Tongan Prince’s Informative World Tour

WHEN Tugi, Crown Prince of Tonga, left Sydney for Suva, by air on August 14, he had circumnavigated the world, and gathered an extraordinary amount of practical information for the assistance of his vigorous little kingdom—all within the space of 10 weeks.

He left Tonga by air for the United States in June. He then flew south to the West Indies and spent some very profitable days at the Imperial College of Tropical Agri culture.

He glanced at some of America’s problems in tropical industries, and then he crossed the Atlantic, to be the guest of the British Govern ment at the Festival of Britain.

As a student of mankind, an ardent agriculturist, and the future ruler of a one-economy State, Prince Tugi spent some extremely interesting days in and around London. He made the most of his many opportunities of meeting top level representatives from Britain’s innumerable colonies and protec torates —and many of the latter, doubtless, were impressed by the knowledge and vision of the young Polynesian leader from faraway Tonga.

Returning, Prince Tugi travelled to Sydney by the Mediterranean- India air route; and again he made the most of his chances on this— his first world tour —to acquire new knowledge and a wider outlook.

He stopped for a few days in Ceylon, to examine that young nation’s highly expert methods of dealing with the products of the coconut palm. He came away with a book full of notes on the desi ccating of coconut, and the widen ing uses of the once useless coir fibre.

He broke his journey again in Singapore, where he had a quick look at some of the tronical indus tries which bring wealth to that Asiatic cosmopolis.

He did not stay 24 hours in Sydney, although it was here that he was for so long a student—he gradu ated from Sydney University. But he found time to greet a few old friends, and hear the latest news of the Islands. (When travelling by air, in this quick-moving age. one is always one hon ahead of the news.) Chatting shyly to reporters after his arrival at Sydney airport, the Prince remarked that he had been impressed by the wav thev worked

elephants in Ceylon—and, he added, whimsically, that if he could get a couple of elephants brought to Tonga he might be able to do with out one or two tractors. Within three hours, the startled traveller found himself front-page news.

“Prince Proposes to Bring Elephants from Ceylon to Tonga,” howled the headlines!

That evening, in his hotel, Tugi was interviewed by a morning paper reporter. He evaded questions on birth-control and grass skirts, which he quite shrewdly judged were loaded, and talked quietly and informatively about the develop ment of new tropical industries, and the remarkable evolution of the African negro in the field of

colonialism. But there was not s word about it in the morning paper Prince Tugi now knows a little more about the ways of modern journalism.

Tugi missed, by a few hours, the Right Hon. John Dugdale, Britisb Minister of State, who arrived in Sydney on August 14, after having visited Fiji, Tonga and Nev; Hebrides.