DOCKLAND MAGIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 April 1914, Page 8

DOCKLAND MAGIC

ROYAL TOUR. AMONG THE SPLENDOURS OF THE ORIENT. LONDON, February 23. In the gloom and the murk ot Saturday afternoon, King George and Queen Mary made an adventurous and romantic tour of Dockland. A dam]) haze hung over the river; the spacing beauty of the Thames, as seen in the sunny" days of late, had given place to a, sombreness of sky and water more impressive, perhaps and more characteristic of the solidity of the great city and the mystery of her waterway, iho Tower Bridge lay like a phantom with ghostly arms poised athwart the stream; a great huddle of shipping lay in the Pool and the tremendous riverside business clanged and hammered down the narrow streets and overhead, as huge cranes rattled as they swung their never-ending bales of merchandise from ship to wharf and from wharf to warehouse A PRIVATE CALL. It was grim, picturesque, and awe-in-spiring; into the midst of it all Their .Majesties arrived quietly, just as ordinary visitors, and with no clamour of- officialdom to greet them, for this was a private call—a tour of inspection to some of the most important, warehouses of the Port-of London. TUey were accompanied by Princess Mary and attended by Vice Admiral Sir Colin Keppell and drove in a closed motor -ar into Houndsditch through Cutler Street, and so into the splendid treasurehouses of the East India and London docks. Here they -were received by Lord Devonport, the chairman of the Port of London Authority. In this wonderful clearing house where East and West meet, and where the glamour shines Their Majesties spent a most enthralling time'. They began with a glance at the tobacco ■tores, and were struck to find that in ■his magic storehouse tobacco is not measured by the ounce or by the pound, by "tears in boxes or cigarettes in thousands —it i.s just measured off by the mile. £10,000,000 WORTH OF TOBACCO. Lord Devonport explained to them that it the London Docks there is generally t stock of tobacco valued at something 'ike £10,000,000, and that pipe tobacco is kept (at the Victoria Docks) in warehouses having a floor area of three square miles.

From this scene pungently aromatic, ■hey passed on to more marvels. If His Majesty, as a connoisseur in tobacco and the suulety of its brands and blends was impressed, Queen Mary, in her element—the engaging study of delicate fabrics and wonderful clothes —wis equally stirred >y the splendours that were unfolded before her; magic carpets from Persia, with i thrilling Arabian Night mystery in every bale; silks, rich and rare and wonderful ; ostrich feathers as 10ft and beautiful is little white* curls of summer cloud; kins of birds ct dazzling hues—gold and v silver and scarlet and purple—all the hues of the rainbow and almost too vivid to be . eal: delicato dreams in mother-of-pearl »nd ivory and tortoise-shell from tho West, Indies and distant Fiji (where the finest and most beautiful t-ortoiseshell comes from) ; elephant tusks, such as the mightiest hunter.'-never dreamt of, and mammoth ivory, fossilised, from the cold ilains of Siberia. BLOCKS OF TEA. There were not only treasures, but cur.osities from, all corners of the world to ic observed—Chinese and Japanese gems if caiving, strange uncanny-looking shells and dried fish found in the shimmering .oagons and along the shores of the South ■Pacific, heavy aromatic wooden blocks .vhich turned out not to be blocks of wood at all, but compressed tea; inlaid cabinets of precious woods, redolent still of the breezy spices of the magic East; and so on ad infinitum, with more marvels and more magic at every step, and so much to see, and that all so wonderful that tea-time had come and the gloom of a stormy night had laid its heavy pall over the fairyland of Thames-side before the Roval visitors were aware of it.

Their hist glimpse, out of the twilight into the dark depths of the underground, was reserved for the wine-vaults, where '.n an atmosphere suggestive of the clammy breath of ghouls and goblins and tho lurking spot of Guy Fawkeses galore and dreadfully gunpowdery, they saw other strange sights by the glimmer of electric 'anthorns, and found themselves in a stalactite cave, fantastically embroidered with fairy fungus, which vanished at the mere flick of a handkerchief —an extraordinary fabric formed (so they say) by tha wine-fumes, the inhalation of which sets the goblins and the ghouls madly dancing and tango-ing over in huge barrels of precious liquor in wild, (inhuman revelry. TOO EARLY!: But all this happens at tho witching hour, too late for Kings and Queens anil T> rincesses to see the fun, however much they might wish to. The goblins no doubt would have danced and revelled for the delectation of their Royal visitors had they only known they were coming, but .is this visit was strictly private and confidential they had not been given the straight "griffen" and nothing happened. And ?(i ;i, pei'fectly wonderful a-fJ-orunou passed in next to no lime and at lialf|last four the King and Queen imd the voting Princess drove back to Buckingham Palace through the drench of this most weary Saturday, mightily impressed with their visit and sorry Hint they could stay no longer to see more.