JUBILEE SPLENDOUR

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12530, 16 April 1935, Page 3

JUBILEE SPLENDOUR

MAHARAJAHS TO APPEAR. IN STATE. PEARL NECKLACE WORTH £1,000,000 LONDON, March 9. Two sent from 6000 miles away, have flung two great London hotels in a ferment. °f activity. Tw'o Indian princes hav e each engaged an entire floor for the Silver Jubilee. The Maharajahs of Bikaner and Faliala, Indian A.D.C.’s to the King, arc bringing to thq West all the splendour of the East. Each travels with a retinue of a premier secretaries), valets, servants,, bodyguards—even chefs. And—their jew els. The Maharajah of Bikaner is to bring £20,000 worth of gems. The Maharajah of Bikaner lias booked Hie first floor of the Carlton, Haymarket. The hotel is going to redecorate the restaurant and puf.ni room, which have not been altered for 30 years in modem style. The one niglif of dancing a week at the Carlton is to be increased to seven nights a week in the Maharajah’s honour. He is an enthusiastic dancer, and tho new regime will allow' him to arrange dinner parties whenever lie wants fo. Ho is not bringing his native chefs with him, but one of the hotel chefs who-knows Ids tastes —lie loves bacon and , eggs—will cook solely for him. But the maharajah is a strict Hindu, and beef in any. form will not be allowed on bis menu—the ox anti cow are sacred in the Brahmin code So rigorous is this taboo that everything of feather is to be removed from the whole suite—Jeatlior-seated chairs on which he refuses to sit, desk blotters, which lie is forbidden to touch. The Maharajah of Patiala is not only bringing ./over {his chefs, hut tho livestock for .his own table. The storerooms of the „ Savoy wilt 'soon resoundl with the squawking of chickens, the hissing of vee.se, the cooing of pigeons. Each bird selected by the chefs must he blessed mm cooked with the ceremony. Mho prince has again engaged for himself -and his suite of 40 the “millionaire’s floor” of the Savoy Hotel.