Durbar No. 2

Indians, who could not be expected to understand why St. Gandhi was jailed "during His Majesty's pleasure," then feted at Buckingham Palace, then jailed a second time "during His Majesty's pleasure," were barred last week from beholding the newsreel Gandhi Meets The King.

Another kind of show--the kind anyone can understand--was provided by Viceroy & Lady Willingdon. Having pitched their golden thrones and held a durbar near the frontier of Afghanistan (TIME, May 2), they pitched thrones again last week and held another durbar in British Baluchistan, adjoining Persia. To do homage to Their Excellencies hundreds of Baluch nomads rushed out of mud-walled huts, sprang to horse and to camel and greeted the Vice-regal procession as Benito Mussolini or oldtime Amerindians would have done-- with right arm outstretched. On the high-road to Kalat, capital of the native states of Baluchistan, Lord Willingdon noted with approval a sign To London, 5,877 Miles.

Small girls strewed rose leaves sticky with perfume ahead of the Viceregal motor as it purred through the streets of Quetta, British Baluchistan's capital. Bearded merchants strewed Oriental rugs, hastily retrieving them once they had been run over by the Viceregal tires. Under a great canopy on the Quetta race course the thrones had been pitched, and there the durbar began.

"Kalat differs from the other states of the Indian Empire," said Lord Willingdon from his Throne, "in that it is a confederacy of nomad tribes, closely akin to the khanates of Central Asia and the emirates of Arabia." This being so, His Excellency voiced special pleasure in greeting on behalf of George V and installing on the Kalat Throne a tall, white-robed nomad who advanced majestically and was hailed by the Viceroy with his full name and rank, "Mir Azam Jang Khan, Wali of Kalat and Khan of the Brahui Confederacy."

After the durbar the Khan showed the Viceroy his stud farm at Mastung. Thence Lord & Lady Willingdon hastened back east to their capital, New Delhi.

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