia), August 2. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh last night left by Comet jet airliner for London, after their 45-day tour of Canada. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, with the Prince of Wales and Princess Anne, will be at London airport this morning to welcome the Royal couple home after their 15,000-mile tour. However, in Canada, some observers say the tour might mark the end of an era in Royal travelling. United Press International reported. The tour, made by train, jet aircraft, car, ship and even horseback, proved to be so gruelling for the Queen that officials predicted there might never again be one like it.

But the Canadian Prime Minister (Mr Diefenbaker) hinted that this might not be so.

Emerging from a Cabinet meeting yesterday, at which the Queen presided, Mr Diefenbaker answered questions about the Royal tour. “The tour’s been an overwhelming success,” he said. “Are Royal tou-s here to stay?” a reporter asked. “It’s a matter for determination,” the Prime Minister replied. “But success leads to repetition.” “The entire tour has been worthwhile. The Queen knows Canada now as few other Canadians do, having visited all the 'principal parts of the country,” Mr Diefenbaker said. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh left Halifax just before midnight (2.45 a.m. G.M.T.). They were due to arrive in London at 8.45 a.m. G.MMT., after the 2800 mile flight. The big farewell crowd at Shearwater Naval Base joined in singing “Auld Lang Syne” after the Royal couple boarded the aircraft

The Governor-General (Mr Vincent Massey), Mr Diefenbaker and most of the Canadian Cabinet were on hand to say farewell. Tour of Nova Scotia The Queen’s luck with the weather held out long enough yesterday for a three-stop circuit of Nova Scotia. She visited the steel and coal areas of Sydney and New Glasgow before winding up at the old naval base of Halifax. There was a relaxed atmosphere yesterday with the Queen in an easy-going frame of mind, with a happy smile on her face. The Royal couple gave the impression they had had a good time but were also glad it was close to the end of a long tour — and close to home and family. At Shearwater the Navy lined up a squadron of Banshee jets on the tarmac and was prepared to rev them up at full speed just before the Royal plane landed, in the hope that their hot blasts would eat up the fog and clear a safe landing strip. They were not needed.

In Sydney, the Duke met and talked with Mr Harold Gordon, coal mines chief of the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, who met the Duke during his visit to Springhill, Nova Scotia, last October when a mine disaster killed 75 men.