Meeting With Premier Of Nepal Kingdom

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 28, 4 December 1950, Page 2

Meeting With Premier Of Nepal Kingdom

From N. S. Lawrence, Wellington Nepal is an independent kingdom situated over the north-east fronti of India. This little kingdom is before the public’s eye because of the endeavour to wrest the almost absolute power of the Prime Minister and his family and restore a similar power to the youthful king, The Prime Ministers of Nepal have ruled the country for over 100 years and have since the Gurkha War been loyal allies of Britain, Even before an alliance was made it was an unexpected Gui’kha force direct from Nepal that turned the tide at the seige of Delhi during the Indian Mutiny in the favour of the British. I well remember meeting the predecessor of the presenta Prime Minister, which in Nepal is a hereditary post passing from father to son, or uncle to nephew. It was just after World War I, and I was magistrate of a district on the Indian-Nepa] frontier. I was to receive him with the deference, as might be expected by an ally of Britain who had during World War I 100,000 countrymen who served with the Indian Army under British officers. Honorary Major-General Maharajah Sir Sri Shum Sheer Jung Bhahadur duly arrived. Prepared for something unusual 1 admit to being astonished at his clothing. He was a small man, blackbearded, with sharp penetrating eyes. He arrived astride a pony of about 13 hands, and he was wearing British brown brogue shoes over which peeped a pair of violet socks, jodhpur trousers of white silk draped with the tail of a pink shirt, a black satin coat with gold or silver buttons, the whole being surmounted by a full-dress British general’s staff cap with its red band and gold insignia.

In conversation he began talking about football, a game which is taught to all Gurkha troops, and I asked him, on the return of the 'Nepali regiments to Nepal, would they carry on their football. He said it was to be regretted b’ut therte was not any land in Nepal level enough to play football on, with the exception of the ground in front of the King’s palace in Khatmandu, but this was occupied all day in a perpetual “march past” of the King’s bodyguard. The Gurkha trops are Nepalese who come from the dictrict of Gurkha. During the two wars the drain was so great that other Nepalese were recruited and loosely termed Gurkhas. There are five or six battalions of Gurghas serving in’the newly constituted Indian Army, while other battalions are serving the British Raj in Malaya and on other fronts.