again in Tonga

It was a case of "old friends" meeting again in Tonga

From SIO MAG I SI, in Nukualofa

Riding along the Nukualofa

waterfront road on my motor cycle at 7.30 a.m. Saturday, March 7, I see hundreds of Ton gans in their Sunday best

scurrying about excitedly, many

peering rather expectantly into a dark rainy horizon.

It is today that Queen Elizabeth 11, the Duke of Edinburgh and their daughter Princess Anne are visiting us.

As my motorcycle drones lazily through the drizzle, I glance right at the waterfront residence of the Premier, Prince Tuipelehake, and I see him in night clothes looking to wards the sea from a small verandah, I couldn’t help wondering if King Taufa’ahau himself was not looking also from his palace chair through his powerful Japanese binoscopes, for the Britannia.

Tonga indeed stands ready to greet the royal visitors in grand style. All last night thousands of Tongans slept hardly a wink, what with all the last minute preparations for feasting, street decorations, whitewashing the main streets and cleaning up the lawns and so on.

Happy to help

But to the casual visitor the people appear happy doing these things, as if they were for themselves. Tongans seem to the outsider to rally round quite gladly to preparing such things as State feasts—without being paid for providing livestock and other food as well as labour.

Later at 9.30 I am standing on Queen Salote Wharf with about 30 other correspondents and photo graphers. The English Queen, Prince Philip and Princess Anne walk down the gangway and are greeted by the 6 ft 4 in., 300 lb-plus King Taufa’ahau, and Queen Halaevalu Mata’aho, Prince Tuipelehake and other Tongan royalty.

The scene is one of old friends meeting again, but a more obvious fact is how diminutive Queen Eliza beth, and even the duke, look beside the Tongan king.

The Queen inspects a Tongan De-

, , f . fence Force guard-of-honour in jungle green and black here s i wonder why can t we greet England s Queen with children singing and dancing with flowers in their hair.

Instead I see policemen and army officers everywhere.

This is not Polynesian, all this chin-up-chest-out stuff. Yet I suppose the police have a job to do, and no one can guarantee that something won’t happen, although if the visitors

are safe anywhere in the world, surely it is in Tonga.

The fleet of official cars (and police vehicles) is moving to go out on the country drive. They arrive at Captain Cook’s landing place at ’Alaki and the royal visitors see demonstrations of Tongan tapa-making and mat weaving. The Queen officially un covers a plaque in memory of the great navigator. The people look elated at seeing the visitors.

We drive on to the Ha’amonga trilithon, where hundreds of Tongans are sitting meekly on the ground watching almost in awe. A huge wooden staircase is hauled up and Tonga’s giant king ascends with his guests while the crowd crane their necks beyond the pen for a closer look.

King Taufa’ahau points to a set of markings on the crosspiece of the trilithon, and then points in other directions, obviously explaining his theory that the stone was anciently used to determine the seasons. The Duke seems to be the most interested.

We newsmen are kept so far away that we can’t see what’s going on.

30,000 children

Royalty sit down to good old morning tea in a shelter decorated with fine mats and greenery. The Press are dismayed, they are still too far away.

Then the drive back to town. All the way out and all the way in we

see about 30,000 Tongan school children and adults waving excitedly.

When our Press buses pass by, they seem to get a great kick out of seeing us, and boo us accordingly. We don’t mind, and we all laugh and wave back.

Back in Nukualofa, gaiety fills the air and it is indeed a great sight seeing polas or trays of sucking pigs, chicken, yams, kumalas, watermelons, pineapples—even sweets and cigar ettes on some—and great people sitting down to eat. It was not so great having to take pictures from inside a Press pen. After much pro testing, we are allowed to step out for about three minutes to take pic tures of royalty sitting down to eat.

We are then hustled back into our pen.

What impressed me most, as a Tongan, about the Queen’s visit was the perfect timing of events—exactly according to the programmed times, a rather un-Tongan feature.

But it was a hard day for news men. It was also a hard day for villagers, one of whom told me: “Have a few more affairs like this, kill more pigs and so on and the people’s backs will be fractured for good.”

Waterfront fires

Twice that night before the Britannia sailed for Wellington, thousands of schoolchildren lit fires along the Nukualofa waterfront, giving it a fairy-tale air. The police conveniently turned a blind eye to buses carrying the children, their parents and others, back to their homes after midnight. Sunday laws normally prohibit this.

But British royalty was paying us a visit—old friends were meeting again in Tonga—and the occasion was special.

• Royal pictures, p. 53.