WONDERS OF LONDON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21358, 11 June 1931, Page 14

WONDERS OF LONDON

INDIAN OFFICERS AWED BODYGUARD FOR THE KING. The four officers of the Indian Army who have been selected as the King’s Orderly jOfficers for this year had more breathless moments in their first few hours in London recently than they liave had in many a battle. They arrived, with four servants and two native cooks. None of them had been to England before; none of them can speak more than a few words of broken English. After the excitement of the busy, docks they were driven in a motor coach through the East £nd, the city, and part of the West End, to the house near Victoria which will be their home until the end of the Court season. It was there that they gave their first vivid impressions of a new land. They told, through all interpreter, that the greatest surprise of all in that breathless drive was the way in which such a vast amount of traffic' streamed through the streets without colliding. The next thing that impressed them was the cleanliness of the streets, the buildings and the people, and the next—Big Ben! Subadah-Major Fateh Muhammad, who has a row of medals on. his broad chest —he has 31 years’ service, and his native title means “ Chief and Hero ” said he liked London already arid was going to enjoy every minute. “ We were all surprised,” he said, “ at the order of everything here; the houses all in a straight line, the streets so clean and neat, the millions of cars and omnibuses moving along so calmly. We none of us expected anything like it. We saw some policemen on horseback—fine animals, which did not move even their heads as the lorries went round them an inch or two away. London buildings are magnificent, and we are going to visit lots of them, also the parks and the theatres and kinemas.” All the officers agreed that there was one moment to which they were looking forward intensely—the moment of meeting the King. They were to be received by the King, and after that their official duties were to begin—attendance, as a royal bodyguard, at all State occasions. They spent some hours moving into their new home —the servants watched by a crowd as they ran in and out of the house with luggage from a pile on the pavement. All four are Mohammedans. They are teetotallers, but smoke cigarettes. While in England they will have Indian food prepared by their own native cooks.