BEHIND THE SCENES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 612, 1 March 1921, Page 3

BEHIND THE SCENES.

THE PRINCE’S TOUR. THE DIARY OF THE RENOWN. Murder will out. The magazine of H.M.S. Renown, covering the visit of the Prince of Wales to Australia, has crept into type. Those who read it may philosophise upon whether it is always pleasant to see ourselves as others see us. Auckland one might briefly describe as poor, but happy, and very ready to help us to be happy, too; Wellington, solemn and restrained, and inclined to regard with grave suspicion any attempt on anybody’s part to overstep its bounds of propriety to the slighest degree ; Christchurch, also poor and happy, but suffering a little from British reserve; Melbourne, wealthy and friendly, but with a restraint probably due to our own realisation of the wealth that made our wonderful reception and entertainmnt possible.”

‘‘Sydney, business-like and a little cold, but full of possibilities ; Adelaide, rich and friendly. The latter to a greater degree all round than anywhere else, and very hospitable. Hobart was like none of the above. Its keynote seemed to be a complete and delightful absence of restraint, which enabled us to enjoy our short four days there to the very full. Thus the magazine, edited by Commander Hugh R. Rogers, 0.8. E., but apparently mainly written by Lieut.Com. Charles H. Rolleston, who has since retired from the service.

Crisp and Chippy. A crisper, chippier, less orthodox record of an official tour of the heir to the throne written by the men who accompanied him, has not been penned. It might perhaps best be entitled “The Prince in Mufti,” instead of “H.M.S. Renown in Australasia,” but this again would not be wholly fair, because it would father on the Prince opinions which lie presumably, nay probably, does not share, although he wrote the editor : “I wish all success to the Renown magazine recounting my tour.” The publication opens frivolously and Puckishly with a series of questions entitled "Things we want to know.” Here are a few : Who was the aged citizen of Auckland who asked the officer of the watch to come and have a drink in his own mess ? Who was the lady who offered to judge a certain officer’s character by the pictures in his cabin ? And was it done ?t Who said, “Has he come up to the scratch yet ? And what was the answer ? • \ Who caused the dash for the chicken run one afternoon at Melbourne? Whose baby was it? Was the hunting good in Melbourne ? What happened when Frankie went out without her umbrella %

Is there any champagne left in Sydnev?

The Dance on the Table. Harking back a fortnight, Melbourne comes through the magazine with far fewer blemishes than Sydney. It would appear that the Renown’s officers exhausted their exuberance in the city where “women and girls became absolutely hysterical about the Prince.” But when the Prince was by medical advice compelled to temporarily discontinue his public activities, there seems to have been a speeding up in the excitements of the warship and its gallant staff. Referring to one of the midnight levels the writer says : “Those who were there at the end will never forget the ham and egg party in the wardroom afterwards. Those who were left just filled the two big tables, and, as the eggs were a little slow in appearing, someone started throwing bread about, and a firstclass ‘rag’ was soon in progress. Bread and nuts were hurling through the air, and everyone was nearly sick with laughing. Then someone started a poi dance on one table, and the girls promptly started an opposition ' one on the other table. The captain and Billyard Leake gave us a Maori “haka” with great success,

and the evening’ reluctantly ended somewhere about 3.30 a.m., while one of the girls was still struggling with a fork which had been put down the back of her dress, and which she was eventually obliged to ‘souvenir.’ ” Prince Dresses Up. “Not all the parties we went to ended in quite so light-hearted a manner; but there was lots of fun at the last we attended ashore, when H.R.H. Mountbatten, and two of the girls ransacked a wardrobe, and the Prince of Wales appeared in a pair of very big tennis boots, the trousers turned up nearly to his knees, an enormous blue flannel coat that

must have belonged to a man weighing about 16 stone, and a squash hat also too big for him. Mountbatten appeared in dressing-gown that top-hat, and the two girls got themselves up very cleverly in gipsy rigs improvised with coloured handkerchiefs and aprons. H.R.H. ‘hoped nobody minded.’ The same party ended with somewhat of a scrap, too, and several of our white ties were considerably the worse for wear at the end.”