Queen Elizabeth II Meets Queen Salote: The Royal Visit in Tonga
From November 1953 until May 1954, Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, embarked on an extensive tour of the Commonwealth countries. Let us join the Queen as she sees her people in the far-flung areas of the British Commonwealth.
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| A banquet for about two thousand people was hosted by Queen Salote in honour of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Image from Royal Overseas League |
Salote Toupou III reigned as Queen of Tonga from 1918 until her death in 1965. She reigned for nearly 48 years, making her the longest reigning monarch in the history of Tonga. At the height of World War II, she rallied her island-kingdom and declared war on Germany in 1940. In 1941, she declared war against Japan after the latter bombed Pearl Harbour. She placed Tonga's resources at the disposal of Great Britain and supported the Allied cause throughout the war. Tongan troops were sent to fight the Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands campaign, including on Guadalcanal.
Queen Salote later flew to London in 1953, where she attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In her first and only visit to Europe, the Tongan monarch caught international attention when, amidst a downpour during the coronation procession and when hoods were installed on the carriages, Queen Salote rather rode in an open carriage, which she shared with Sultan Ibrahim IV of Kelantan. Salote's act followed a Tongan custom, which dictates that one should not imitate the actions of persons one is honouring. The deed caught the admiration of spectators.
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| Four-year-old Mele Siuilikutapu, the granddaughter of Queen Salote, presents Queen Elizabeth II with flowers to welcome her to Tonga. |
Two thousand guests at the Tongan reception
Two thousand guests sat down to the feast which climaxed Tonga's reception for Queen Elizabeth II. At the top table with the royal couple was Queen Salote with her family, Crown Prince Tungi and his wife, Princess Mata'aho, and Queen Salote's younger son, Prince Tu'ipelehake and his wife, Princess Melanaite.
They looked on the thousands of guests who ate with their fingers from the piles of food, dipping into finger bowls and using beaten bark table napkins. The food was a week in preparation. It included hundreds of chickens, long lines of roasted sucking pigs stretched out for hundreds of yards, turtles, and fish both raw and baked in leaves over charcoal, lobsters dressed with seasoned coconut milk, root vegetables, freshly boiled crabs, pineapples, banana, papaws, an Tongan sweet dishes. For this grand occasion, Queen Salote has ordered 1,5000 sucking pigs, 350 large pigs, 2,000 chickens, ducks and turkeys and huge quantities of fish, crabs and oysters for the royal feast.
Queen Elizabeth's two-day visit was intimate and purely Tongan because outsiders were not allowed to crowd out the islanders. Intense celebrations came without the need for any crowd control because local custom demands an orderly seating of welcome and all the traditional ceremonies were courteous.
The islanders went to enormous trouble decorating their streets with huge shells and scenes of Tongan life, and erecting a bamboo shelter thick with flowers and fruit where their native queen received Queen Elizabeth II. With typical Polynesian hospitality Queen Salote and her family left Nuku'alofa Palace so that Queen Elizabeth and the Duke could live there. For the duration of the royal visit they stayed at a seaside bungalow.
Queen Salote had the apartments in the palace completely refurnished. The dining room was done in rich gold brocade against a green background and the breakfast room ion a light pale green with touches of gilt. The two-storey palace which is built of lime-washed coral, has five bedrooms upstairs. These were refurnished with flower-patterned linen and cottons in cool shades.
Once the ceremony and feasting of the first few hours in Nukualofa ended the Royal visit to Tonga assumed something of a picnic atmosphere. Less than an hour after the official functions ended, the Duke accompanied by Crown Prince Tungi left Nukualofa for an islet in the lagoon. They swam in deep blue water and, with members of the Royal Household from the Gothic, played beach cricket with a coconut for a ball and a rib of palm leaf as a bat.
In they dined with Queen Salote and other members of the Tongan royal family at the British residency as guests of the British consul and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Windrum. A private dance followed afterwards, attended by about thirty European residents of Nukualofa and members of the noble families of Tonga. All the guests were presented to the Queen but she did not dance. The orchestra consisted of a group of Tongan girls who played guitars. A floor show represented by other Tongan girls included several hulas, one of which was imported from Tahiti. The duke beat time with his feet.
The Queen's second day in Tonga began at 4.30 when four nose-flute players gathered on the verandah beneath her bedroom window. In the humid heat of a South Pacific day, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended morning service in the Free Wesleyan Church. There were more than 2,000 in the congregation of the rough cast church, which is one of the biggest buildings in Tonga. The Queen walked up the aisle with Queen Salote. Most of the service and all the hymns were in the Tongan language. The Duke read the Lesson.
Part of the quiet Sunday that followed the day of feasting and dancing was spent at Queen Salote's estate at Kauvai, 15 miles from the palace. After the combined service in the Wesleyan Church, tyhe royal party returned to the palace to change for a picnic lunch at Kauvai. Before-luncheon swimming at a secluded beach was part of the program, and the luncheon was as simple as the previous day's feast was sumptuous. The picnic ended early because Queen Elizabeth had to return to Nuku'alofa in order to wish her farewell Queen Salote and embark in mid-afternoon on the royal barge for Gothic and New Zealand, where The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed from December 23, 1953 until January 30, 1954.
Before Queen Elizabeth II left the palace, she invested Queen Salote with the Grand Cross of the Victorian Order. Later, from the Gothic, Her Majesty, said: "As we leave your shores, my husband and I send you our warmest and most sincere thanks for your kindness and hospitality to us. We take aware with us the happiest memories of Tonga and of the great and friendly welcome given to us by your people. May Almost God watch over them and you. Elizabeth, R."
When the farewell-waving began, members of the Tongan royal household threw into the blue Pacific waters the leis they wore when they cam aboard. The royal couple also boarded the Gothic wearing leis. The band played "Auld Lang Syne" as the Gothic passed Queen Salote's yacht. A few moments later the pilot was dropped and Queen Salote's vessel swung back to Nuku'alofa.
More about Queen Elizabeth II's World Commonwealth Tour:
Queen Elizabeth II’s Commonwealth Tour of New Zealand and Australia 1953-1954
In Pictures: The Queen in Australia
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in Bermuda
Queen Elizabeth II’s Commonwealth Visit in Jamaica
Queen Elizabeth II visits Fiji
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