CITY OF LAHORE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3, 20 January 1906, Page 19

CITY OF LAHORE.

A SPLENDID GREETING FROM PUNJAB CHIEFS. Although the Punjab has been shorn of its frontier districts and resents the, loss, it still regards itself as the backbone of the defence of India, both because of its position as a bar to the advance of an invader and as the producer of the finest fighting races in India. The loyalty of the Punjab has never waned, not even in the darkest days of the fifties, and proud of these circumstances the Province determined to give Their Royal Highnesses a right stout welcome to its capital. And so it did. The loj.ig route from the railway station to Government Hcuse was lined with flags and bunting, crossed by tri umphal arches, bright with loyal mottoes, and close packed with a deeply interested mass of the strong, reserved peoples of the north. Here back in British India, we lose much of the brightness and colour of the fascinating cities of Rajputana, Instead of tortuous streets are broad straight road: instead of houses of the east, eastern, the roomy bungalows and hindsome shops of a provincial headquarters. Yet with this loss is some gain in the splendid highways, the evidences of wealth and the avenues and gardens for which Lahore is famous. And yet again one could wish that the good citizens had not attempted to paint the lily and decorate groves of stately b'.scage, glorious in the setting sun. with strings of cheap bunting. The desire was patriotic; the effect tawdry in the extreme. On alighting from the train His Royal Highness, in his naval uniform and wearing the ribbon of the Star of India, and the Princess, of Wales, in dainty muslin, were received -by Sir Charles Rivaz, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, who first presented General Sir Bindon Blood. The usual presentations followed, the Lieutenant-Governor performing this office for the civilians and

Sir Bindon Blood for Hie military officers, including General Walter Kitchener, with whom His Royal Highness entered int<\ close conversation.. The inspection of the giiard-of-honour of the West Yorkshire Regiment afforded another opportunity for the Prince to comment on the incongruity of the khaki helmet nuvv worn with the British full dress, an incongruity even more marked with the British cavalry escort drawn up outside the station. We sometimes laugh at the combinations of colours affected by Ind but the most bizarre they can show is less offensive to the eye than this burden the military authorities have imposed upon the British troops. Then, stepping into a carriage drawn by four spanking hays, the Prince and Princess, with Sir Walter Lawrence, drove iff, escorted by the 12th Lancers, a smart detachment of the Punjab Light Horse and a squadron of the 25th Cavalry. The scenes which followed must have reminded their Royal Highnesses of their splendid progresses through the streets of Bombay. For not since they left the gateway of India have they seen such closely packed crowds in street and on balcony, in every window’ and on every housetop. The people’s greeting was marked by the reverence and the reserve which are associated with the hardy peoples of Upper India. Quite otherwise was it with the bands of school children marshalled along the route. By a happy thought these assembled bodies were each marked with a distinctive colour. There were boys in red turbans and boys in pale emerald green, in white and in blue, with expectant faces and comely features. As the Royal carriage passed they broke to joyous shouts of welcome, vigorously waving little paper flags of their own distinctive colour. But by far the most interesting episode of the progress was the drive through the camp of the Punjab Chiefs assembled in Lahore to receive the Royal visitors. Here art* the Chiefs of Patiala, and Bhawalpur, of Nabha. Jhind, Kapurthala, Mundi, Faridkhote, Maier Kotla, Chamba, and Sukate. The gathering of their retainers brought hack memories of Udaipur and Jeypore and Bikanir. One seemed to glide unconsciously, from the India of the railway station, of these broad roads and modern buildings, into the India of at least a century ago. For here we had wild frontiersmen with hooked noses and eagle eyes and unshorn locks tumbling over their shoulders, mounted on scraggy ponies; elephants in silver mail, bearing golden and silvern howdahs, and dancing horses caparisoned in tinsel. Smart Imperial Service Infantry stood guard over the palanquins and palkis and in line with household troops with muzzle loaders and flint lock guns. In the midst of this motley array the forces of Kapurthla stood conspicuous. His Imperial Service Infantry were splendidly turned out in blue and white, most of the men wearing the Frontier medal of 1897. and one at least bore two Sudan distinctions. His cavalry, also in blue and white, were well horsed and accoutred; the grooms in attendance on the gorgeous State carriage were similarly liveried, and the household colours were even carried through the trappings of the splendid elephants. As the Royal procession passed at a walking pace through the camp, the Chiefs, who were seated in their carriages, saluted, the Prinee and Princess acknowledging every reverence. The scene presented as the Chiefs sat in their State vehicles, their armed retainers in every kind of uniform in line with the elephants, the dancing horses and the palkis. whilst on the opposite side of the road sat a few English residents, and the rag. tag and bobtail of 1 he camp, was the most truly Oriental patch in the Amidst marks of unabated interest, their Royal Highnesses drove through the gracefully shaded Mall to Government House, receiving at the Anarkali Gardens a loyal and dutiful address from the Municipality. The thin jab Chiefs are encamped on the Fort parade ground, the maidan which in sterner times was the glacis of Lahore's formidable defences. From here a broad, shady road leads to Government House, and from an early hour this was thronged with sightseers, many being English, anxious to sei* the Chiefs in their full feudal splendour. They are amply rewarded. First came the Rajah of~Fatiala.a boy of 14, lord of the premier Stale of the Punjab and heir to a great name and noble traditions. That

name has been smncwh ( | *rnished by r. fatal misconception of what good sporttmanship means, and never stood Im»v on the threshold of greater opportunities. Followed the leading Mahonicdan Chief, the Nawab of Bahawatpur, whose fathers broke away from Afghan dominance in 1838, and whose house has since been invincibly true to th chtreaty engagements. Next the Sikhs Rajah of Jhind. of a State whose troops were the first to inarch against t!.e mutineers at Delhi, and whose Imperial Infantry especially distinguished themselves in th,? Tirab campaign. 'then came the most eminent Sikh ’iving, the grand old Rajah of NalJi.i. representative of a line school that is fa-t passing away, and whose name is a synonym for loyalty and honesty throughout India. Succeededthe Rajah of Kapurthala,greatly given to Western travel, escorted by the blue and white lancers in the faultless turn-out which (list inguishes all Kapurthala's retaint rs. Now came the first of the hi.l chieftains. the Rajah of Mandi, a R-ijpu. of the Suket family, and ruler of the lower Himilaya ranges lying between the beautiful valleys of Kangra. and Kuhl. The Regent ot Ma!/r Kc.tla paid the devoirs of this little principality, carved out by one of the adventurers who followed the train of the Mogul invaders, and his well turned out escort was conspicuous by its nodding yellow plumes. Faridkot, the Sikh, was unfortunately detained in camp by fever, so Maier* Kotla was followed by Chamba, a proud Rajput, whose Himilayan kingdom is tucked away at the back of the Kangra Valley. And lastly the Rajah of Suket. a Rajput of the Rajputs, ami ruler of some 400 square miles of mountain territory So they passed, and into the presence ot the Heir-Apparent, there cheerfully to render the Eastern tributes of homage and fealty. Sikh and Rajput ami Afghan, they were symbols of the successive waves of invasion which made. Hindu st n the cockpit of Asia for centuries, until the spread of the Pax Britannica, brought rest to the tired land. But. widely dif fering in race and ideals, they had this great bond in common unswerving loyalty to their treaty obligations, deep devotion to the Imperial Throne. Con’/ any equally large assemblage of neighbouring Chiefs be brought India with such an unsullied history?