Happier In The Open

. +J T ri ? ce , P7li7i P t>esran Tiis tour of the BSIP sitting m me back seat of an enclosed luxury sedan—but he finished it happily standing in the front seat of an open Land Rover.

The car was provided for him at Honiara the morning of his arrival at the capital (after first visit ing Gizo). After the Royal Barge had brought him ashore at Point Cruz for a short official reception at the wharf, he was driven around the perimeter of the port area, past the crowd, to Government House.

It wasn’t easy to see him in the back of that big car, and about the only people who really had a close view of the Duke that first hour of his arrival were about 150 who were given seats in a stand next to the official dais. But nobody need have worried about the future. The Duke himself apparently wrote finis to the all-enclosing luxury travel.

For the next function, the Royal visit to Ruaniu plantation, everyone was quick to notice that the Duke travelled contrary to arrangements—not in a car in the centre of the procession, but in an open Land Rover at the head of it!

He kept to Land Rover travel for the rest of his Islands tour, including his visit to the GEIC (at left he is at Tarawa, just departing from a welcome at the sports field ; below he is at Honiara, just after arrival). And everyone, everywhere, was delighted to see so much of him.