A VISIT TO THE VICEROY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 210, 2 July 1943, Page 4

A VISIT TO THE VICEROY

Viceroy of India is to be a professional soldier — Field Marshal Wavell. He will be raised to the peerage and sent to relieve Lord Linlithgow in October, taking a position which frequently requires him to make decisions affecting the life and destiny of over 350,000,000 people-nearly one fifth of the population of the world. ee the first time since 1858 the The Field-Marshal will go to live in the vast luxurious palace which caused the Duke of Windsor (then Prince of Wales) to sign in the visitors’ book: "Now I know what it is to live like a King."

In order to be able to tell its readers how the Viceroy of India lives, New York Life sent a reporter and a photographer to his palace two years ago. The reporter was William Fisher, whose cable from New Delhi began as follows: "American Correspondents at a Delhi press conference asked an _ Indian leader what he would do if he were Viceroy." "‘T would commit suicide’ he replied." Then Fisher describes a day with The Marquess of Linlithgow (Victor Alexander John Hope), and we reproduce some passages. "In the early morning, almost before the sun had

expelled the last vestiges of night from the courtyards of his fabulous palace, the Viceroy, is astir. . . . Outside, in the labyrinths of the Mogul Garden, silvery columns of water splash in marble basins. Bugles sound in the distance and the ViceRegal Guard-Sikhs carrying spears,and mounted on splendid chargers — is changing at the gate. "Before or After" "His Excellency never receives the Press en masse, but he grants interviews individually. Arriving slightly before the appointed time, you are ushered in to the aides’ room. An attentive young man asks you if you will have your drink before or after the interview. Whisky and soda, quickly dispensed in a handy little bar, is supposed to fortify slightly shaky minor officials seeing the Viceroy for the first time." The present Viceroy tells the story of his christening, when the minister, forgetting that the family name was Hope, said in his address: "The world is full of blasted hopes." This Hope is tall and athletic, and his wife, who is six feet tall, towers above most of her husband’s subjects. The palace at New Delhi, designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and opened in 1931, has six miles of corridors, and no airconditioning. On top of its pillars are bells, and when the architect was asked why, he is alleged to have replied: "You will know why on the day the British leave India." Meanwhile over an archway in the secretariat is inscribed: "Liberty will not descend to a people;

a people must raise themselves to Liberty." : Jonah, a Pet Turtle But the thing that interested Life’s photographer was at the other end of the scale from all the pomp and display for which the palace was designed. It was the Viceroy’s pet turtle, found alive in the stomach of a fish Lord Linlithgow caught, and christened by him Jonah. Life printed a photograph of the Viceroy feeding worms to Jonah and saying to the photographer, "What would the S.P.C.A. say to this?"

When Mahatma Gandhi last visited the Viceroy at the Palace (shortly before his arrest in 1942) he ended by asking to be allowed one more request-to see Jonah. It was granted, by a Viceroy who has remained on good terms with Gandhi throughout all their political turmoil. William Fisher goes on to describe a luncheon with the Linlithgows: "After an aide has asked everybody to step over to one side, the doors fly open and the Viceroy and Vicereine enter. Their Excellencies pass along the line and shake hands with everybody, and then lead their guests into the dining room. ... The Viceroy sits at one side of a long table in the dark panelled room, with Lady Linlithgow opposite him. As a war economy, the vice-regal luncheons are simple-either soup or fish, one meat course, and dessert. In the drawing room after lunch an aide takes each guest over to the Viceroy for a talk lasting five or ten minutes." The Simple Life The life the Vice-regal family leads is equally simple. Two sons are at the war (one a prisoner of war), and two daughters live in New Delhi, one studying nursing, another typing at Naval Head- quarters. Lady Linlithgow paints, gardens, and is interested in music, ... "As a matter of course," writes Fisher, "the family eschews the more cavernous sections of the palace, such as the great reception rooms, the ballroom, resplendont with murals depicting Indian pageantry, and the great rotunda of Durbar Hall with its two red and gold thrones,

With an eye to the food situation in Delhi, Lady Linlithgow determined a short while ago to plough up part of the golf course and plant vegetables ... the elaborate entertainments which used to characterise Vice-regal life are now mostly omitted, though a bang-up affair was given during Generalissimo Chiang-Kai-shek’s visit in 1942." As It Used To Be Something of the nature of the tradition which has been interrupted by Fi

-~ CUMIDSLANCES, alu | tee) shed by ‘the inclination of the Vice regai family, may be gathered from the account given by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts (in Fortyone Years in India) of the grand tour of Lord Canning. It had been announced in 1858 that the Queen had taken over the Government of India, hitherto held in trust by the Honourable East India Company, and her representative was forthwith to be styled "Viceroy and Governor-General of India." "With the object of emphasising this proclamation," says Lord Roberts, Lord Canning undertook a grand tour: "The camp equipage was in duplicate, so that everyone on arriving at the new halting place found things exactly the same as in the tents they had left... . The camp occupied a considerable space, for in addition to the Viceroy’s large entourage, ground had to be provided for the Commander-in-Chief and the officers of Army Headquarters. ... Then there were the post-office, telegraph, workshops, commissariat, and a host of other offices to be accommodated, besides the escort which consisted of a battery. of HorseArtillery, a squadron of British cavalry, a regiment of British infantry, a regiment of native cavalry, a regiment of native infantry, and the Viceroy’s bodyguard ... 80 elephants and 1000 camels were required, 500 bullocks and 100 bullock carts . . . 40 sowari (riding) elephants, 527 coollies to carry the glass windows belonging to the larger tents, 100 bhisties, and 40 sweepers for watering and keeping the centre street clean.