CO885-11 — Page 450

Eastern

No. 151.

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.

447

Confidential.

MALDIVE ISLANDS.

Visit of Sir H. J. Stanley, K.C.M.G. (Governor of Ceylon and its Dependencies) to the SULTAN of the Maldives, October, 1928.

COLONIAL OFFICE,

FEBRUARY, 1929.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

mmmmm.C.O.882/11 །།།།།།

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDONPage 451

Visit of Sir H. J. Stanley, K.C.M.G. (Governor of Ceylon and its Dependencies) to the Sultan of the Maldives.

C. 53458/28 [No. 4].

No. 1.

443

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 5th November, 1928.)

(Confidential.)

SIR,

On Tour, Ceylon, 13th October, 1928. WITH reference to your Confidential telegram of the 14th September,* I have the honour to submit to you the following account of my recent visit to the Sultan of the Maldives.

2. I embarked in H.M.S. Effingham-Captain P. Macnamara, R.N.--on Saturday afternoon, the 29th September, accompanied by my private secretaries, Mr. M. E. Antrobus and Mr. R. C. Byng. The Naval Commander-in-Chief was good enough also to give a passage to E. Abdul Hamid Didi Effendi, the Maldivian Repre- H.M.S. Effingham sentative in Ceylon, who throughout my visit acted as interpreter.

sailed from Colombo at 6.0 p.m. flying the Vice-Admiral's flag at the foremast and the flag of the Governor of Ceylon at the mainmast. In view of the contents of your above-mentioned telegram, the latter flag was only flown within the territorial waters of Ceylon and the Maldive Islands.

3. H.M.S. Effingham, steaming at about ten knots, reached Malé or Sultan's Island at about 11.0 a.m. on the 1st October and anchored inside the lagoon about a mile from the shore; it was at the time raining heavily and the sea was disturbed for small craft. Prior to anchoring, H.M.S. Effingham hoisted the Maldivian flag and fired a salute of twenty-one guns; after a short interval a shore battery hauled down its Maldivian flag, hoisted a Union Jack, and returned the salute. I understand that as a matter of correct procedure such a salute of the national flag should have been answered forthwith gun for gun, but I am confident that the delay was not due to any conscious disrespect.

4. Shortly afterwards E. Abdul Majid Didi Effendi, Bodu Baderi Manikufanu (Chief Treasurer and Acting Prime Minister) and E. Ahmad' Didi, Kuda Dorimena Kilegefanu, Farumetu-veri, (Principal Collector of Customs and Private Secretary to His Highness the Sultan), accompanied by the Harbour Master came on board in a government boat manned by eighteen smart-looking and efficient oarsmen. They They were had a very wet and uncomfortable journey both to and from the ship. received on board by my Private Secretary who arranged with them the time at which His Highness the Sultan should come on board to pay his calls upon myself and the Naval Commander-in-Chief, and the times at which the Admiral and I, respectively, should land to return his calls; owing to the inordinate slowness of communications between Ceylon and the Islands it had not been possible to settle all the details of the programme in advance.

5. It was arranged that His Highness should pay his call upon myself at 2.0 p.m., but it was after 3.0 p.m. when he arrived. I understand that he keeps unusual hours; he normally rises at 5.0 p.m., eats his one meal of the day at 7.30 p.m., spends the whole of the night indulging in Hindustani music with his favourite attendants and his son, and goes to bed in the morning. There appears to have been some difficulty in securing his emergence at a relatively early hour of the afternoon. The delay was perhaps fortunate, and the very wet and impleasant weather moderated as the day went on.

6. A salute was fired by a battery as His Highness walked down from his palace to the jetty to embark in his state barge. This fine boat, which was built at Colombo, was propelled by twelve oarsmen dressed in white, with red fez caps, and was escorted by two long gigs. His Highness was accompanied by the Acting Prime Minister, the Private Secretary, Captain Mahomet Farid Didi, son of the Acting Prime Minister, in command of the Guard, the two Khatebs or Chief Muslim high priests, and several other nobles. They were plainly dressed in coats and sarongs hat the Sultan himself wore a long, richly-flowered, greenish under-garment covered by a long robe of blue silk. hordered in gold silk at the edge and at the cuffa, gold brocade slippers with turn-up toes, and on his head a white fagudi, or turban, terminating in a small spike- like ornament of gold. He was attended by a train-bearer, an official who held over him a large circular fan of peacock feathers, and a servant or guard with a sword and circular red shield. On the barge there were also two attendants who held large white umbrellas over the cabin in which the Sultan and his party sat; these umbrellas, * C. 53458/28 [No. 2]: Not printed.