PRINCE IN KENYA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 48, 20 November 1928, Page 13

PRINCE IN KENYA

ACCLAIMED EVEN THERE

NATIVE PEERAGE ASSEMBLES

A Prince seeking rest and privacy in the wilds could hardly be blamed for gazing in weary astonishment at the tin mistakable signs of official welcome that lay round and beyond the railway station at Nairobi, when the royal train conveying the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester ended its 24-hours journey from Mombasa (writes Sir Percival Phillips, to the "Daily Mail,” from Nairobi. Kenya). That Britain’s first Prince again cheerfully forgot his personal inclinations in the desire to please his loyal admirers, the settlers of Kenya, was another little bit of proof that he puts before everything the claims of the Empire. Many of the bronzed men in khaki shirts and wide-brimmed hats, who cheered the Prince from their dusty cars and motor tenders, drawn up in long, close route to Government House, had travelled miles through the wilderness merely to get a glimpse of him as he passed. ■ They sat there in the heat of the afternoon, some with their womenfolk and children clustered round them, and the excitement of anticipation was for them a merry and memorable picnic. Reminiscences of Western Canada instinctively come to the mind of the traveller who emerges for the first time from the railway into this young and vigorous capital. But Canada never produced such a motley throng of human beings—not even Calgary, with its assembled Indians in war paint, could even approach Nairobi in the picturesqueness of its display of original settlers, the proud and friendly chiefs of 27 powerful tribes, and their councillors, who had their first view of the future ruler of the Empire this afternoon. He could not do more than glance hurriedly at the aristocracy of African Kenya, ‘clustered at the station—l2s peers of the native realm, at the head of whom stood the aged Legalishu, paramount head of the Masais, a war medal displayed on his chest. All were in ceremonial garb, and it was as dignified a gathering of rulers as could be found in any part of the white world. Farther' along the route were the remaining 1800 chiefs, lesser lights of the assembled tribes. They have travel ed from remote parts of the Colony for tins meeting with the Prince, and their temporary town of grass huts, built on the outskirts of Nairobi, forms tho most interesting anf important mobilisation ot native rulers held here since European civilisation first rose out of the red dust. Among the tribesmen were plum-skin-ned Somalis, who had travelled 600 miles from the northern frontier, men from Jubaland, a like distance to the East, men from the South, and others from Lake Rudolph. Their dress ranged troin the tattered plaid travelling rug ot the wrinkled Oganed, the Somali chiet—his onlv covering—to the splendid court regalia” of the Kikikyus, with its lofty head-covering of white plumes. These warriors wore a face fringe like an early fresh beard, and.'the polished spears which they held above their tri-eoloured shields of hide bore black pompoms. There were chiefs in skins, m yellow gowns, in drapery, like a Highland tartan, and their glory was not diminished bv a delegation of Christian tribesmen across the way, who had been submerged in lounge suits, grey hats, and flaming ties.