”Mr. Keeper, I Want to Look at the Giraffes” A Sultan Sees the Sights

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 726, 27 July 1929, Page 20

”Mr. Keeper, I Want to Look at the Giraffes” A Sultan Sees the Sights

GORGEOUS personage with glittering jewels, purple turban. long, gleaming scimitar, and dressed in a robe of blue and gold, stepped

on to Victoria Station. It was his Highness the Sultan of Zanzibar. The picturesque appearance of the distinguished visitor (writes a “Daily Chronicle” representative) was heightened by the formal array of the British Government officials who had come to receive him.

The Sultan was in full State ceremonial robes. He wore the orders of the K.C.M.G. and the K.8.E., and on liis breast gleamed his own especial Order- —the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar. Accompanying him was his sou, Prince Abdullah, also turbanned and in Oriental robes. In close attendance upon them was a taller figure with high aquiline nose surmounted by pince-nez—a real Arab sheik, whose name is Seif bin Suleiman. Lord Plymouth, Parliamentary Un-der-Secretary for the Dominions, surrounded by a group of foreign and Colonial Office officials, met the visitors. After a brief welcome the Sultan and his entourage entered saloon cars which were flying the Union Jack and the flag of Zanzibar, and proceeded to the Hyde Park Hotel. The Sultan speaks English very well, but lie has not been in England since 1911, when he attended the King’s Coronation. The Sultana is ill, and is therefore not accompanying her husband on the trip. The Sultan, who is 49, rules over the two islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. He has also a nominal sovereignty over the Kenya Protectorate. He is a highly enlightened ruler and

| lias done much for education of w.- . subjects. He received his nLif | Orders for the services rendered ; Great Britain in the war 10 When the Sultan visited the i Zoo he had one great wish— to | giraff es which came from his home in East Africa. ,a T want to see the giraffes” t, ; said, soon after he had arrived aerJ? ' panied by Seyyid Adbullah the Li ; apparent, and Sheik Seif bin SuleimlT i At- that moment, however, the rw„ ; being conducted round by Dr VeveiV

the superintendent, was at a point some distance from the giraffe house, and so the visit was postponed. The Sultan was shown lions and tigers, strange reptiles and fish, birds and tortoises during a tour that lasted over two hours. It seemed as if the giraffes had been forgotten. The time came for the party to leave. The Sultan had many other appointments, but he had not forgotten the giraffes. “Giraffes,” he said quietly, In English. “The house is a long way off,” said Dr. Vevers. “It doesn’t matter,” replied tbs Sultan, with au air of finality. "I want to see the giraffes!” And so the Sultan’s wish was gratified. He spent a happy quarter of an hour watching the giraffes being fed. He commented on the fine appearance of the lanky creatures. “They are at least as fine as the wild ones at home,” he said, "aud these have the advantage of being tame. It Is remarkable.” The sea-lions were totally unfamiliar to the Sultan, and while he was being photographed watching them feed he commented: “If that photograph should go back to Africa, none of my subjects would believe it. They would think it a fake.”