A BORED PRINCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1922, Page 6

A BORED PRINCE

The intimate gossip of those acquainted with the inside history of the Prince s Indian tour reveals the fact that, tho i-;a undoubtedly the function was a success as a whole, it was marred to some extern by little differences (writes the Dondor coi respondent of the Dunedin “Star ). Il was found necessary on many occasions to cut down the arranged programmes drastically, and sometmies the Prince himself took a firm hand in this matter. He would have been less than human had he escaped a certain amount of boredom on occasion. When the arranged programme exceeded the limits of a fair day s woik,State functions of tremendous local moment would be apt to go by the board, as they say in the sea service. One occasion is recalled where there was to be an attendance at three Christian services in one afternoon. The Prince dealt quite masterfully with this appalling situation. He cut down the services in each case to two hymns and two prayers, and severely ruled out the sermon. This was much to the embarrassment of one ecclesiastical dignitary, who had somewhat prematurely handed his admirable discourse to tho Press. The relations between the Prince’s staff and the Press correspondents left something to be desired. Perhaps the Prince became rather tired of the incessant publicity brought by a retinue of special correspondents, and his -jstaff may have taken their tone from an entirely erroneous impression of the Prince s real attitude towards the journalists. But the relations between the staff and the latter were, I hear, very strained indeed.