CHAPTER XIX.
The Empire Tour of the New Heir to the Throne
If Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, had been enabled at different times in his career to visit various portions of his future realms and to create influences and receive impulses which have told for good in the upbuilding of the British Empire, his son and heir was destined to make a tour in 1901 which was still more impressive in character and influential in import. The single visits of the Prince of Wales to India and Canada were made in days when they partook of an almost pioneer character, and they were chiefly important in moulding crude opinions into a more matured and organized form. The tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York was, on the other hand, a result of clearly developed conditions of Colonial power; an embodiment of existing aspirations toward Empire unity; an expression of the loyalty existing between Mother Country and the Colonies and toward the Crown and British institutions.
ORIGIN OF THE TOUR
It was on September 17th, 1900, that the Colonial Office first announced the assent of Her Majesty the Queen to the request presented by the combined Australian Colonies that H. R. H. the Duke of York should open their newly-established Parliament in the spring of 1901. It was stated in this announcement that "Her Majesty at the same time wishes to signify her sense of the loyalty and devotion which have prompted the spontaneous aid so liberally offered by all the Colonies in the South African war and of the splendid gallantry of her Colonial troops." After the death of the Queen it was feared that the time might not be considered opportune for so distant a journey by the Heir to the Throne, but on February 14th, 1901, the King announced in his speech to Parliament that the proposed Australian trip would not be abandoned, and that it would be extended to the Dominion of Canada. "I still desire to give effect to her late Majesty's wishes * * * as an evidence of her interest, as well as my own, in all that concerns the welfare of my subjects beyond the seas."
FROM PORTSMOUTH TO MELBOURNE
As finally constituted the Royal suite consisted of H. S. H. Prince Alexander of Teck, brother of the Duchess; Lord Wenlock, a former Governor of Madras; Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, so well known as the Private Secretary for many years of the late Queen Victoria; Sir John Anderson, a prominent official of the Colonial Office; Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, the eminent journalist and author; Captain, the Viscount Crichton, and Lieutenant, the Duke of Roxburghe, who acted as Military Aides; the Hon. Derek Keppel and Commander Sir Charles Cust, R.N., who acted as Equerries; the Rev. Canon Dalton as Chaplain; Commander Godfrey-Tansell, R.N., A.D.C., and Major J. H. Bor, A.D.C.; Lady Mary Lygon, Lady Catharine Coke and Mrs. Derek Keppel as Ladies-in-Waiting to the Duchess. Chevalier de Martino, a marine artist; Mr. Sidney Hall and Dr. A. R. Manby were also attached to the staff. On March 7th the Duke of York—who had now become also Duke of Cornwall—left Portsmouth accompanied by his wife and his large suite to make a nine-months' tour of the Empire; to cover a distance of 50,000 miles by sea and shore under the British flag; and to meet with varied experiences and an enthusiasm of popular welcome which stamped the whole journey as the most remarkable Royal progress on record.
Three days after leaving Portsmouth the Ophir, which was commanded by Commander A. L. Winslow, most luxuriously fitted up and accompanied by H. M. S. Juno and the St. George, sighted the coast of Portugal, sailed into sunny waters off the shores at Lisbon and reached Gibraltar on March 13th, where the Royal visitors were welcomed by General Sir George White, of Ladysmith fame, and who had been Governor for about a year. From the Rock the Ophir was escorted by two other ships of the Royal Navy to Malta, where Admiral Sir John Fisher and the Mediterranean fleet helped to render the welcome interesting and imposing, and from thence to Port Said and through the Suez Canal to Aden. Here a picturesque reception was given to the Duke and Duchess in a pavilion festooned with lights and filled with Indian and Arab ladies in robes of silks, officers in white uniforms, the Sultans of two tributary States and their dusky retinues. Surrounded by a guard of honour from the West Kent Regiment, with towering mountains of brown lava in the distance, and with groups of Somalis, Arabs, Hindoos and Seedees gazing at "the great lord of the seas," the Prince received an address of welcome. From here, through sweltering days and heated nights, the Royal yacht traversed the Indian Ocean until Ceylon—"the pearl set in sapphires and crowned with emeralds"—was reached on April 12th.
At Colombo, amidst a revel of Oriental colour and a luxurious waste of Eastern vegetation; with guards composed of planters in kharki, Bombay Lancers in turbans, and Lascoreen troops in crimson and gold; surrounded by dense crowds of dancing and shouting natives, His Royal Highness received the official welcome of the Legislature and Municipal Councils and the Chamber of Commerce. Thence the Royal party proceeded inland to Kandy, winding their way upward through an exquisite mountain region where the fantastic shapes and eternal green of the mountain sides and the valleys and the gorges gleamed and radiated with colour from a myriad tropical trees, gorgeous orchids, climbing lilies and enormous ferns. The town itself was a bower of beauty, and here the visitors saw the Temple of the Tooth, which is an object of adoration to hundreds of millions in Burmah, China and India; the procession of the Elephants—a weird portion of the Buddhist ritual; the devil dancers, who excel the Dervishes of the Soudan in the fantastic nature of their antics. On the succeeding day the Duke received an address from the planters of the Island, enclosed in a beautiful coffer of ivory; presented colours to the Ceylon Mounted Infantry, and medals to men who had returned from South Africa; and in the evening held a Durbar, at which the native Chiefs were presented.
A WILD SEA OF EASTERN COLOR