19-gun salute greets Anne

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 8

19-gun salute greets Anne

NZPA Manzini Princess Anne received a 19-gun salute yesterday when she arrived in this tiny kingdom under a burning midday sun to start an eightnation tour of Southern Africa on behalf of the Save the Children Fund. The Princess flew from Johannesburg’s Jan Smuts airport, where she spent about 90 minutes talking in a transit lounge with South African officials of the Children’s Fund, a stop that has been criticised by opponents of South Africa's institutionalised racial segregation, called apartheid. Swaziland's “Great SheElephant" Queen Regent, widow of the late King Sobhuza 11, who died on August 21, greeted the Princess. The pair inspected a Royal Swazi honour guard while a military band played “Green-

sleaves" and several Cabinet Ministers in traditional orange robes welcomed their guest. Queen Regent rules Swaziland until a successor is chosen from Sobhuza’s 400 sons. The Princess made no public remarks. The 32-year-old daughter of Queen Elizabeth is president of the British branch of the Save the Children Fund. She flew to Johannesburg directly from London on a scheduled British Airways flight that was greeted by South African chief of diplomatic protocol, David Louw, and the British Ambassador, Ewen Fergusson, along with Willem Cruywagen, administrator of South Africa’s Transvaal Province. Princess Anne is the first member of the Royal Family to visit white-minority-ruled South Africa since 1947.