BELGIUM: Zoology

• Share

Certain that they were doing the right, the proper and, indeed, the only possible thing last week, several British officials sorely irked Belgian King Albert.

His Majesty, desiring to fly to the Belgian Congo, had booked an ordinary ticket on a British Imperial Airways liner. "And I want it understood," he told the British booking clerk, "that there are to be no special arrangements whatever."

There were special arrangements from one end of Mother Nile to the other. Wherever the big British bird alighted for a few minutes to leave a passenger or pick up mail, in popped a Briton to felicitate and annoy King Albert. At Wady Haifa a small special British launch took His Majesty off the air liner promptly, but other passengers waited a long while for the company's big launch. When they were brought ashore at last, there stood King Albert royally rampant.

"I want to apologize to you all!" heatedly exclaimed His Majesty. "I am sorry you had to wait, due it seems to special consideration shown to myself. There will be no more incidents of this kind."

On again next day flew the British bird. Suddenly, to His Majesty's further annoyance, three British Air Force fighting planes appeared, escorted the Imperial Airways liner safely to Butiaba. There, with a British band blaring "La Brabanconne" and "God Save the King" a right hearty British welcome was extended by His Excellency the Governor of Uganda, Sir William Cowers.

When Cowers had done his duty as Cowers saw it. King Albert embarked in a chartered steamer upon Lake Albert, sailed away into his Congo. On his steamer he took a Belgian engineer & wife who had missed the regular boat.

In his Congo, zoologically-minded King Albert will spend a fortnight inspecting the Albert National Park, a mighty game preserve of 825,000 acres conceived by His Majesty when, as Crown Prince in 1899, he visited Yellowstone National Park. The present Crown Prince Leopold and Crown Princess Astrid of Belgium were in the Philippine Islands last week, doubtless conceived many a notion as they were handsomely feted by new, carabao-shooting Governor General Theodore Roosevelt.