12 MARCH 1954, Page 7

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

IASKED a man who was in a position to know the answer what were the chief differences between the Antipodean tour carried out 27 years ago by the Duke and Duchess of ork and that now being undertaken by their daughter. He might that there was probably not much to choose between em as tests of endurance. Because she can take to the air, the Queen covers greater distances and sees more of the country 1 an her parents did; but she has been largely spared the very exacting motor-drives over fairly primitive roads which were an ts"Lae,ting feature of the 1927 tour. Apart from that, the weekly ':141 of ceremonies performed, banquets eaten, mayors thanked and Children waved to was roughly the same in the last genera- rini as it has been in this. When the Queen comes home in May, it will be impossible to prevent—and nobody would wish l') prevent—her subjects from giving her a rapturous welcome. ut tours of the Commonwealth are likely during her reign to become a matter of routine, and there is something to be said , r, trying to get the people to view them in this perspective. ' doubt, however, if anyone. will succeed in doing this.