THE CONCLUSION OF THE ROYAL TOUR OF INDIA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 23, 9 June 1906, Page 36

THE CONCLUSION OF THE ROYAL TOUR OF INDIA.

THE DEPARTURE FROM INDIA. Readers of the “Graphic” have been able to follow the wanderings of the Prince and Princess of Wales through a good part of their journeyings through India. Accounts are now to hand of the closing scenes of a remarkably successful tour. They show that there was much that was picturesque and interesting about the closing days of the Royal progress. After crossing from Rangoon to Madras the route was through the native States of Hyderabad and Mysore through Central India to Benares, the sacred city on the Ganges, some of the more interesting phases of which were recently briefly sketched in the "Graphic.” Thence the route lay north till the vicinity of the frontier was again reached at Quetta in Baluchistan. The Quetta plateau Hows into the Beskin Valley through Baleli, and the I’eshin Plain washes the Khwaj Amrau mountains which constitute the real frontier again Western Afghanistan. Here the Prince and Princess of Wales stood, a span or two from the actual limit between India and Afghanistan, and looked out over the great stretch of prairie whereon Britain’s legions will mass if ever India is menaced from this quarter. It was their Hrst glimpse of the actual Frontier, as the boundary on the Peshawar side is not visible from the fort of Landi Kotal, where they halted after their drive through the Khyber. And what a frontier! From Cape Comorin to Peshawar there is nothing more typically illustrative of the unpretentiousness of Indian administrative methods. From the railway station a well macadamised road leads to within a mile of the whitened pillars which mark off India from Afghanistan. Thence the old highway Kandahar meanders through the plain and, unless you were told that the boundary marks existed, you might be pardoned for wandering into forbidden territory. Not a soldier, not even a chowkidar, place a bar upon your progress. Not a Customs’ barrier, not an “octroi” post, warns you that the Amir’s possessions must not be infringed upon. The prairie rolls on until it strikes the low 7 oehreous hills a dozen miles away. Half that distance from you, there rises a little ridge crowned by three tiny towers like khaki oil tanks. That is Spin Baidak Fort where the Amir’s Governor keeps watch for intruders, and for subjects who disobey his own peculiar laws. Towards Quetta, the oldest station buildings are barely discernible, nor the mud brick barracks that shelter the battalion in garrison. The fort that stands on the outskirts of the cantonment scarcely deserves that name. With good glasses you may trace the passage of the railway as it laboriously elimbs the spurs of the Khwaj Am ran before plunging into its vitals through the Khojak Tunnel, but apart from these almost illegible signals to its real purpose, the veldt might be the indisturbed possessions of the picturesque horsemen galloping over it of the nomadie goat herds and wild camel-men who lazily emerge from their skin hovels to gaze at the strangers. Nature designed the Khwaj Amran to be the frontier between neighbouring States. From these snow-capped hills there is no other great natural obstacle, not only as far as Kandahar, but far beyond the Herat and the southernmost limits of the Russian advance. She also spread out this eampagna to be the campaign ground for armies. Not divisions but army corps might be cantoned with ease. If you care to look beneath the surface, there are already many signs for those who would read of the important military purpose to which it has already been put. The railway station differs in no material respect from scores of others in India, but from it radiate the sidings which would enable the biggest force that could be mobilised to detrain as fast as the double approach massed at Chaman. The streaked herbage of the down-like land is studded with red blobs. These mark the sites of the camps which are prepared for the reception of two divisions whenever they are required. The fatigue party of Sappers at work are repairing the water pipes that would supply the camps, and which the predatory Afghan is constantly cutting for the sake of the metal. And at the station yard are assembled the rails and sleeeprs, the wires and the girders, that would rush the rail road forward to Kandahar at record speed if

there were need to stiffen the capital of Western Afghanistan against foreign attack. So far have the immense natural difficulties of this frontier been supplemented by art. that it is almost inconceivable that anyone will butt against it until the conditions to the north are vitally altered. At Quetta His Royal Highness received formal visits from the Khan of Kelat and the Jam of lais Bela. On the east side of Quetta stands a low domed building that commemorated the great work of Sir Robert Sandenian in Baluchistan. There were gathered the Sirdars of all the varied Baluch tribes, to pay homage to the Heir to the Throne that Sandeman taught them to respect. It was a wild and picturesque assembly that in many respects recalled the meeting of hard, strongfeatured frontiermen who greeted their Royal Highnesses at Peshawar—Baluchis, Brahuis, Bugtis. Kakari. and Harris, they squatted on rich carpets in the aisles of the eruciform hall with the iron reserve and patience characteristic of these fighting tribes. The Baluchi is said never to wash his garments except for a Durbar. When he does he makes as dashing a figure as any to be found in the East. With his voluminous robes falling round his stalwart figure with Grecian simplicity, a drooping white turban, his uncut, raven locks tumbling over his shoulders in careless profusion, and hawk eyes looking over a hook nose set in a gnarled face, darkened with a flowing bea:d, he looks what he is—meet habitant of this wild borderland of rugged mountain and arid plain. Beside these striking figures the Sirdars, in heavily embroidered surtouts of crimson, and

lace, and russet, despite their Kabul caps and (baggy breeches, looked almost tame.

Passing to the lowlands, the Royal tourists took their last farewell to India at Karachi, north of Bombay, the outlet for the great grain trade of the Punjab. Nothing could better illustrate the immense variety of conditions encountered in India than the journey of their Royal Highnesses from Quetta to Karachi. They left the mountain fortress in the clear, bracing cold of an English spring morning, and bade farewell to a landscape that, in many of its features, must have reminded them of Home. Then the Royal train dropped easily down the stiff gradients of the Mushkaf - Bolan railway, running through scenerey whose appalling barrenness was undisguised, they saw the last of the picturesque tatterdemalions who guarded the line, and of the stalwart Levy police, xvith revolver and scimitar buckled round white robes falling with classical simplicity. Then at Silbi, and in the run across the desolate Put to Ruk, they experienced a suspicion of what the hot weather can mean in these wastes, and at Karachi returned to the atmosphere of profound peace and prosperity, characteristic of the modern Indian seaport towns. Here, too, there was an end to furs and tweeds, and a resort to the cool white duck and simple muslins worn in Bomba v.

Not even the most enthusiasic Karachi resident would call this city of the future, beautiful. But everyone who has visited Karachi has experienced its buoyant spirit and joyous hospitality, and those characteristics were imparted to its welcome of their Royal High-

nesses on the last stage of their tour The streets blossomed into the usual display of bunting, and the whole station gathered in the “pandal” for the formal reception of the Royal visitors. Karachi pays the penalty of its newness and prosperity in possessing few of the ethnological and distinctive features that lend colour and life to other parts of India; and in all this and the large assemblage, there was nothing to arrest the eye but the venerable figure

of the Mir of Khairpur, who brought a whiff of those fierce swordsmen’s battles that won for Britain the possession of Sind; and the inverted top hats peculiar to the province which must have been devised in a spirit of caricature. In Quetta the address of the .Municipality brought forcibly before their Royal Highnesses the transformation wrought by a quarter of a century of British rule. The same story was unfolded at Karachi, though as the tranquillising forces have been longer at work, and the soil was more suitable, the results have been proportionately

greater. Already Karachi can claim to have exported in a single year thirteen hundred thousand tons of wheat as the result of the Irrigation Policy pursued in the Punjab and Sind. The works now in progress in the "Land of the Five Rivers” will create these new' colonies —the Upper Jhehnn, the Upper Chenab and the Lower Bari Doab—and when these are completed, funds will probably be found for the Sind-Sagar Doad Scheme, with its barrage across

the mighty Indus. So that in the course of a decade Karachi is destined to grow into ufe of the biggest grain ports in the world. The final official act of the Prince was the unveiling of the Sind Memorial to Queen Victoria. The Sind Memorial is a white marble statue of the EmpressQueen wearing her widow’s veil, and the Imperial crown and robes of State, and holding in her hands the sceptre and the orb. On each side of the plinth are carved projecting ships’ bows emblematic of Naval supremacy. At the feet of the pedestal are statues in bronze, the

principal group representing India approaching Justice and Peaee. At the rear of the pedestal an allegorical figure of a woman, heavily draped and bending to her work, is depicted as pouring water from an urn upon the soil, whilst behind her there spring up luxuriant vegetation and the fruits of the earth. This typifies the fertilising action of the Indus on which Sind depends for its sustenance. Upon these lines the sculp tor. Mr. Ilamo Thorneyeroft. has pro dueed a work of singular beauty and grace.

The Prince and Princess of Wales' farewell to India on Monday, March 19. two days later, was marked by a simple and unaffected cordiality. His Royal Highness inspected the 1.30 th Baluchis, of which he is the Honorary Colonel. Then he held by command of his Majesty the King-Emperor, the Investiture, at which well-merited honours were bestowed upon those most directly responsible for the smooth running of the complex arrangements for the Royal Tour. Then there was a quiet hour or two to complete the arrangements for the departure. and the sun was declining, and a soft, cool breeze blowing from the sea, when the Prince and Princess of Wales set out on their last State drive in India.

The Renown was lying off the wharf at Kiatm ri. and those ke nly interested in the welfare of the port derived no little satisfaction from the fact that this was the first time since her keel furrowed Indian waters that the battleship yacht was brought up alongside the quay. There were gathered all the principal residents of Sind and those who were specially deputed to bid farewell to the Royal visitors. Escorted bv a smart detachment of

Jacob’s Horse, and through reads lined by the soldierly troops in the Karachi garrisons, their Royal Highnesses drove the four miles to Kiamari. There they bade a cordial farewell to all specially assembled to speed them. They shook hands with the Port Commissioners, and bowing to the right and to the left, passed through a lane of people to the Renown. There was a delay of half an hour whilst farewells were said to the immediate entourage, amongst which was stout Sir Pratab Singh, come from Idar to pay his homage. Then the boatswains’ pipes sounded, the moorings were cast off, and with the Prince of Wales’ flag as Master of Trinity House, at the fore, and his own standard at the main, the white-hulled battleship began to move through the water. The band struck up the National Anthem, and cheer after cheer went up from the quay. The last glimpse India had of the Prince and Princess of Wales was of his Hoyal Highness, in undress naval uniform, with a telescope tucked under his arm. saluting. Her Royal Highness, in natty white serge, and holding binoculars, bowing her adieux. Lord Lamington put the prevailing thought in words when, from the R.T.M.S. Dufferin, which followed the Renown to sea. he signalled this farewell message: —

On behalf of Bombay Presidency I beg to express regret at the termination of a visit which will ever live in the recollections of the people as a joyous memory, and which, marked by your Royal Highnesses* kindly interest and graciousness,, will have attached them more than ever to the Throne of His Majesty the KingEmperor. I respectfully wish your Royal Highnesses a good voyage, and a most happy return Home.